<p>Is it true that many Caltech students don't graduate in 4 years? I heard something but don't know much about it...can anyone confirm/refute?</p>
<p>TokenAdult thank you very much for the data! :)</p>
<p>Wow ~50+ do not graduate in 4 years.... since frosh who
do not "fit in" have left presumably by the first year....what
keeps these 50+ in school? Research/study abroad/...?</p>
<p>Curious</p>
<p>Arwens - where did you get that 50+? </p>
<p>If you click on vital statistics it says 83% graduate in 4 years, and 90% in 6 years. In a class of 250 (though I think it is a bit lower) then that would be about 43 not graduating in 4 years and 25 not graduating within 6. I assume this would include the kids who drop out. </p>
<p>Also, the graphs show the trend seems to be improving. </p>
<p>I am guessing one of the reasons that some kids do not graduate in 4 years is they end up taking time off?</p>
<p>The most common reason for not graduating in 4 years is probably people transferring. I think the most common reason for taking more than 4 years is people switching their major late. </p>
<p>And yes, anotherparent, 250 is a bit high, but a good upper estimate.</p>
<p>I've known someone who took off a year to work. Several others, including S, switched majors but are still graduating in time. Another 2 are staying for part of a 5th year out of choice.</p>
<p>I thought the number was 350 and not 250 in a year - my error.</p>
<p>so most of the 40+ students are transfers/changes in major ....?</p>
<p>83% of people graduate in 4 years, and 90% of people graduate eventually (by 6 years). It's safe to assume that the remaining 10% are the ones who transferred away early on or took a <em>lot</em> of time off in the middle. So about 7% of people take extra time to graduate. Based on an entering class size of 250 (which btw is high, I think) this is 18 students per class who are graduating behind schedule.</p>
<p>In my experience study abroad, change of major, voluntary time off, and research are rarely the causes of late graduation. Super seniors tend to have had real problems handling the material, esp. during the first few years when they were young and being idiots. There are some super seniors that have tried hard all 4+ years and just really struggled, but mostly the super seniors are people who had their priorities wrong at some point: partying, drinking, getting high, playing WoW, etc. when they should have been attempting to pass their classes (or take a heavier load). Occasionally really bad performance one semester will be followed by an involuntary "break" from coursework, esp. when the student couldn't reasonably complete more advanced coursework (Ph 125b, 106b) because they failed the prereqs (Ph 125a, 106a) the term before. That's how people end up not graduating on time.</p>
<p>It's really not that hard to pass a class. Seriously. Caltech is hard because if you want to go to grad school, you need to get good grades, which requires real effort. But if you just turned in <em>something</em> on time for every assignment, I bet you could get a D ("for Diploma!") in almost any class. To fail you have to (a) not understand the material and (b) not do most of the work on time. And btw, there is a whole network of support for you, from professors' office hours to TAs to student tutors to classmates to (gasp!) textbooks that can help you if you don't understand the material. So I would not worry about failing classes and graduating late unless you really plan to let yourself go in college.</p>
<p>Well, at Caltech, there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, there are a lot of kids who find out early on that Caltech isn't right for them. So that makes up the majority of the 10% who don't graduate. As far as taking 5 years to graduate, it's really not that big of a deal here. Some kids deliberately put off doing their core courses so they can keep doing electives and stay for 5 years. There are some circumstances that would make you have to take an extra year to graduate. </p>
<p>For instance, the Electrical Engineering option and the Chemical Engineering option are the two most unit-intensive options offered by the school, so a lot of EEs and Chem Es will end up staying for one or more terms in their 5th year. That being said, I'm a Chem E, and I've planned out my schedule so that I will be able to graduate in 4 years barring any unforeseen circumstances. </p>
<p>So then those students encountering unforeseen circumstances make up the remainder of those who take longer to graduate. This category includes severe illness or injury, flaming out (letting your GPA fall to <2.0), or anything else that might lead you to unexpectedly lose more than a few days of time during a term. There are many ways to flame, and they're all pretty much preventable. Flaming results in academic probation, and you very often have to take a term off to help you get back on your feet. </p>
<p>Overall, I'd say this statistic really isn't a surprise, nor a bad thing, with regard to Caltech.</p>