New Data: 60% of Students Graduate Within 8 Years

[Life Long Learning]

Sad!

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktake...=IHEbuffer

[sanantone]

I'm not sure if it's sad. I believe most colleges and universities have acceptance rates above 90%. When you accept almost anyone, you're bound to have a lot of people fail. The only way to remedy this is to have tougher admissions standards, but you'll block out the people with low grades and low test scores who might end up finishing.

[dfrecore]

Also, the fact that so many jobs don't require a degree (or the degree you were going for), so many people find that they're wasting their time in college and get jobs instead (I did). I quit before I acquired a penny of student loan debt, worked, got jobs that gave me tuition reimbursement and used it to take classes here and there, and managed to do just fine career-wise.

So, while not graduating isn't good, it's also not the catastrophe that it's sometimes made out to be.

[sanantone]

You also have to apply as a degree-seeking student to qualify for financial aid. So, some people who apply for a degree or qualifying certificate program may have no intention of finishing.

[davewill]

They're saying the numbers are getting better, so it's hard to call it sad, exactly. I think the dfrecore's on the right track, the key is to avoid crushing debt while not graduating on time.

[Ideas]

I don't consider that low either. I feel like some people don't intend to finish but get convinced to try by their family. Or friends who are going. Unfortunately I'm sure some wanted to finish, but something changed in their life. Not always bad though.

[dfrecore]

Our local CC has a $1M grant and they give out 1 year of free college to anyone who graduates from a nearby HS (there's a list), along with $600/yr in books, as long as they take at least 12cr each semester. It's a pilot program to see if it being free will give them better graduation rates. I'm guessing the difference won't be much - now there are just more kids (like mine) who figure they may as well take advantage of free, but still never plan on getting any sort of degree/cert from that school. And there are even more who will go even though they don't really care, don't have a plan, and don't know what they want to do with their lives - but it's free, so why not try. I know several of those. So the number of kids who will go who otherwise wouldn't have because it was too expensive will be more than offset by the number of kids who will go who would otherwise just go get a FT job, or do something else.

BTW - the number of kids who can't afford CC here in CA has GOT to be a very small one, because at $46/cr, it's a whopping $750/semester, and most who can't afford that are already getting free school. And, our local fast food restaurants are paying $11/hr and up, so even working 20 hours a week, they're making like $11k a year. If you're making that while living at home with your parents, you can easily afford to go to CC.

My dd (16) will be one that adds to the bad stats: she's going to go to our local CC to get some prereqs done for a different program she wants to go to at another nearby CC, but she's certainly not going to pass up free for a year.

[Ideas]

My dd (16) will be one that adds to the bad stats: she's going to go to our local CC to get some prereqs done for a different program she wants to go to at another nearby CC, but she's certainly not going to pass up free for a year.

In this article, they show what percentage completed at a different institution. Your daughter would help the stats for CC starters 

[sanantone]

I don't consider that low either. I feel like some people don't intend to finish but get convinced to try by their family. Or friends who are going. Unfortunately I'm sure some wanted to finish, but something changed in their life. Not always bad though.

I'm kind of surprised that the graduation rate for people who start at 4-year, public colleges is so high. It's almost 69%. Ideally, everyone would finish in less than six years, but at least they're finishing.