Anonymous wrote:With Covid a lot of students made this choice.

Please cite a source, specific to the caliber of colleges this thread is about. Because we have two children at T20s and I'm not seeing this at all. I'm seeing dozens of kids finishing as fast as possible, often a semester or two early, because they're over it all and ready to move on from the Covid-19 hysteria that's ruined college.

I don't get this at all. Did you know this and approve? If yes, then move on as you agreed with the choice at the time. All the college kids I know did online classes. I don't know any snowflakes who took a gap year.

If I knew I would have made my son work and save the money to pay for the extra year. BUT, I'd also expect him to take summer classes at a local college or community college to make up the missing credits to try to get him to graduate on time or one semester late.

There is NO way except in health, mental health, or another crisis (and covid is not a crisis) my child will be graduating in 5 years with me paying for it. You get FOUR years of college and then graduate school depending on how much we can afford (hope to pay both). If you screw it up, you pay the difference.

With Covid a lot of students made this choice.

Ivies are very good at getting kids to graduate on time. That's why they have 90+% four year graduation rates. But there's always the few who take a bit longer. Usually due to taking a semester or even a year off. I don't think most kids care if your son is taking an extra year, some might even be jealous!

Does he need to take an entire extra year? That's a lot - why not just a semester and then he'll graduate next May? Summer courses not available?

It's not common for Ivies to take more than four years - OP is correct about that. I went to a top SLAC and knew only ONE person who took more than eight semesters.

But we are in the middle of a pandemic. No one is going to think much of it.

I'd be pissed if this is costing you extra tuition, though. I wouldn't stretch to take money out of your retirement for that. I'd try to get him to pay or pay me back in the future for any extra expenses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The old creep still lurking around undergrads is not an great rep to have.

So being 23 and not 22? That makes no sense.

22 and 23 are both considered old to teenage freshmen and yes, fifth years tend to have a sketchy / creeper / f***-up reputation. Just being frank.

Anonymous wrote:FWIW at Princeton it's really uncommon.
But who cares? Will any emlpoyers even know? I'd bet not 5 years out of school.

Super uncommon at Ivies and Notre Dame because undergrad kids live on campus together all 4 years.

FWIW at Princeton it's really uncommon.
But who cares? Will any emlpoyers even know? I'd bet not 5 years out of school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the five-year plan was normal nowadays, especially for engineering.

Oh no not at all. Schools care about their stats. 92% graduation rate in 4 years at MIT.

MIT was quick to push someone out onto medical leave if and when they needed it rather than have them fail out.

MIT’s 4 yr is 87%

In other words, 13% of MIT leaves to found a company or with an offer from tech, drop out, or health leave — not 13% healthy underachievers just randomly quitting cyber courses and falling behind.

Anonymous wrote:The old creep still lurking around undergrads is not an great rep to have.

So being 23 and not 22? That makes no sense.

Anonymous wrote:My kid at a top SLAC took a gap year because there were no in-person classes, and most of her peers did the same. Her school has the highest 4-year graduation rate among all liberal arts colleges but there is an expectation that this rate will fall significantly due to COVID. Your son will be fine.

Most? Bulls***.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:~15% of students take 5-6 years.

I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Not at Ivies, not at any top private university.

BS every single day students take 5 to 6 years to graduate.

Not every kid is the same.

Yeah it’s common at degree mills who admit everyone. Smart kids don’t need more than 4; a bachelor’s with AP credits can easily be finished in 3 years.

not so, have family friends with kid in big 10 state school engineering who said from first year he need 5 years to graduate, ended up being 4 and a half and had part-time job in a research lab ... he's smarter than you'd think

We need to distinguish between taking more time because you registered for fewer hours because you couldn’t get the courses you needed or took a sabbatical, and registering and paying for courses that you dropped. These are very different scenarios financially. The former may mean that you have some additional expenses for room and board, but just willfully wasting tuition without even mentioning it? That’s not acceptable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smart kids loaded up on easy online courses to graduate early.

And what did they actually learn? Oh, the ONLY goal was to graduate early. I get it. The goal wasn't to gain any knowledge or skills. I pity their future employers.

you're a moron but I commend you for letting it shine

some kids took couple of summer online courses, everything was online last, you know

Anonymous wrote:I'd be MUCH more concerned that my large adult son felt like he could incur an extra $80K in costs and mention it to me casually.

That's not a kid who is prepared for the world.

+1. I’d be p*ssed that he flushed the tuition down the toilet without even telling me (assuming I’m paying the bills) because he didn’t like on line learning. I’d ask where he was going to find the extra tuition to finish.