3 Ways to Make Sure You’ll Graduate College ON TIME

Hey guys, it’s Eric at Solution Prep. Today we’re discussing how to graduate college on time. Here are three ways to ensure timely graduation. in America graduate public universities on time — which means in four years or fewer. Those numbers are slightly better for private colleges and, of course, better for the six and eight year graduation rates at those schools. But I don’t think you want to take eight years to graduate college, do you? No. And whenever a college tells you their graduation rate, you wanna follow up by asking is that a four year graduation rate? And make sure it’s not a six or an eight that they’re bragging about.

So there are three ways to make sure that you can graduate college on time.

And the first is to start ahead of the game. It takes for most colleges, 120 credits to get your first bachelor’s degree divided by four years, divided by two semesters. That’s 15 credits per semester on average. So if you can start college with 15 credits already in your back pocket, you’re ahead of the game. And in fact, you can graduate college early in three and a half years, or if something goes wrong or you choose to double major so you need more classes; you can still get it done in those four years because you built that buffer.

So where do these 15 or more college credits come from before you start college? Well, it could be through AP or IB testing. If your high school offers AP or its competitor IB classes, at the end of the year, you get a big exam. And if you do well enough on that, you can earn college credits for the schools that accept those. You may also be able to take dual enrollment classes, which may either be directly through your high school in partnership with a local or county college, or as part of early release as the senior where you do half days at your high school and the other half of the day at your local county college, taking those college classes.

And the third way you can do it is you can just enroll yourself in some college classes, maybe start a little bit in junior year, more in senior year, even in the summers at your county college, so that you can be doing that maybe as like an as an extracurricular activity so that you’re getting ahead that way at the end of high school or at least the beginning of college.

You’ve got those 15 credits and you’re ready to start ahead of the game.

The second way to make sure to graduate college on time is to avoid falling behind. And that sounds obvious, but I will tell you, college is hard. The transition to college is hard. However hard you think it’s gonna be, I guarantee it’s going to be harder. And it’s not just because of the academic rigor of college, it’s also because it’s the first time that you’re responsible for yourself. You’re in charge of your own time management. And at college you can do four things.

You can study, you can have a job, you can play a sport, you can socialize; but there’s only enough time in the day for two of those things and you gotta choose. And let me tell you, studying has to be one of them, or you’re not gonna make it, at least not in four years.

So a lot of students, they party a little too hard, they manage their time not so well, and they wind up falling behind. They get some grades they’re not so proud of, they get an F, maybe they get a D, maybe they have to withdraw from a class. So what do you do if you need to make up these classes and you don’t want to add a semester or more to the end of college?

Well, I told you that 15 credits is an average semester. And keep in mind that for every hour that you’re in class, and for 15 credits, you’re in class about 15 hours a week. You can expect two hours of outside of class work, which means reading, studying, homework, projects, all of that. So a 15 credit semester is 45 hours a week of work. It’s a full-time job. It’s your full-time job while you are in college. But for most colleges, 12 to 18 credits is a flat rate for a full-time student.

So if in some semester you have to drop down to 12 credits, or you only complete 12 credits in some later semester, maybe sophomore or junior year, once you get your sea legs and you’re good at this whole college thing, you can do some 18 credit semesters to catch up on the classes you missed without it costing you any extra, but investing more of your time, right? Really hitting those books in that semester. Or even taking community college classes during your summer breaks or in the winter interim, during that winter break from your regular college to catch up on classes that you missed. Not for free, but for pretty cheap.

The third way we’re gonna talk about graduating college on time is to keep your focus on college. It’s very easy as you’re becoming an adult, you know, you start working a job, you start having social commitments, you start maybe falling in love and doing all the things that are easing you into your adult life, but you wanna make sure that when you’re in college, college is your full-time thing.

So I would strongly encourage you to either live on campus or live extremely close to campus with other students who are focused on their studies. I would encourage you, if you’re gonna have a job, work a job on campus, maybe a work study job, or just a job they’re willing to hire you for. Because when you’re living on campus, when you’re eating on campus, when you’re working on campus, campus is your life. And when this is your life, you’re more likely to graduate on time. And keep in mind that the average cost of college goes up at about three to 5% every year.

So if it takes you an extra semester, an extra year, or more to graduate college, it’ll be the most expensive years of your college career. And not only that, not only are you paying money to go to college, you’re also not entering the labor force. You’re not starting your career earning a salary. So you’re both spending money, your money’s going down and you’re not earning money. And when those two things collide, it’s a double whammy of money loss that you didn’t have to lose if you can just graduate college on time.

So think about these things, make a plan. Start by getting ahead, and if you have questions, call us at (732) 556-8220. We are here to help.