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 ...
My husband got his Engineering degree from UC Berkeley 1/2 credit short. He’d transferred there from Northwestern which was on the quarter system, so his transfer credits came up short. He had to petition to have the requirement waived, but he was cleared for graduation. Of course this was back in the 1960s.
I was a bar manager at a country club. Luckily the members didn’t mind and all got used to my books and homework being spread out on the back bar. lol
My daughter got a degree in Biomedical Science in 4 and a half years. I guess she did pretty well considering her major was super hard.
I think graduating and going to work are not a major priority for many college students. Many of them seem to change their major too, which means it will probably take them longer to graduate.
If they leave school they will have to get a job and repay the loans.
Yes, the whole “you got to do it in 4 years, or else you aren’t trying” view is such nonsense.
It isnt High School with 4 grades that you do one at a time and on a fixed schedule. If you are paying for it out of your pocket, all of the little things, like the real world, dont take time off like it does when you’ve got mom and dad paying your way, or some major student loan or scholarship subsidizing your outside life.
It took me 6 years—3 for the AA, 3 for the BS. It actually took longer, if you count the classes I took while not formally enrolled in a college or university.
Then I went on to graduate school, where I took another 7 years to get a PhD.
I was married, with a family.
The good thing is that with my degree, I never have to worry about unemployment. That’s because I majored in a science field, not some stupid thing like “women’s studies.”
Funny thing, I NEVER saw a humanities major in any of my math and physics classes.
I started College in 1968. It was either the 4 year plan or Vietnam.
When I graduated high school in 1972, the expected thing was to go to college and finish in four years.
Today, a college degree is not worth the same as it was when received mine in 1976.
In some ways, it extends the process of growing up another four years.
And it is not the right path for everybody.
I’s say get gets a pass for taking 4.5 years.
My youngest is going to be a NCAA D-1 athlete next year and I told her not to worry if it takes 5 years. I would rather she takes a little lighter load than stick with the 4 year plan and suffer academically or in her sport. (She has a fantasy of making the Olympics and I want to give her the best shot possible)
I was on my way to a 5 maybe 6 year degree when I decided to withdraw. It was not by choice. My chosen master was in a rather narrow field of study and often two required courses would be offered at the same time. This meant I would have to wait till next time around to take one of them. I would then load up on electives to keep my full time status. The same thing happened with my daughter when she went. She too ended up changing majors and did finally get her B.A. I never completed mine which I sometimes regret but not often.
As Mark Twain said” I never let schooling get in the way of my education”
For three important reasons:
“Engineering is a 5 year program at the University of Maryland due to General University requirement (GUR’s). The upshot is engineering students need 30 hours of “humanities” to graduate. See, we can’t have inhuman engineers graduating in four years.”
Agreed. The whole concept of an education needs to be redefined and examined. Do away with the required humanities for the STEM students. It’s just a ruse to ensure students are around longer and pay more to make sure the liberal profs keep their cushy jobs paid by federal loans. About the time my son entered pharmacy school they changed requirements so that you had to have a BS in hand, and the pharmacy program increased from 3 years to 4. Increased his student debt greatly. Stop the insanity!
Took me 6, but I worked one full time job and one part time job and acquired no debt outside a small loan ($2,000) my last year so I could go full-time. Of course it was 35 years ago when you could afford to go to college without a rich uncle.
Too many degree programs require non-related courses, most of which are designed to keep students in programs that would otherwise be empty and employ teachers in useless courses. Otherwise, math students wouldn’t be taking Art Appreciation, Psychology For Non-majors, etc.
My degree in engineering required 142 semester hours in 1970. No way you can do that in four years. Add in 14 semester hours of ROTC... I also did part time school and work for one year. Took me six years.
An extra semester? An extra year?... Heck, that’s what we call a victory lap!
In some cases, colleges will force a longer stay by not offering the required courses, or enough of them.
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