Phil Lowry had a comfortable life. Growing up, his parents paid for everything from rent to food to spending money. He didn’t have to work, but he chose to anyway.

“Everything was handed to me, but I wanted to be self-sufficient,” Lowry said.

Within a few months of his third attempt at college Lowry was working upwards of 45 hours per week in addition to taking 15 credit hours at the University of Kansas. This kind of workload wasn’t sustainable and it didn’t take long for Lowry to quit school.

Thousands of students like Lowry drop out of universities every year for a myriad of reasons. According to U.S. department of education, while 51 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 to 34 start college, only 29 percent finish. The United States used to lead the world in the number of college-educated citizens, but in the past few decades, the U.S. has fallen into a four-way tie for ninth place with Israel, Belgium and Australia.

To combat this slipping number, the Obama administration presented a “College Completion Tool Kit” last week. The program offers ideas on how to enhance college graduation rates through strategies that are at “low-cost” or “no-cost” to the state. These strategies include aligning high school standards with college entrance and placement standards, making it easier for students to transfer and targeting adults with some college education but no degree. Obama’s administration’s main push is reducing cost for students.

In order for the U.S. to reach its' goal of a 50 percent increase of college educated citizens, the department of education said each state would need to have a 60 percent retention and graduation rate by 2020. So far, the University of Kansas is on the right track with a 59.7 graduation rate, according to the American Institute for Research. However, while the University is on the right track, there is still room for improvement. To meet the 2020 goal, the U.S. will have to produce at least 8 million additional college graduates by the end of the decade.

“Right now, we’ve got an education system that works like a funnel when we need it to work like a pipeline,” Vice President Joe Biden said in a press release. “The dreams and skills of our college graduates will pave the way to a bright economic future for our nation.”

— By Tali David and Samantha Collins