4-year graduation rate

Colleges & Universities Ohio State University
1

<p>I know this has been written about before, but how concerned are you that their 4-year graduation rate is 38% and their 6-year rate is 65%. Okay, maybe my numbers are not accurate, but close I think. </p>

<p>Have you heard that students have a hard time getting their core business classes, in spite of how huge they are.</p>

<p>Are the only students guaranteed to graduate in 4 years the ones coming in with 10 AP classes?</p>

<p>So, is it worth it to pay State-school tuition for 6 years versus Private-school for 4 years?</p>

2

<p>As much as OSU students seem to bash Dr. Holbrook, they have made some impressive academic improvements over the past 5 years. You can view the Academic Scorecard annual updates on the OSU President’s page at OSU.edu.</p>

<p>There is also an interesting report on putting graduation rates in context, located here:
<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007161.pdf[/url]”>http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007161.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think OSU is rather typical with regard to 4 and 6 year graduation rates. Of all the kids I know who have gone to OSU (not a scientific sample, but quite a few) all have graduated in 4 years except a couple of engineers (5 year programs) and a few who changed majors more than they changed socks.</p>

<p>I know just as many kids who were on the 5-year plan (or worse) at more expensive schools (I was one of them). If a kid wants out in 4 years it doesn’t seem like it’s a problem. It just takes focus. And that is probably true at any school, regardless of cost.</p>

3

<p>I too am a little concerned at the low graduation rates at OSU, and when I spoke with someone in their admissions office they said it was to be expected in such a large state uni. So, therefore, if there are 9000 freshmen undergraduates, many vying for the same classes, esp. if they are core classes, and the registration process gives priority to those with AP credits, many students will be stuck in the cycle of trying each quarter to get into a class, which is a prerequisite for another, and thus falling back even further. No? Please straighten me out.</p>

4

<p>A parent asked that question on the tour. The response was that alot of students change their majors more than once and therefore have to start over with new pre-requisites. That adds time to graduation date. We were also told that students could get the professors to sign a waitlist waiver in some cases if the class was filled and they needed it.
Based on your seniority and priority status you supposedly get a “registration window” that opens up online during which you try to get your classes. If you miss your time window to register, I don’t know. I’d wonder about a non-Honors/Scholars student trying to get the basic pre-reqs for business. Maybe someone on cc who’s a student at OSU can input.</p>

5

<p>I hope a current student can give us some input here, My son has a merit scholarship but is not Honors or Scholars, so no priority in registration. I can just see us paying for 5 years :(</p>

6

<p>Here’s what I know. I’m an honors student, a freshman, and I have a lot of credit from high school, so I’m currently Rank 3 and Honors (ranks 1-4, like freshman through senior). Needless to say, I have priority, priority scheduling. My window last quarter opened at 10 pm on the first day for scheduling.</p>

<p>But…when I scheduled my classes for this past Autumn quarter, my first quarter, I scheduled after the entire school (incoming freshman schedule in the summer; everyone else does so in the spring), and I got into every class I wanted, including an honors class. This is testimony number one.</p>

<p>My second reassurance is this: I have a lot of friends who are neither honors nor scholars, and none of them have had trouble getting into prereq type classes that everyone wants to take. The good thing about OSU’s GEC (general education curriculum) system is that there are a fair amount of categories of courses that everyone has to take. So it isn’t as if everyone has to take, for example, one specific history class and everyone is vying to get into that one history class. To satisfy your GEC history requirement for a sequence, you can take US History, World History, Western Civ, History of the Middle East, African History, etc, and there are many, many sections of these classes. Or, if there wasn’t a history sequence that fit your schedule one quarter, you could take a class to fulfill, for example, the Data Analysis requirement. The basic choice would be Statistics 145, but almost every major program has a class that fulfills the data analysis requirement. You could also take Philosophy 153: Intro to Logic, for example. By taking these GEC courses, you can acquire credit hours and get even higher priority with your scheduling. And you have to take the GECs at some point anyway. In short, OSU is huge, and one of the biggest advantages of its size is the amount of courses that are offered every quarter. There will always be a course you can take to fulfill a requirement to work towards graduation.</p>

<p>In fact, you can go to <a href=“Buckeye Link”>Buckeye Link;
to browse the Master Schedule (this also shows course availability) for Autumn 06 through Autumn 07.</p>

7

<p>Thanks ambidextrous. That is reassuring. But yet you have said this on other threads.

</p>

<p>What would you say is the main reason that the 4-year graduation rate for OSU students is 38%.</p>

8

<p>The 4-year graduation rate for OSU’s class which entered in 2001 was 40%, compared to a benchmark average of 52%. While it still has a way to go, it has increased every year. Given the constant improvement in the academic standards of each entering freshman class, I would imagine that that rate will continue to climb and that OSU’s 4-year rate will compare reasonably with other large universities. </p>

<p>Personally I think it is in the hands of the individual student. If you want to graduate in 4 years, you will.</p>

9

<p>Penniless, I know that OSU is striving to improve their graduation rate, which is extremely low, but when you say that it is in the hands of the individual student, are you saying then that 50% of the OSU population don’t mind graduating in more than 4 years, and 35% don’t mind 6 years? Or are there other factors that prevent them, like a financial need to work & earn for 6 months.</p>

10

<p>“What would you say is the main reason that OSU’s four year graduation rate is 38%”</p>

<p>I think it’s because there are people who come to college who don’t make graduating in four years their priority. These aren’t the people I hang out with, but many seem to come to college to party. Classes and academics are lower priorities. Also, to be a full time student at OSU, you have to take at least 12 hours a quarter. To graduate, you need about 190 hours. That’s sixteen quarters, if you go at that rate. Sixteen quarters is four years, but if you don’t take classes during summer quarter (which many don’t) then it’s five or six. Too many students do the minimum. I took twenty-five hours last quarter, and this quarter I’m taking twenty. (Twenty-eight is defined as academic overload, and to take more than twenty, you need permission from an adviser) I’m not saying that everyone should kill themselves with twenty-five hours (because it was hard), and it varies by major and class, but at least fifteen hours is usually doable.</p>

<p>Another reason might be confusion about what classes are needed to graduate or what classes to take. The system is in place, the required courses are spelled out and available for general perusal, and advisers are helpful, but you have to seek it out. At a school as large as OSU, no one is going to come to you your third year and say, “Gee, don’t you think it’s time you take Course X?” On the other hand, I have had friends go to advisers for help, and the advisers articulate clearly what they need to take in four years to graduate. Again, initiative is needed, but too many people don’t want to or don’t think to do this.</p>

<p>I know people who say, “I’m on the five year plan,” and don’t mind graduating in five years. I also know people who say, “I know how I can get out in three years.” I don’t think there’s something inherently flawed in OSU’s academic or scheduling system that prevents a large percentage of students from graduating in four years. I think that for various individual reasons, students prevent themselves (or are prevented by factors outside their own and OSU’s control, such as, as someone mentioned, the need to work to pay for tuition and thus take a lighter courseload), from graduating in four years.</p>

11

<p>Ambi, you sound like a great student, very motivated, bright and hard-working. Good for you. I’m sure that students who come in with many AP credits have an easier time graduating n 4 years, and not just because they are the cream of the crop. Do you think that getting a boost in registration, due to priority/honors etc., is a big factor in graduating in 4 years? Or would you say that it only plays a role in getting the best class schedule as far as timings etc.</p>

<p>I’m not talking about the party-goers, and obviously you hang out with a smarter bunch of kids, but would you say that an average B+ student, who wants to be done in 4 years, but has no AP credits, can actually do it? Is this dependent on the major/department?</p>

12

<p>You should also keep in mind that practically all Engineering majors are on a standard 5 year plan.</p>

13

<p>Just to help clear this up, recently it was announced that the average time it takes to graduate at OSU is 4 years and 1 quarter.</p>

14

<p>I went to OSU and finished in 5 years. I theoretically could have graduated in four. But I wanted to double-major and I had a minor also. Many, many, many students go this route. The minimum credits to graduate is 190. And that’s if you take only the required GEC’s, the required pre-req’s, the minimum core-courses, and the minimum major electives. For me, that 5th year was the best. Many people like me end of up 245 credits. Some people stick around to take classes for academic curiosity. I had a great co-op job at a locally located, internationally recognized institution; I was learning the most in my classes; I was familar with the city & OSU and Columbus were a great home. Waiting to graduate at 22 instead of 21 was the best decision I made. I tell some people that it was my “victory lap,” or that “finishing in four years is like leaving the party midnight.” So yes: it IS in the hands of the individual student. A lot of students (like me and particularly at inexpensive, large, state schools) also had to work while going to school, too, and they just accept that it’ll take them 5 years. If you go in with the mind-set to graduate in 4, you will.</p>

15

<p>Thanol, Can you please tell me why practically all Engineering majors are on a 5 year plan? My ds wants to study Engineering at OSU, and this was very unclear at our tour of the campus and department. Most students agreed that engineering was a 5 year program, but it is not billed as such…</p>

16

<p>Now I’m not an engineering major, but all of Ohio State’s programs are designed to complete in 4 years. Many engineering classes are not the typical five credit-hour class that OSU offers, rather, many of them are 3 and 4 credit hour classes, but still require the same amount of work as a 5 credit hour class, and most students would be crazy to take a 18-20 hour load of engineering classes. Rather, engineering students take their time so that they are not overloaded, but can rather focus on getting good grades in their engineering classes.</p>