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Good article. We've just been through the college admissions process with our oldest daughter, and all of the points Schafley makes are good ones.

The better college guidebooks, and the US News survey, give you 4 and 6 year graduation rates. As my wife and I were '60s and early '70s undergraduates, we were amazed at how many schools had 4 year graduation rates under 75%. In our day, about the only reason people didn't finish in four years was the draft (for guys), pregnancy (for women) or finances (back before everyone could get cheap money).

We have noticed over the past decade the increasing number of kid who take double majors, and the colleges differ greatly on how difficult that is to do in four years, and it also differs depending on how closely related the two majors are. Obviously a BA Classics/BS Engineering would be a very tough double major, and a BA History/BA American Studies would be easier. A tough choice is when kids are serious about music and an academic major, e.g. BM Music Performance/BA Mathematics or even English or History. It's almost impossible to do that in four years.

The remedial classes number is stunning. In my day, there were only two remedials offered at most real colleges: what was called "bonehead English" for those who couldn't pass simple exam given at the start of freshman year and "bonehead math" for those who hadn't taken trigonometry and analytic geometry in high school (not uncommon 35 years ago).

>>In our day, about the only reason people didn't finish in four years was the draft, pregnancy or finances

I was at Ga Tech a little after the time of your college carrer, late '70's/early 80's.

At Tech, 4 years was unusual, but it was because passing 200+ quarter hours of a difficult technical curriculum was just damned hard to do in 12 academic quarters. IIRC, most majors required around 203-206 quarter-hours, which is almost 17 hours per quarter on average. And many classes had 3-hour labs, which counted for 1 quarter hour and required substantial out-of-lab write-ups.

But your point is well taken, I don't think much of the reason for longer time-in-school to graduate today is due to academic rigor of the curricula.

I think the most important thing a new student can do to get out in 4 years is to quickly pick a major and know all of the rules that go along with it.

I finished in 4 years at Wisconsin with a dual Poli Sci/Int'l Relations degree, because I would sit down for several hours before registration, and map out all of the classes I could take that would count for both majors. I had my majors done by the end of the 1st semester of my senior year. The one time I saw a counselor was at the end of that semester, and I asked, "I'm done, right?" My final semester was then full of all of the classes I had wanted to take, but wasn't sure if I could spare the time.

A tough choice is when kids are serious about music and an academic major, e.g. BM Music Performance/BA Mathematics or even English or History. It's almost impossible to do that in four years.

My daughter is at IU Bloomington studying Music Performance (oboe), and it is tough to do almost anything else when you are majoring in Music Performance.

She is expected to be doing 3 hours of practice per day, and that is the minimum. This is done outside your regular class time. Then there are the rehearsals for the orchestra/band you are playing with, additional rehearsals for ensembles, time needed for reed making, the Master Classes (which are also at night). Then, you get to do your regular classes. I never realized how much time and effort goes into training as a classical musician; but, it is your life with little time left for anything else.

She had thought about a double major, but nixed that idea when she learned about all the other time-consuming activities were involved in this course of study. She is getting a French minor. Something that helped a lot, though, was taking AP and college credit courses in H.S.

The better college guidebooks, and the US News survey, give you 4 and 6 year graduation rates. As my wife and I were '60s and early '70s undergraduates, we were amazed at how many schools had 4 year graduation rates under 75%. In our day, about the only reason people didn't finish in four years was the draft (for guys), pregnancy (for women) or finances (back before everyone could get cheap money).

ONe of the big reasons my son is starting at Lake Forest in the fall is the fact that 96% of students graduate in 4 years. With the generous academic scholarship he got, it's almost a wash with sending him to the U W system (Wisconsin), and saves him 2 years of his life.

We have noticed over the past decade the increasing number of kid who take double majors, and the colleges differ greatly on how difficult that is to do in four years, and it also differs depending on how closely related the two majors are

Yep-- physics-chem for me... Five years, so I'm adding to the delinquency, I reckon... Could've done it in four though if I hadn't been transferring around from school to school...