<p>I'm wondering what percentage of students take 4 vs 5 years to graduate? Which is more common now and why? Also is it considered "bad" if an extra semester or year is needed to graduate?</p>
<p>It’s going to take me 5 years to finish my undergrad. I’m double majoring in physics and math though, so I have a lot of courses to take. Is it bad to finish in 5 years? No. It takes however long it takes. Obviously if you start running into 6-7+ years to finish your undergrad it starts getting bad, but 5 years is nothing out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s looked down upon. At least, I don’t, and I have a handful of friends who are taking a quarter or more longer than four years. The bad thing would, of course, be paying for more than four years, but if you need it to graduate, you need it to graduate. Generally, through, people have specific reasons for needing to take longer to graduate–the course they need to take is only offered in a certain quarter, they added a second major, they changed majors frequently, they needed to take courses in sequence, etc. I’ve found that if you can explain why you needed to take longer, no one really questions it.</p>
<p>It took me three years to get out of community college at a reasonable pace. I am going into my “senior” year at Cal Poly Pomona and it should be my last if I also take some general education classes this fall at the community college down the road. I am also probably going to scrap getting a physics minor if my course schedule doesn’t allow it and prioritizing graduating vs fulfilling prerequisite physics courses for grad programs. But that’s getting off-topic, 5 years is fine. It’s very common. I know someone at UCLA who is in their 7th year of college as an undergrad, someone at my school who is in their 7th year, and someone at CSUN who is in their 7th year. Thankfully I should be done in 5 (hopefully).</p>
<p>It actually might end up taking me 6 years. I’m at a community college right now, and I’ll have been here 3 years by the time I transfer. After transferring though, I won’t have to take a single gened for the rest of my undergrad, which is a big plus.</p>
<p>After transferring, it will take me either 2 or 3 years to finish. I’m torn between double majoring in physics and math, or majoring in physics with a math minor. If I double major, it will definitely be 3 more years. It could still take 3 more years even if I minor in math though, depending on the way course scheduling works out, and how many electives I want to take. Odds are, it will take me 3 years after transferring, so 6 years altogether.</p>
<p>Point is- No, it’s not bad to spend longer in undergrad. Sure, in some instances people end up taking extra time because they screwed around their freshman year and have to retake classes and things like that, but there are also tons of respectable reasons for being an undergrad for longer than 4 years.</p>
<p>Because of costs you must try and do your utmost to graduate in 4 years (unless your parents have no problem paying tuition). In addition, many scholarships run out after 4 years.
In order to graduate in 4 years, you need 15-16 credits per semester and you must use the Writing Center, see your adviser at least once (if not twice a week) and go to office hours. Just doing that will increase your odds dramatically.
Not getting drunk in the middle of the week also greatly helps.
The norm, however, isn’t graduating in 4 years.
Look at your school’s 4-year graduation rate. Private schools often have rates 70+ and public schools 40%+. If you’re not enrolled in college yet, look at the 50/50 list - all the colleges on the list graduate at least 50% students in 4 years and accept 50% applicants.
[Do</a> It Yourself College Rankings](<a href=“http://diycollegerankings.com/]Do”>http://diycollegerankings.com/)</p>
<p>Totally normal to take 5 years. A huge chunk of the people I know are planning on a fifth year. It is hard to get it right on the first time with choosing what major is best for you and even minors. A lot of times, if its available, students will take advantage of summer and winter semester classes and get in all they need then in order to avoid the extra costs of another full time school year or semester. Graduating as early as possible is most people’s goals, I think, but there is not 4 year cut off, it is way more normal to take longer than I realized before I started talking about taking a fifth year for myself. Then I noticed how many other students were in very similar situations. Most people I know have changed their major at least once, if not twice.</p>
<p>It’s actually becoming more common than it was. My friend is majoring in early education and minoring in music. Because of the way the school of education is set up, they won’t let her take her music minor classes along with her education classes. (or something of that nature.) After it is all said and done, she will have to be in school for at least 5 years.</p>
<p>We even had one girl that was at my university for 8 or 9 years as a full-time undergraduate student! The president even mentioned her at graduation and made a joke about her… lol I could have my doctorate in 8 years!</p>
<p>Apparently engineering at UNLV takes 5 years. I could skip classes and do it in 3 but why work extra hard and suffer when I could take it easy and try to get accustomed?</p>
<p>Maybe they want you to take 5 years for profit?</p>
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I doubt that.</p>
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<p>State universities typically want in-state students graduating as quickly as possible, since in-state students staying for extra time consume more than their fair share of state government subsidy.</p>
<p>UNLV’s EE major is nominally a four year degree program, though it requires taking slight overload schedules: <a href=“http://www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/degrees/plans_of_study/2012-14-Plan-BSElectricalEngineering.pdf[/url]”>http://www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/degrees/plans_of_study/2012-14-Plan-BSElectricalEngineering.pdf</a> . It is likely that many students take more than four years, because of the rigor of engineering degree programs relative to the low selectivity of UNLV.</p>
<p>Also they might not be able to get the classes they need. I believe that’s an issue at the Nevada schools.</p>