<p>If it is Purdue than you’re looking at a easy school to get into with still a very good reputation. The classes at Purdue probably aren’t harder than at UMich or UIUC or other schools with a similar reputation, and any individual probably isn’t more likely drop out should they go to Purdue rather than UMich or UIUC, except for the fact that they might see more of their friends doing so at Purdue than other schools. </p>
<p>Again, really just taking a stab in the dark.</p>
<p>Yes, this can extend time to graduation to beyond four calendar years, even though the student may only be doing eight semesters or twelve quarters in school.</p>
<p>I keep hearing that it typically takes five years to complete a four-year degree at our flagship, UoIllinois (Urbana campus); the Chicago campus has an even lower 4-year graduation rate. Friends’ son was enterred last year with understanding that he was a red-shirted athlete who would attend on a 5-year BS degree track. Other friends have told us their kids’ inability to enroll in all their requisite classes, which often leads to an extra year too.</p>
<p>As someone who’s very cost conscious, yes a low four year grad rate, but a good 5-6 year grad rate would bother me as it looks like i’d be paying for 5-6 years of school. I can’t do that. One little LAC that dd’11 looked at made it a point to let all of us present for scholarship days know that, with fin aid, 4 years there would cost less than the 5 years it would take to get through state flagship down the road. They were willing to work with students to make sure they could get through in 4 years. Their numbers backed up their claims, too.</p>
<p>I would consider a 60% graduation rate in six years very good for most state universities, it is certainly higher than all but a couple of the California State Universities where 40% is more typical. </p>
<p>The fact is that most state universities do not have very high admission standards compared to elite private colleges, and admit large numbers of students who are really not capable of doing college level work. As a result about half of them either flunk out or drop out when they realize that graduating is not a realistic possibility for them. There is a lot of political pressure to make admission to public universities as inclusive as possible and therefore to set minimum admission standards that almost any high school graduate can attain. Schools like Harvard, MIT and Caltech make no pretense of being accessable to average students and rarely accept a student not capable of doing college level work and the result is predictably high graduation rates.</p>
<p>California is a good example. The campuses of the University of California (UCs) have considerably higher admission standards for freshmen applicants than the California State Universities (CSUs). However the content and rigor of the courses offered at UCs and CSUs is about the same. The CSU students who enter as freshmen and have to meet the same academic standards as the UC students do to earn their degrees, but are generally not as academically capable, graduate at about half the rate of students who enter UCs as freshmen.</p>
<p>cbug… how do they count the 5 year programs…my son’s school has alot of those too like fast track in math, bio, etc even a 5 year masters for biomedical engineering… is the graduation stat on the completion of 4 year or on completing the 5th? thankfully there doesnt seem to be any problem getting classes at son’s school</p>
<p>i would think it should be the bs degree goes into the 4 year program stats and the masters (5th year) would go into grad school stats?? but who knows. S2 is doing 2 degrees at the same time… so he will need 4 1/2 years (actually 4 years and a summer term) to get his 160 plus credits…so things like that would throw off the stats too (but he has gone over it with his advisor and on his own and no problem getting any courses in the order/sequence he needs) .</p>
<p>Not to mention the fact that so many students change majors. That, in itself, will make it hard for some students to graduate within 4 years. I think there are many factors in play but I do think most serious students with clear objectives and good planning can manage to graduate in 4 years. You have to plan your class sequence very carefully though and many students don’t put that much thought into it at first.</p>
<p>i agree with you momlive… son spent a fair amount of time planning his out, but he knows what courses he is taking when, where he is putting his research, his TA work etc. for the remaining years and how many credits he needs each semester to accomplish what he needs.</p>