Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Perpetual student

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A perpetual student or career student is a college or university attendee who re-enrolls for several years more than is necessary to obtain a given degree.

Contents

Examples

  • Johnny Lechner has been attending the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater since 1994. He was scheduled to graduate in 2008 with multiple majors and minors, but continued into a 15th year of college.
  • Benjamin Bolger, who received his first four-year degree from the University of Michigan, claims to be the second most credentialed student in modern history, with twenty seven degrees.
  • Michael Nicholson has 30 degrees, including 19 master's degrees and one doctorate.
  • Milton De Jesús has been a student at the University of Puerto Rico since 1963. Mr. De Jesús was recently interviewed by the newspaper, since he is the only student at the campus that can make comparisons among the 2010 student strikes and the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2005 strikes. It is not certain if he has a degree.

    • Portrayal in media

    The 2002 film National Lampoon's Van Wilder tells the story of Van Wilder, a popular student who has been in college for seven years, with no plans to graduate.

    The CW Network's program Girlfriends's character, Lynn Searcy, remains in school and receives multiple post-graduate degrees.

    The Librarian is a series of made-for-TV movies from TNT starring Noah Wyle as a perpetual student who becomes a librarian protecting a secret collection of artifacts.

    Diane, from the TV comedy Cheers.

    The character of Daljit ("DJ") from the 2006 Bollywood movie Rang de Basanti.

    The character of Peter Trophimof in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.

    Rincewind, the protagonist of many of Terry Pratchett's books.

    References

    Perpetual student Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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