I work at a college and I would say both types of students are part of driving up the average.

The mature part time or full time students who also has work and family responsibilities and can't carry as heavy of a courseload is one.

There are also many young students though who fail a course / year or switch majors or for a plethora of reasons take an extra year to finish. That is also pretty common. Sometimes it is because they partied too much or just didn't take their first year seriously at all, other times it is a health / stress issue, sometimes they worked really hard but failed a course that was required to start the next year etc..

The young students fall into two general categories - The ones in extended adolescence - these are the kids who don't work, don't have any other responsibilities, have no financial obligations, don't have a lot of life skills (cooking, even laundry!) and basically are learning to be independent and responsible for the first time at college while still fully supported by parents. The other group are the ones (same age as the others)who have moved into early adulthood and come to college already having some independent life skills and have had responsibilities. They have had jobs, pay some / all of their own bills, can function on their own. These are the ones I hire for summer jobs!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my nephew's case, it was a combination of taking too few hours each semester because his mom didn't want him to feel overwhelmed, changing his major twice and failing calculus.

Right, that's more the type of individual example you'd expect. But this says 6 yrs is increasingly the average length to finish undergrad, which means a lot of people are taking 6 yrs or even MORE to finish. Is that seriously true?? I've never heard this.

This says that

The model of going to school full time starting right out of college with no breaks, has never been the only, or maybe even, the most common route to college. Some people go more slowly because they need to take remedial courses, some go more slowly because they have family commitments, some go more slowly because of money. All those people are figured into the average.

In addition many state schools are becoming over crowded, which can make the classes a student needs challenging.

Anonymous wrote:I think the traditional student (living on campus, getting financial support from parents) are probably not the demographic driving an average up (if this is, indeed, the case.

It's more likely that the folks that are paying their own way, starting at community colleges, working full-time, raising children, starting in their mid-twenties etc. are the people driving this extended undergraduate term. Thirty years ago most of these people likely would not have gone to school at all and yet still made good wages in less technical jobs. Not so easy to do that these days without a college degree.

+1

DCPS is to blame.

Redshirting in academics is the new-thing!!!

I think the traditional student (living on campus, getting financial support from parents) are probably not the demographic driving an average up (if this is, indeed, the case.

It's more likely that the folks that are paying their own way, starting at community colleges, working full-time, raising children, starting in their mid-twenties etc. are the people driving this extended undergraduate term. Thirty years ago most of these people likely would not have gone to school at all and yet still made good wages in less technical jobs. Not so easy to do that these days without a college degree.

This stat probably includes people who are going part time and working full time.

Tommy: You know a lot of people go to college for seven years.

Richard: I know. They're called "doctors."

I was also paying for it myself so... I had incentive to do it as economically as possible!

This is the difference. If mommy & daddy are financing everything, why not live it up and extend the free ride?

Anonymous wrote:Finances, focusing and frustration also contributes to this longer time frame. Then on the other extreme there are increases in students finishing before 3-years with double majors.

Given the fact that staying longer means additional years of paying for room, board/meals, and tuition (beyond individual class credits), it becomes a dramatically more expensive prospect to stay longer vs. just taking as many courses as you can in the 4 years. For those working their way through college that of course becomes even harder, but if you've got a choice, I would be on my kid to do whatever they can in the 4 years, because really, who has money for 2 additional years of rent and food and fees???

I changed my major in the middle of junior year, but I did summer school, lived cheap, and did everything I could to graduate on time. I was also paying for it myself so... I had incentive to do it as economically as possible!

Finances, focusing and frustration also contributes to this longer time frame. Then on the other extreme there are increases in students finishing before 3-years with double majors.

Anonymous wrote:In my nephew's case, it was a combination of taking too few hours each semester because his mom didn't want him to feel overwhelmed, changing his major twice and failing calculus.

Right, that's more the type of individual example you'd expect. But this says 6 yrs is increasingly the average length to finish undergrad, which means a lot of people are taking 6 yrs or even MORE to finish. Is that seriously true?? I've never heard this.

In my nephew's case, it was a combination of taking too few hours each semester because his mom didn't want him to feel overwhelmed, changing his major twice and failing calculus.

And just to be clear, I know that some people take FOREVER to finish college. Extend college and grad school on and on and on. That has always happened, but never in huge numbers. This quote seems to be saying it's becoming the new norm, and THAT is totally shocking to me.

S/O from the YY/IB thread, an article was posted about Dartmouth's decision to stop accepting IB and AP test scores for advance placement.

In the middle of the article is this quote:

"But Deborah Davis said the company's research indicates that most students who enroll in small, highly selective colleges use AP scores for placement, not to graduate early. But with the average time to complete a bachelor's degree increasing to six years at most colleges, she anticipates that AP exam scores will increasingly be used to provide credits."

What the...???? Have I been TOTALLY asleep, or when did it start becoming normal/frequent to take 6 years to finish college??? And if that is true, what has changed, why is it taking 2 whole years longer??