<p>applicannot - your statement seems contradictory. You seem to basically be saying “There is nothing wrong with looking at four year rates except that there are lots of reasons people don’t graduate in four years”, all of which had been mentioned in previous posts anyway. Since no school keeps statistics for public consumption on why students don’t graduate in four years, what good does it do to know that some unknown number for good reasons and unknown number for bad reasons, which as you say cannot be accounted for, contribute to it? A person still wouldn’t know if the rate was low for a good reason, like the ones you mention, or bad reasons.</p>