It’s a great time to graduate.

Sure, the economy has had better days and I may be elbowing aside laid-off journalism vets for my first job.

But it’s no use waiting out the financial storm in college, which is proving just as susceptible to the barrage of rising costs and debts.

From 1986 (the year most seniors were born) to 2006, college tuition increased an average of 439 percent, outpacing increases in incomes (which rose 147 percent) and the price of medical care, food and housing, according to a report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released Wednesday.

Attending a four-year public university like OU costs a median-income family 28 percent of its income and lower-income families 55 percent of their incomes, the report found.

This study was the first to compare how much families shell out for tuition and fees with how much they’re bringing in — and the results are staggering.

Add to the pile the risky loans drowning many students and the uncertain financial horizons that await even those with degrees in hand, and it might be time to make that language minor into a major and jump ship (college in France costs about 300 euros a year for tuition, fees and health insurance — just a suggestion).

But if you’re set on staying in the States, you have a few options to help reverse the trend.

Nationally, you can join the picket lines to lobby for more government dollars for higher education. At OU, you can help President Boren by picking up the phone and schmoozing for donations.

Or you can make the most of the dollars you are already investing in these 4… or 5 or 6, years. Here’s why:

1. You (or your parents) spend a lot for you to be here.

Someone once told me the three-hour class I was considering skipping costs me $75 as an out-of-state student, whether or not I attend (it’s actually about $62 for a three-hour class, but the exaggeration was effective). That’s like buying a Big 12 Championship ticket at face value ($75) and not going.

Whether you or your parents or some distant loans are paying for that teacher’s droning, you should start getting your money’s worth.

And you don’t want to pay for — or take — the class twice.

David Shulenburger, co-author of the report, said retaking classes (or sticking with the 4-year-that-is-more-like-6-year plan) is a cause of higher college costs that we can change.

For most, (excluding the guaranteed, school-for-life majors) reducing the years and dollars spent on college could be as simple as attending class more and changing majors less.

2. You won’t (hopefully) be in college forever.

I know it’s hard to imagine planning life around something other than game day, but I hope to report in a few weeks that there is life beyond college.

It’s the life for which you’ve been preparing all these years.

It will be different.

For me, moving to Washington State brings less wind and more rain. A full-time job means more money and more expenses. A new season of life brings new challenges and blessings.

If anything were to tempt me into taking a victory lap, it would be my precious friends, even if they succeed in sabotaging my graduation.

But there is a time for everything under the sun, and even the sweetest seasons of life will go sour if we refuse to let them pass.

3. You are here for a purpose.

Graduating.

OU has entire departments prodding students to “Graduate Sooner.”

It’s easy to lose sight of the goal in the midst of a costly perfect storm, with college getting “funner,” degrees taking longer and the world for which they prepare us becoming more financially daunting every day.

College has become an indefinite holding pattern for those who don’t know where to land.

But it may be better to land and make a decision — any decision. Work at Starbucks (my fallback plan, complete with health benefits), or travel the world (before airline costs catch up to tuition).

The moment will come when you realize stretching nine hours over two semesters won’t do, and you will have to graduate.

Whether funded by scholarships or working two jobs or generous parents, what matters is how you use the time between now and then.

Whitney Coleman is a journalism junior. Her column appears every other Friday.