Kiplinger's Best College Values, 2018

Data10
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 21:05:41 +0000

Wish we could dive deeper and see why a school is graduating or not graduating in 4 years. For example, does it take longer than 4 years because it’s hard to register for necessary classes or is it because the school promotes study abroad and internships?

STEM schools are disfavored because engineers often take 4.5-5 years to graduate

In the case of highly selective colleges, lower graduation rates can often relate to more complex degree options than 1 BS or 1 BA. For example, ~40% of CS/Engineering majors at Stanford choose to do a co-terminal masters where they simultaneously work towards both a master’s and bachelor’s. Most of these students take 5 years to graduate, which drives down Stanford’s 4-year graduation rate. Using the co-term years graduation stats at https://engineering.stanford.edu/admission-aid/coterminal-study-engineering, I’d estimate that the 4-year graduation rate at Stanford would increase from ~76% to ~95% if co-terminal master’s students are excluded. If you exclude both persons in more complex degree options and recruited athletes (particularly ones who redshirt in their first year), I’d expect close to 100%.