<p>From my experience its really depends on the school and the type of students who attend, and then of course there are individual factors too.</p>
<p>Generally top private prestigious universities push students to graduate in 4 years for a variety of reasons, and so at these schools it is far rarer for a person not to graduate within 4 years (unless they are adding a masters or whatnot). </p>
<p>However as others have stated, at larger public universities and certain private ones (NYU for example) from my research and network graduating in 5 years or such is not very uncommon at all because of a variety of socioeconomic and whatnot factors.</p>
<p>Actually, you’d be surprised how modest the income and assets are of quite a few full-pay families. $50-60K/year with transportation, room & board + tuition is a lot of money, any way you look at it. </p>
<p>So far, nearly all of my nieces & nephews, all have or are on track to graduate in 4 years. I think finances plays a role, plus they are all serious students and their parents are full-pay at OOS & private Us. One of my cousin’s kids is graduating in 3.5 years, partly to save her dad some $$$. The niece who started in CC & is attending CA public schools is having a hard time getting the courses so she can graduate and will be taking a lot longer to graduate because she’s been working at least part-time in her field since she graduated from HS in 2005. She expects to get her BA this winter, 2011, so that’s 6.5 years.</p>
<p>It is VERY common to go more than four years to college. I have a cousin who graduated from high school in 1997. He still doesn’t have his bachelor’s degree. In the time it is taking him to get a bachelor’s, I have gone through kindergarten/elementary school, middle school, high school, and have two years worth of college underneath my belt (I’m now Junior status). While he is a rarity, there are still quite a number of students who take more than seven years to graduate. I am currently on the five year plan due to switching a major. I will also be graduating with at least one minor, and I’m planning on adding a second minor as well.</p>
<p>Yep, super seniors are pretty much the norm here. Most people I think take five years. Obnoxious for me since my financial aid only covers four years, but what can you do.</p>
<p>The school I’m most likely going to, the University of Washington, has only about 81% of its students graduate in 6 years. Around 50% for 4 years. </p>
<p>But I think that’s because there are a ton of people in the sciences/engineering/pre-med, which is difficult. Idk, that’s just a wild guess.</p>
<p>Its pretty common for our generation. My older brother took 5 years, my cousin took 4 and a half, my sister kept changing her major and took like 6 years. My friend has 2 majors and is planning on taking 5 so he won’t overload himself and so he won’t need summer courses. I’m at the end of my Freshman year and decided on my 2nd major yet. I imagine that if I take courses over the summer i’ll still graduate in about 4 years time, even with the double major.</p>
<p>More and more students are taking 5 or 6 years to graduate depending on their situation. A lot of my friends who went to a community college took 3 years just to get their general education done so they could transfer. Some are motivated to finish in 4, but it’s becoming a trend that most won’t stay just 4 years.</p>
<p>i went to a community college for 2 years, and ill be spending a total of 3 years at my university. so 5 for me. also im an engineer, where we must have 150 units total as opposed to 120 for other majors</p>