Posted on 12/02/2014 7:22:24 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
The vast majority of students at American public colleges do not graduate on time, according to a new report from Complete College America, a nonprofit group based in Indianapolis.
“Students and parents know that time is money,” said the report, called “Four-Year Myth.” “The reality is that our system of higher education costs too much, takes too long and graduates too few.”
At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, the report found. Even at state flagship universities — selective, research-intensive institutions — only 36 percent of full-time students complete their bachelor’s degree on time.
Nationwide, only 50 of more than 580 public four-year institutions graduate a majority of their full-time students on time. Some of the causes of slow student progress, the report said, are inability to register for required courses, credits lost in transfer and remediation sequences that do not work. The report also said some students take too few credits per semester to finish on time. The problem is even worse at community colleges, where 5 percent of full-time students earned an associate degree within two years, and 15.9 percent earned a one- to two-year certificate on time.
The lengthy time to graduate has become so much the status quo that education policy experts now routinely use benchmarks of six years to earn a bachelor’s degree and three years for an associate degree.
“Using these metrics may improve the numbers, but it is costing students and their parents billions of extra dollars...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Before I started college, my dad came to me one day and told me to sit down and plan my courses for the whole four years. I objected, of course, but it was the best advice, ever. I knew exactly what I needed to do and what the viable substitutions were, if a course I originally wanted wasn’t being taught that semester. Also, a got ahead in units, so I had priority in registration over students who were in my year.
I took my basic g.e. at community college during the summer, and had most classes count toward both g.e. and a minor.
I graduated in four years with a multidisciplinary major (Intl. relations) and three minors (business, spanish, music). Because the Bank of Mom and Dad was going to close if I took longer than that. I also worked part-time, but only earned enough for my personal expenses, not tuition.
Sorry for the big digression.
Bottom line: Plan your classes before you start. You can always fine-tune it, but HAVE A COMPLETE PLAN and you may actually reach your goal.
School advisors in serious programs like engineering will gladly furnish matriculation frameworks. A complex program like yours is trickier to plan.
Now you are ready to run a music business in Spain.
[Kidding a little! congratulations on your school success]
I agree here. Not everyone is cut out for college, either by aptitude or for the discipline involved.
The old saw that some of the biggest financial successes only saw high school, is true.
ole’!
Actually, I have noticed in some college websites that they have science degree classes all mapped out for you. Not sure how you fit in a minor in something unrelated, under their framework, but we’ll find out within the next year. We have a high school junior who likes natural science and foreign language.
That’s where the advisors (if they are competent) are helpful. They’ve probably seen it, or something like it, before.
And, speak to advisors on both the major and projected minor sides.
Good idea. Thanks.
I was able to cram four years into five. Back then I defined a full load as “all you could drink at happy hour”
I put my son through a major TExas university in the 80s, but due to a divorce I wasn’t kept up to date on what his schooling progress was. I assumed he would graduate in four years.
When that didn’t happen, I decided to check on my investment. My son’s response was: “Dad, nobody graduates in four years anymore.”
That seemed odd, so I got an appointment with his college faculty advisor and was told that the average graduation ‘track’ was now either five or six years, depending on the major. And the advisor further observed that students were advised to take only 12 hours or less per semester lest their ‘load’ be too much to make it through with decent grades.
I went to an Ivy League school, class of ‘61 and we were all expected to take at least 15 hours per semester in order to graduate. There wasn’t a five year ‘class’ as far as I know.
It was clear to me that the school was getting the advantage of one or two more years of tuition with this advice.
I went to college looking to get the paper trail necessary to get in the software industry. That took 2 years, and I haven’t gone back, and won’t. So I didn’t “graduate” but I accomplished the goal.
"Yeah, they're called doctors."
-— American “higher education.” Never have so many invested so much for so little that is decent, real, or useful. -—
Well said.
Looking at it another way, Who is more of an idiot, the student majoring in sociology, or the parent paying the tuition?
Both of my kids are working their way through and commuting. Otherwise, I’m not wasting a dime on college.
“Seven years of college down the drain.” —Bluto (Animal House)
I haven’t paid a nickel either, and my two oldest have degrees. For whatever that’s worth.
We have to starve the beast.
Absolutely.
Good on her, my g/daughter did the same, doctorate in 8 years.
God knew I was not emotionally equipped to handle problem children.
Not that young people who drag out graduation are bad...I just would have had a hard time handling that and therefore, my sons would have had a very hard time making it through their last year alone.
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