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I almost never see 20 year olds graduating with a bachelor's degree.
I can't imagine that it's that uncommon. There are all sorts of programs one can take advantage of in high school, such as AP classes and dual enrollment, to have a year of college credit belt by the time they graduate high school, allowing them to enter with sophomore status and graduate in 3 years. If a student had a summer birthday and started college as a sophomore, then they would most certainly graduate at 20.
I can't imagine that it's that uncommon. There are all sorts of programs one can take advantage of in high school, such as AP classes and dual enrollment, to have a year of college credit belt by the time they graduate high school, allowing them to enter with sophomore status and graduate in 3 years. If a student had a summer birthday and started college as a sophomore, then they would most certainly graduate at 20.
My son has a summer birthday and will graduate college at 21. He'll be taking AP course in high school, but my intent would be for his to knock out some prereqs and entry level courses and be able to start taking more electives sooner, rather than trying to finish college in 3 years. Of course, I'll have more limited control over what he chooses to do at that point, but it's what I would encourage him to do anyway. I think that he could use 4 years for personal growth and maturity, even if it's not strictly needed academically.
I know most people have to prioritize the cost aspect and it's certainly a big factor for me as well. But I hope that between what I can afford and what scholarships and financial aid he will hopefully get, we'll be able to do ok financially on a 4 year plan vs trying to cut out a year.
I can't imagine that it's that uncommon. There are all sorts of programs one can take advantage of in high school, such as AP classes and dual enrollment, to have a year of college credit belt by the time they graduate high school, allowing them to enter with sophomore status and graduate in 3 years. If a student had a summer birthday and started college as a sophomore, then they would most certainly graduate at 20.
Actually, I can imagine that it's uncommon. I couldn't find any specific stats on graduation age, but I did find that most students take more than 4 years to graduate. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/e...s.html?mcubz=3 "At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, the report found. Even at state flagship universities — selective, research-intensive institutions — only 36 percent of full-time students complete their bachelor’s degree on time."
There is way too much emphasis given to college credits earned in high school. Many schools limit the number of such credits they'll take, or they'll only take them for electives, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emm74
My son has a summer birthday and will graduate college at 21. He'll be taking AP course in high school, but my intent would be for his to knock out some prereqs and entry level courses and be able to start taking more electives sooner, rather than trying to finish college in 3 years. Of course, I'll have more limited control over what he chooses to do at that point, but it's what I would encourage him to do anyway. I think that he could use 4 years for personal growth and maturity, even if it's not strictly needed academically.
I know most people have to prioritize the cost aspect and it's certainly a big factor for me as well. But I hope that between what I can afford and what scholarships and financial aid he will hopefully get, we'll be able to do ok financially on a 4 year plan vs trying to cut out a year.
I hope you take this in the spirit in which it is intended-don't count your chickens before they hatch. First, see above. Secondly, what with changing majors, sometimes transferring colleges and losing credits, it sometimes takes longer than that. My daughter transferred colleges and ended up going an extra summer session. Not an entire semester mind you, but it did take a bit longer than if she had stayed at the first place. Ironically, she has a summer birthday (July 4). She was just a month over 22 when she graduated.
Location: Approximately 50 miles from Missoula MT/38 yrs full time after 4 yrs part time
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Saint Ambrose University
According to this University's web site, 49% of full time students graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in 4 yrs,.........and I happen to be one of them..........mine is in Business Administration and it served me well. I started my full time working career (7) days after I graduated.
Actually, I can imagine that it's uncommon. I couldn't find any specific stats on graduation age, but I did find that most students take more than 4 years to graduate. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/e...s.html?mcubz=3 "At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, the report found. Even at state flagship universities — selective, research-intensive institutions — only 36 percent of full-time students complete their bachelor’s degree on time."
That's funny. Almost everyone I know earned their degree in 4 years. My daughters certainly will(unless they find a way to finance a 5th year of college on their own), because that's all DH and I are paying for. Anyway, I'd imagine that the bulk of students who don't finish on time are from black/Hispanic backgrounds. I think if you were only to look at white/upper-class families, you'd find that at-least 95 percent of them graduate in 4 years.
4 1/2 or 5 years wasn't that uncommon even when I graduated years ago. My roommate was on the 5 year plan because he did co-op which added a couple of work semesters. I also had several friends who wound up adding a year due to pre-reqs. A lot of the STEM programs (we didn't call them STEM back then) had a defined course sequence. If you missed XYZ210 sophomore year, then you couldn't take XYZ310 or 321 junior year which killed any chance of 420 in senior year. Many of these were only offered one semester a year so you had to plan carefully to ensure you got the needed sequence. To make things worse, some of the lesser courses were only offered once every two years. So if you didn't get it your sophomore year, you couldn't get it until senior year.
While it hasn't happened yet, even back then there was talk of making some of the science and engineering degrees into five year programs because the amount of material was just too much to fit in a four year sequence. With any luck our daughter will be graduating this year in four, but her best friend will take six. The only way she's making it in four is she was able to transfer in enough gen eds from AP that she could re-sequence things. If she'd been on the full class load expected, she probably would have had to drop a couple of classes to keep her GPA up and those drops are sequence killers.
^^In my nursing program, the first year nursing courses were sequential and only offered in sequence. You missed one, you were out for a year until they offered it again, and there wasn't anything else you could take, either. My university has revised the program, probably several times since I graduated, but there's no way around needing the fundamentals before you can go on.
My older daughter went to a fairly expensive private college, and most of her friends did graduate in 4 years, though some took a summer course or two at some point along the way.
Well, from the links that have been posted, it looks like roughly 50% will graduate "on time" - meaning after 4 years. It's true that things happen and plans change, but at this point, my son feels motivated to get his education done quickly, and anticipates graduate school after college, so I think he will continue to make decisions that keep him in that 50%. It's what he sees in family and friends - my niece recently graduated after 3.5 years, as a matter of fact, with the help of some of her AP credits. I definitely will not encourage him to finish early though - I was in the same situation way back in the dark ages and my parents said why did I need to rush, why not let myself enjoy that last semester, take some classes I hadn't had time for and enjoy the senior year activities.
But if it turns out that he needs 5 years, we'll figure out a way to make that work. My point was more about not trying to use AP credits to cut the 4 years short even though I expect he's likely to start college with at least a semester's worth of credits.
Well, from the links that have been posted, it looks like roughly 50% will graduate "on time" - meaning after 4 years. It's true that things happen and plans change, but at this point, my son feels motivated to get his education done quickly, and anticipates graduate school after college, so I think he will continue to make decisions that keep him in that 50%. It's what he sees in family and friends - my niece recently graduated after 3.5 years, as a matter of fact, with the help of some of her AP credits. I definitely will not encourage him to finish early though - I was in the same situation way back in the dark ages and my parents said why did I need to rush, why not let myself enjoy that last semester, take some classes I hadn't had time for and enjoy the senior year activities.
But if it turns out that he needs 5 years, we'll figure out a way to make that work. My point was more about not trying to use AP credits to cut the 4 years short even though I expect he's likely to start college with at least a semester's worth of credits.
And he's what, 13, 14? Plans change. Things that cause even the most motivated to graduate late include changing majors, not declaring majors until junior year, transferring colleges, needing specific courses for pre-reqs for grad school.
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Saint Ambrose University
