We are looking at costs and one part that makes a difference is how many semesters it takes to graduate. Do most engineering students finish in 4 years? Or is the average higher? I’ve tried to find that data, but can not.
Thanks
1 Like
The info may not be specific to engineering, but look at the school’s Common Data Set. Great info and will show grad rates.
1 Like
As a general rule, I think it’s tough to graduate from engineering in four years unless you place out of some classes or take some during the summers. I managed to get out in four years but I did both of those things. There are so many required classes in an ABET accredited curriculum. But it is doable!
1 Like
Do you think that’s still true? We haven’t seen that at Purdue. They kind of pride themselves in 8 semesters to graduation. They are very generous with AP credits so that may be part of it. That said, nearly impossible to graduate any sooner than 8 semesters.
Paging @Knowsstuff to answer about Michigan engineering.
1 Like
I graduated in engineering in 4 years 30 years ago with just 1 summer class because I changed majors and needed one to get me back on track. But I have cousins who’ve graduated much more recently and they all take 4.5 to 5 years. I don’t think my son will have many classes that he’ll take a credit for. He’s in IB and while he’s doing great in the higher level math, he just feels like they’ve missed too much in the past 2 years to feel like he is certain to have a good foundation. He’d rather retake in college.
3 Likes
I don’t think starting in Calc I would add a semester. I think the issue is if you don’t place out of all the non engineering English and gen ed requirements.
The only students I know taking extra semesters switched majors.
Also be careful looking at straight graduation rates because co-ops can skew the numbers even though students are still only paying/attending 8 semesters. This is my daughter’s situation…8 semesters but spread over the course of 5 years so she will be in the 5 year cohort data for Purdue. IMO, that’s misleading because we only have a co-op fee of $400 when she’s working and earning money (and most companies will cover that fee).
3 Likes
Maybe it does vary from school to school. Texas was tough but I will say I got an excellent education because I had to take so many classes pertinent to my eventual career. I wouldn’t discourage someone from going to a tough school if an extra semester were required to graduate.
It looks like AP and IB English only gives department credit and doesn’t place out of the freshman writing classes. So they’d count towards credit to graduate, but then he’s probably giving up more interesting credits.
I’m not trying to discourage him based on how long it might take to graduate. Just trying to understand what it looks like, because it does cost extra for another 1-2 semesters. If 60% take longer than 8 semesters, then we will add one in to our calculations. Plus that 9th semester we’d have 3 kids in college, so something to consider!
3 Likes
Yes, I certainly get that! 3 kids is tough. We spaced out our kids to have less college tuition overlap, but then one of them took a couple of gap years and messed up my planning! 
2 Likes
This is one of those stats that tends to get overlooked by parents/students. While engineers numbers might be slightly elevated, it is more important to look at the schools overall numbers.
Another question to ask when you are visiting schools is the percent of students who start in the engineering program actually finish. Also ask what support they provide to help students complete in 4 years. I’ve heard of a few schools starting to offer free summer classes to students as a way to provide some flexibility in managing schedules. I just saw a commercial for Niagara U and they guarenteed you would only pay for 4 years of tuition (5th ones free!!!)
5 Likes
All good points. I had several friends at my dorm who started out in engineering but I was the only one who finished. I love the idea of schools making the fifth year free!
Looking at school data is a good starting point but unless its 100% graduate in 4 years, some kids will be more likely to graduate in 4 years than others. If 60% of the given school’s engineers graduate in 4 years, its not necessarily the case that your kid has a 60% chance of graduating in 4 years. Some kids will come in with close to a 100% change of graduating in 4 years meaning for others, its less than 60%.
Co-ops/internships can be a factor. Though as someone noted, I would count semesters to graduate rather than years. If you work at co-ops 2 semesters, you likely will graduate 5 years after high school graduation (unless you take classes in the summer and not all of them are available in the summer so you have to plan). My son had job one semester and took a couple classes that summer and graduated 4 years after high school graduation.
Changing majors will impact that as well. So too will not getting into a specific major (or the engineering college for schools that do that). Dropping a class may add time because classes are not always available each semester.
Lots of factors to consider. If uncertain about a given kids chances, I would tend to plan on taking longer to graduate in terms of budgeting. If he/she graduates early, its a bonus and potential funds for grad school. If not, you have the funds budgeted to pay for an extra semester or two.
2 Likes
Yes, lots to consider. Planning on the extra time is not a bad idea. It brings down the cost/year we can pay and that makes a lot of difference on the choice now.
You can call the school(s) in question and speak with the engineering department. They’ll have that number and theories as to why it’s higher than 4 if it is.
At some schools the curriculum is longer. Some students dodge certain professors or certain class times. Some fail classes and have to repeat. The bottom line is that no matter what the reported number is, a student can get out of any engineering program in 4 years.
3 Likes
Interesting thread. I would love to see some stats on 4 year grad rates for engineering. My engineering D doesn’t know anyone at her school who is taking more than 4 years to graduate though I know it happens because her school’s 4 year grad rate is 85%. My D will definitely graduate in 4 years and she did not get a ton of AP credit. She did take 1 online summer class after freshman year when she was home for covid anyway. She did plan her schedule very carefully and was able to take some classes that got her credit for 2 different things (i.e. a course for her minor that also met a gen ed requirement). Her major classes are so structured, and most take them in a particular sequence, it would be hard to get off schedule with those.
I see a lot of kids here on CC talking about double majoring. I wonder how much that impact grad rates? My D had a major and minor but the two are somewhat related and “play nice” with one another.
3 Likes
I agree with Eyemgh here. The biggest factor nationally on kids who fail to graduate in four years is finances- simply running out of money. Which of course is sad but in some instances, could not have been predicted. The second is medical- kid takes a leave of absence or withdraws and has to repeat a semester. Again- sad, hard to predict. The rest is typically under a kid’s control. Face it- sometimes classes meet on Friday, with an 8 am lab (which means no partying on Thursday night). Sometimes an important pre-req is going to have no choice of which section to sign up for- so kids avoid the class during the semesters where it’s an early Monday lecture.
If a kid is determined to graduate in four years, then I’d budget for the four years. If the kid is vacillating on a major, might not have the strongest math prep (did algebra, geometry come easily or was it a combo of hard work and struggle?) then considering that fifth year might be prudent.
2 Likes
Gotta love Chicago traffic… Lol…
Anyway, my son and all his friends in different engineering majors at Michigan all graduated in 4 years. My son could of graduated a semester earlier but had 2 minors he wanted to finish. This is with working 10-15 hours /week. Starting an org that took like 15 hours or more a week… Going to all the football games and playing flag football at 10:30 pm on Sundays… 
.
Time management is key.
He had some Aps but Michigan doesn’t take many actually. He didn’t skip Calc 1 but could of but was “warned” not to. They are very math centric.
To do 2 minors he took 18 credits the first 3 semesters and 2 classes freshman summer. Then he went down to 16 credits or so each semester. He also did engineering study abroad but took a class there and an international internship. His local internship was canceled due to the pandemic.
My point is this is the typical Michigan engineering students. His friends activities made him seem he was slacking… Lol…
So yes it definitely can be done in 4 years with proper planning. Most that do 5 years are doing co-op or internships. Biomedical engineering usually is 5 years due to most wanting a MS in that field.
4 Likes
Some Aps were used for breadth not engineering requirements BTW but not many. Michigan assumes your starting at Calc 1
1 Like
This is good to know. I feel like I “hear” people say engineering is typically 5 years these days, but I am glad many are still completing it in 4 years. Yes, minors, double majors, changing the major and other things can affect the timing, but for just straight-forward getting one degree, it’s good to know 4 years is completely doable.
1 Like
Another thing to ask is how easy is it to get credit for courses taken at another university. This can be a big cost savings if your S/D fails a class or is looking to lighten the load during the semester and needs to take a summer class. For example Cornell runs over $1620 per credit for a summer class if your from NJ Rutgers would cost you between $407-470 a credit. That’s a savings of $3,500 on one class alone.
1 Like