4 years graduation rate

Why SLO 4 years graduation is at 37% when other schools are at 75% range for engineering?

This was also asked by @SeattleMom1 in another thread. The reason is multifactoral and it’s improving. First and foremost, most Poly engineering degrees aren’t 4 year programs. Four years is 180 hours, the typical non-engineering Poly degree. Most engineering degrees are 200. Second, class availability has been impacted by budget constraints. That’s improving though. More sections are opening up. Third, many students dodge time slots and certain professors. If you don’t do either, 4 years is very doable. AP/dual enrollment credit also helps. Not long ago, the 4 year rate was 17%. After the first quarter of his second year, my son is just over 50% done. Good luck.

Maybe co-op interships contribute to it.

A bit, but Poly isn’t much of a coop school, mostly summer internships.

When we met with an engineering department chair, he indicated that it was common for students to graduate in 4 years + 1 quarter - and we have heard the same from current students in a couple of the engineering dept majors. The dept chair said the main reasons for taking longer than 4 years to graduate are: not passing a class/needing to re-take it, study abroad programs, and internships (if they are longer than just a summer quarter). I’m sure class availability - or pickiness when enrolling - can also be a contributing factor, to some degree.

Don’t know stats, but I can offer my personal observations. Daughter is a sophomore in Computer Engineering, and after this quarter she is 48% done. Like @eyemgh noted, AP credit helped significantly with the progress, but also with her ability to get the classes she wanted. She was also very aggressive with her course load, never under 16 units, sometimes even more. So it is doable. She knows a few people that dropped out. In two cases they discovered the major they were admitted to was not really a good match for them and did not want to switch to another major, in another case there were some other non academic issues.

I am also guessing the school might be more challenging than others, and if you’re not really into the chosen major you might have a tougher time, especially if you hit the hard engineering major classes early. The flip side to that though, is that big companies recruit like crazy from the school. As a sophomore daughter had multiple internship interviews this fall with various groups from the top 3 companies in her field (names anyone would recognize) and she got an excellent internship offer from one of her before she could finalize all interviews she was scheduled for. So those companies are not deterred by the relatively low 4 year graduation rate.

My guess is that if you’re really prepared out of high school and you really know your major is a good fit, you will have little problems at CalPoly and likely better opportunities than other schools. It is possible though the school setup, with major related classes too early might weed out too early some of the kids.

Here is more information/visuals showing 25-year trends in graduation rates at Cal Poly SLO , taken from the university web site:
http://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/ir/1/images/Pg%2020a%20Persistence%20Trends-FTF.pdf

@Redishwoods, that’s a pretty cool chart. Thanks!

It’s a lot higher than most CSU colleges. It’s higher than Purdue University (42-45%).

From my experience being a student the top reasons are:

  1. Too many units in the programs. Standard is 180, but CP engineering goes up to 200.
  2. Switching Majors.
  3. Failing or retaking classes.
  4. Poor planning on student’s part. (Not checking pre-requisite classes, bad advice given, etc.)
  5. Failure to get a class
  6. Internships
  7. Study Abroad

Adding to what @r77r77 said, study abroad and internships that aren’t in the summer will extend almost all engineering programs past 4 years. If you’re assessing and decide that those are things you are interested in, plan on taking longer no matter how efficient you are.

Honestly, I don’t know that many people who took longer than 4 years. My parents made it very clear to me that I had 4 years to finish my degree. I started college in the Fall of 2013, transferred after 2 years and lost a lot of credits setting me back to sophomore status. However, I loaded, took extra classes at the local community college, took summer classes, and I am now set to graduate in the Spring of 2017 again, just like I was at my old college.

Students need to make it their priority to finish on time. Taking longer than 4 years is inconsiderate to whoever’s paying for their education whether it’s their family, an employer, or the school. And it’s not difficult at all. Had I not transferred, I’d probably be graduating early.