<p>I looked and the 4 year graduation rate for VT is 52%???!! that scares me off a bit, does anyone happen to know why it is so low compared to many other state schools even some major state universities elsewhere?</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s pretty difficult to graduate in your years, especially when a school has a difficult engineering program. Some people have to retake classes, so that sets them back a year already if it was a require pre-req for another class.</p>
<p>Many people also take double majors or dual-degrees (like myself). I am currently planning on accumulating all 150 of my credits in your years, with summer sessions. So yeah, it’s sometimes just hard to graduate in your years at a difficult school.</p>
<p>In addition to the reasons above I would guess that the large Corps of Cadets contingent will affect the 4 year graduation percentage. The corps students take additional ROTC classes. Then there will also be students changing degrees which sometimes means taking additional Pre-requisite classes. There must also be coop situations which will be more prevalent in engineering.</p>
<p>thanks for the great insight. do you happen to know how many summer courses you can take and which courses are offerred over the summer? also, @Kangarookev do you happen to be an accounting major since you need 150 credits?</p>
<p>I think the engineering course load difficulty is a major factor in this statistic. You also need to consider that if a student changes majors at any point past the first semester, you are usually looking at adding another year due to the fact that most required courses aren’t offered every semester and the student may need to wait to take what he/she needs. </p>
<p>Also, although it isn’t the biggest graduating group, all of the entering architecture students, Landscape Arch and reg Arch go for 5 yrs for their BLA and B.Arch degrees respectively. One additional cause may be the semester study abroad programs. Many students take advantage of it, but it can, depending on the student’s curriculum planning, cause them to have to stretch out their time to graduate. </p>
<p>Finally, some are staying with a program after receiving their undergraduate degree to take advantage of a combined one (or two) year’s masters program in their major. I don’t know if that would alter the 4 yr. statistic, but it could.</p>
<p>From what I understand there is an increasing number of engineering students who are opting to take co-ops with corporations for at least one semester and often more. That will decrease the 4 year graduation rate as well. I know my daughter will do that if given the opportunity.</p>
<p>“do you happen to know how many summer courses you can take and which courses are offerred over the summer?”</p>
<p>You are “allowed” to take no more than 9 credits a summer session. You can request a course overload to take more than 9, but I really wouldn’t recommend that during the summer sessions (or in general for that matter). </p>
<p>The types of summer courses generally stay the same summer to summer, but it honestly depends on the professor/department. Go look at the VT timetable and you can check summer I/II courses offered this year.</p>