I’m not terribly surprised. When my son graduates next spring, it will be year 9 for him. His big setback was transferring from one college to another college which didn’t offer his major, so most of his credits were considered electives and he more or less had to start completely over. Fortunately, he’s now attending a local public university and all his tuition combined is still less than just one year at this previous private college.
@ucbalumnus: How many credits do they require?
FL publics seem very generous about granting credit through AICE/AP/IB/CLEP/CC/Dual-enrollment, however.
So would the extra summer be required if you came in with some credits?
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/graduation.aspx#summer
Basically, you need the 9 credits of summer session courses (6 if from study abroad in the summer) unless you came in with 60 or more credits. Entering frosh with substantial numbers of credits could theoretically use those credits plus the required summer session to take fewer than 8 regular semesters, if their majors’ prerequisite sequencing does not prevent that. But how common is that?
@ucbalumnus: Pretty common, I would reckon.
Only some professional majors would have a rigid 7/8 semester sequence, I’d think, and the FL publics should be offering a fair number of the more basic classes during the summer (so it would make sense to fulfill the summer requirement the first summer). And most of these FL publics are big and offer lots of classes all semesters. Certainly, pretty much none of the liberal arts majors (that typically require only 1/4-1/3 of all total classes) would require a rigid 7/8 semester sequence.
But is it more common for Florida public university students to graduate after only 7 regular semesters (plus the required summer session) than in other states where taking the summer session is not required?
@ucbalumnus: No clue.
Any FL people want to chime in?
Crazy. I’m trying to imagine how expensive and nerve-wracking that was.
As someone else mentioned, those stats may not account for folks who took 6+ years to graduate such as an older college classmate who took 7.5 years to graduate, an undergrad classmate who came back to finish his degree at 42 after taking a 20+ year hiatus, or many college classmates who took long hiatuses to seize opportunities in the performing arts, music, and/or political activism/advocacy.
I’m in FL and I would have to say it depends on the public university. The four largest, universities (FL, FSU, UCF, USF) have the highest percentage of traditional students and many students are able to graduate in 4 years, including the summers. The other state universities have a much larger percentage of non traditional students who often take more than 6 years to complete their degrees.
Assuming that those who did not graduate did, in fact, drop out, those with some college will still earn more than those with only a high-school diploma. So, there is a financial benefit to at least getting some college.
Maybe not everyone is cut out for college or maybe they decided to go somewhere else.
Ill only add that much of college is a complete waste thes days.
The majors, what many choose to get a degree in, the cost, school only makes sense anymore if you are wise. Just going to go is bordwrline ignorant if paying with loans.