<p>I keep hearing more people say that many colleges here in California now take five years to graduate from because many students of the graduating class don't take sufficient classes to graduate in four years. Is this true?</p>
<p>If you don’t take enough classes to graduate in four years, yes, it will take five years. This is true at any school.</p>
<p>Some classes required for majors are also taught only once a year, which makes it even harder to graduate in four years. For example, 90% of the classes required for my major is offered only once a year–next quarter, I’m taking a class called Animal Growth, and that’s only offered during spring quarter. With classes offered only once a quarter, if you get a late registration date, there’s little chance of you getting into that particular class that you need to graduate.</p>
<p>Are they talking about at state schools? I’m hearing this is a big problem from my friends in California in the community college/state university systems. The issue isn’t that they don’t want to take the credits, but that they can’t register for them since they fill up so fast.</p>
<p>^Too many students, not enough professors.
I don’t go to school in California but at my school it’s a problem in the biology and geology department. They haven’t hired new faculty in a while so professors are getting ready to retire left and right and there’s no one to teach the classes in the upcoming years. It’s a small part of the reason why I switched from environmental sciences to environmental studies.</p>
<p>They say it for all universities, including the UCs. I understand that it may take some people 3 years to transfer from CC instead of 2 because of the overcrowded classes at CCs now.</p>
<p>4, 5 and 6 year graduation rates are typically quoted in school ranking sites because a lot of students to take more than 4 years to graduate for a variety of reasons. It could be lack of access to required courses, students running out of money or a family event or illness that results in more time required.</p>
<p>I’m on the east coast and I’ve noticed the trend too…state and private schools alike. They seem to brag when the 4 year grad rate is over 75% or so.</p>
<p>At my son’s school, seniors have to fill out a graduation request form and submit it to the department. Seniors, and anyone else that looks like they have enough credits to graduate, get several emails on this. Invariably, one or two students don’t submit the graduation form so they don’t get to graduate with their class. They can graduate in the small January graduation ceremony though.</p>
<p>A student might become ill for several weeks and miss enough material so that they can’t catch up and so they may have to repeat a few courses. Or a student might fail or withdraw from a course that’s on the critical path to finishing in four years.</p>
<p>In general, a student should absolutely keep on top of requirements. Get a list of requirement to graduate and make a spreadsheet chart with semester going down and course numbers going across. Then fill in the requirements in the grid closest to when you can reasonably take them based on prerequisites.</p>
<p>Get a feel for how fast courses close up and if courses have free slots. Some schools have public webpages with courses, schedule time, number enrolled and the number of open slots. You can get a feel for how fast these close up by monitoring them as the start date for the semester approaches.</p>
<p>Look for courses that meet multiple requirements. Some courses may meet two or three requirements and they can reduce the difficulty of scheduling because you can take electives in place of meeting a specific subject requirement.</p>
<p>Sign up for courses as soon as possible. Have a list of courses that you want/need to take and alternatives if those are filled. If you’re trying to decide between two courses (if you’re checking out the professor or textbook or something else about the course where you want to attend the first course to see if you’ll like it), sign up for both and then drop the one that you don’t like. If you need adviser approval to sign up for courses, get this done as early as possible.</p>
<p>Registration can be a pain, but the student can do everything to maximize the odds of them getting the courses that they need and want.</p>
<p>At my cc, French 101 is only taught in the fall, and French 102 is only taught in the winter. Non-Western History is only available online, and even then only in the spring. BIO 110, essentially A&P 3, is only available in the summer. You have to be ruthless to get into these classes sometimes.</p>
<p>I know for the UC’s it depends. Berkely and UCLA are very good about graduating in four years but at the lower tier UCs like Riverside, a lot are graduating in 5-6 years.</p>
<p>Now transferring is different. It’s not really set in stone that you must transfer in 2 years. Most people I know transfer in 3-4 because they are working or they change their major. IIRC the average age of a transfer student at the UC was 22-23 versus maybe a 20-21 yo soph entering as a junior who was admitted as a freshman.</p>
<p>Remember…age is just a number.</p>
<p>4, 5, and 6 year graduation rates tend to be more based on the academic characteristics of the incoming students than anything else.
[Higher</a> Education Research Institute (HERI)](<a href=“http://www.heri.ucla.edu/GradRateCalculator.php]Higher”>Higher Education Research Institute)</p>
<p>That said, open admission CCs which have cut back course offerings due to budget cuts may be difficult to get into courses at.</p>
<p>CSUs have very low four year graduation rates, despite some of them having four year graduation pledge programs (where you agree to follow your major’s course plan and the school agrees to give you priority registration). CSUs with four year graduation pledge programs include Bakersfield, Fresno, Pomona, San Bernardino, and Stanislaus.</p>