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<p>That’s exactly what my D2 has planned. She’s already planning on doing a summer session this summer between freshman and sophomore years to prevent having to overload later. </p>
<p>I’ve seen too many kids who could be great engineers burn out because they are more concerned with graduating in 4 years than they are with being great engineers over a 40 year career.</p>
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<p>Many students do not have the money to take an extra semester or two that was not accounted for in planning college affordability when they were selecting colleges as high school seniors.</p>
<p>This entirely depends on the university. My sons school has a 15 credit minimum, with most semesters being 16-17 credits. They have eight semesters to complete their degree with rare exception. They know this going in, so it’s a consideration when comparing other schools and deciding what they want. Finding a good match is so very important. If this isn’t what he wanted I imagine it could place undue pressure and feel very oppressive.</p>
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<p>Often as long as they haven’t graduated, financial aid is still available. If it’s not an option, then it’s not an option.</p>
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Financial aid is often limited to a specific number of years. For example, Stanford limits their scholarships to 12 quarters (4 years without summer quarter) unless there are special circumstances. Special circumstances can include certain academic and/or personal issues and requires an additional application to be approved. Federal aid at Stanford and likely most other colleges is limited to 18 quarters (6 years without summer quarter) and has requirements of completing 36 units per year, which is a pace for finishing a degree in 5 years.</p>
<p>ucb, I “get” what you are saying which is why I appreciated the engineering school sending the letter before #3 actually started engineering school. At the very minimum I can plan accordingly. Fortunately S1 finished in 4 years as will S2…but neither of them are in engineering schools. For many engineers that BME or BEE or CivE or whatever is terminal anyway so that extra semester or a year can be funded in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>“Many students do not have the money to take an extra semester or two that was not accounted for in planning college affordability when they were selecting colleges as high school seniors.”</p>
<p>I think that if a student is planning on going into engineering or some other field where a lot students don’t graduate in 4 years they should take that into consideration when choosing which college to go to. Otherwise they could be putting themselves in a stressful situation. If they come in with a lot of AP credits it can be doable but otherwise you are talking about 17-18 credits a semester and their GPA could suffer. Employers don’t care if it took you 4 years or 4 1/2… But they are going to care if you have a low GPA. If money is going to be a big problem I would suggest starting out at a CC to save money.</p>
<p>It IS possible to graduate in four years. My kid did it, and would NEVER have needed a summer course…but she picked up a double major.</p>
<p>But you gotta pass the courses, and understand the material the FIRST time around. Otherwise, the student WILL need extra time…to repeat courses (especially since then he/she might be totally out of sequence with requirements).</p>
<p>My kid said her engineering advisor was fabulous…and that was part of the reason she was able to do what she did!</p>
<p>Of course it’s possible to graduate in four years. Thousands of kids do it every year.</p>
<p>I hate to be a Debbie Downer here… but what’s with all the cheerleaders encouraging the OP’s kid to stick with engineering and all the happy stories about “it’s ok if it takes 8 years”??? This isn’t someone with an LD who needs a lighter load; this isn’t a kid who is working full time at the local diner and balancing his demanding academics with the need to help mom and dad pay the electric bill (or at least the parent has not indicated that this is the case.) This seems to be a plain vanilla example of a kid who hit a buzz saw Freshman year (we’ve all seen this dozens of times in real life, and probably a hundred times on CC) but rather than the kid taking the summer to figure out Plan B, the kids Plan B was to keep doing what hadn’t worked and hope for a different outcome.</p>
<p>So now it’s sophomore year, and the kid needs a different Plan B. Not Olin. Not his State Flagship’s engineering program. Not taking 8 years (as if Princeton or Cornell or whichever college would even ALLOW that) to complete a BS. These are not Plan B’s. Seems to me we can all help the kid and the parent with some concrete ideas about what the next steps are going to be. Re-taking Freshman Physics and trying to get the GPA to a 3.5 doesn’t seem to me to be a Plan B.</p>
<p>I would suggest that he major in something that he likes and is actually good at. A career will emerge. A vocational major is not necessary.</p>
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<p>“some other field where a lot students don’t graduate in 4 years” is probably most fields, when considered in the context of overall four year college graduation rates.</p>
<p>For 4-year public colleges, the overall US average is 31.3% graduating in 4 years and 56.0% graduating in 6 years. For 4-year private colleges, the numbers are 52.5% in 4 years and 65.5% in 6 years (4-year for-profit colleges are listed separately at 20.3% in 4 years and 28.2% in 6 years).</p>
<p>More selective colleges tend to have higher graduation rates, not surprisingly.</p>
<p>[College</a> Stats | College Completion](<a href=“http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/college-stats/]College”>http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/college-stats/)</p>
<p>I totally agree with post 129. Plan B needs to include some student reflection, and a plan to address whatever caused these poor grades.</p>
<p>This percentage is very deceiving. The 31% includes students who left, students who took a medical leave of absence, students who took time off to work. A far more representative percentage would be eligible graduates, which would be higher.</p>
<p>TNmom-
How did it go for your son?</p>
<p>I offered a plan B in post 90. I think it is realistic, and worthy of consideration.</p>
<p>The only thing I might add…it might be good for this student to come home and work part time, and take only one or two cc classes for this term. Work full time in the summer, and enroll again in the fall at the cc.</p>
<p>Student MUST work with an academic advisor and find out information about articulation agreements with the cc and four year schools.</p>
<p>But as I’ve said repeatedly…this student needs to understand WHY he did poorly on these previous courses…or he will just be repeating the same scenario again regardless of where he attends college.</p>
<p>Yes, the stats would be more useful if they counted 4 or 6 academic years in school (i.e. 8 or 12 semesters or 12 or 18 quarters), whether or not that took 4 or 6 calendar years.</p>
<p>But it is likely that there will still be many who need more than 8 semesters or 12 quarters of school to graduate.</p>
<p>Often as long as they haven’t graduated, financial aid is still available. If it’s not an option, then it’s not an option.</p>
<p>Do full-need schools provide aid (tuition, room, board, books, etc) for summer sessions? Do you have to give up a semester??</p>
<p>It’s not that hard to graduate in 4 years as long as you don’t drop classes, change majors drastically and are willing to take classes at maybe less popular times.</p>
<p>I think the OP’s son should change to something he’s good at…maybe some kind of bio or math.</p>
<p>I hope he can figure out how to improve at taking the type of tests he faces. Personally, I had a difficult time as an engineering undergrad and didn’t hit a groove until midway through junior year. I basically had to learn how to take the type of tests I faced and also how to manage the test anxiety I developed in the first year.</p>
<p>My suggestion, if he’s taking a leave, is that he should try to find work related to stuff he’s interested in doing long-term. He may find the college courses easier if/when he returns. Or he could find that he doesn’t like the work after all. The experience might help him refine his ideas of what he wants to study in college.</p>
<p>Do colleges have honor roles? I thought it was the “deans list.”</p>
<p>M2CK - This may be school specific, I don’t know. S2s school, 100% need met, does not offer aid for summers or ‘Jterm’ (an optional three week intensive in January). Funding is limited to no more then eight semesters (fall and spring).</p>