This notion of life after a college degree is rooted in a socially constructed timeline of life's milestones. The timeline dictates that after four years of college, graduates have until age 30 to find a permanent and profitable place in society, marry a beautiful wife or husband and have 2.5 children, a dog and a white picket fence.

Laina Alber, a junior philosophy and psychology major, knows about the timeline. Every once in awhile her mom will say to her, "You know, people start getting married when they're 25," Alber says.

"And I'm like, 'Yeah, thanks for the reminder,'" Alber says. "I've always seen my life like that. I've always thought, 'Yeah, I want to graduate from college, and I want to go and get my master's, and I want to get married when I'm 25, and I want to start having kids when I'm 29.' Stuff like that. I don't know. I've always seen things like that.

"I don't know if I should because that kind of puts pressure on me. I guess it happens when it happens."

The timeline is a notion graduates deal with, says Jennifer Zak Place, a staff psychologist with University Health Services. It may have been true in the past, she says, but this generation will live longer and work in a better economy.

"I really do think it's outdated," she says.

Benson says the timeline could come from parents who didn't go to college. The ideas represented in the timeline - stability of life and income - are parents' reasons to encourage children to go to college.

"That timeline has never been an actual standard in reality. That's always been a cultural idea that people learn," Benson says. He adds a small percentage of students actually follow that model.

But the pressure is still there.

Tim Zgonc, a senior, is about to graduate, but his girlfriend, Laina Alber still has another year left.