UW Madison Report on Students who Graduate College in 3 Years or Less

[book_worm]

<p>While surfing my state flagship’s website, I came across this interesting report:
<a href=“http://apa.wisc.edu/JLM/TTD_3YrsOrLess.pdf[/url]”>http://apa.wisc.edu/JLM/TTD_3YrsOrLess.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Some highlights:
Page 10

Students who finish within three years earn 25 percent their credits in the form of
advanced standing credits from sources outside of the classrooms of UW-Madison.

</p>

<p>Page 11

Students who finish within 3 years tend to have stronger academic preparation in high school, especially in mathematics.

</p>

<p>Page 12

Over 40 percent of students who finish in three years or less have achieved sophomore or junior standing by the time of their entrance into UW-Madison. However, only 15 percent of those with sophomore or junior standing at the time of their entrance go on to finish in 3 years or less.

</p>

<p>Page 13

As shown in the table below, students who graduate within three years often enter UWMadison with a relatively large number of transfer and AP credits. ** However, of those students who arrive at UW-Madison with a large number (16 or more) of transfer and AP credits, only 10 percent finish within three years **. Moreover, 22 students were able to finish in three years without bringing any transfer or AP credits at the time of their arrival.

</p>

<p>A common thing seen on CC is students saying “I’ll enter as with college junior status, graduate early, then go on to grad school.” This report seems to contradict those statements.</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

[mikemac]

<p>2 thoughts. First, many people come to realize that quite often a degree alone doesn’t get you a job or into a good grad school. Internships or research experience play a role, and its hard to do as much in 3 years as the ones that spend 4 years on campus. Second, you get to work the rest of your life; for many people college is an enjoyable time and their in no hurry to cut it short.</p>

[Paradycia]

<p>Hmmm.</p>

<p>I think though that a lot of times, students transfer in with a bunch of credits that are sometimes useless and don’t contribute to the college’s graduation reqs and then they get to realize that college isn’t an experience you want to rush through.</p>

<p>And then other groups of students even just use the transfer credits to allow them to enroll in higher level courses as opposed to just exempting those requirements all together (probably the 85% that don’t graduate in 3 years or less) …so I think it really is something that depends on the person, the school, etc.</p>

[drusba]

<p>Have you ever been to University of Wisconsin in Madison? Many who arrive with some concept of graduating in three years soon realize that they don’t want to leave that little slice of heaven in Wisconsin so soon.</p>

[shennie]

<p>This doesn’t really surprise me. Just because you arrive with 16 or more credits doesn’t mean that you know exactly what you are going to major in. Changing majors can set you back a semester or 2 regardless of how many credits you enter with. Also, you still might have difficulty getting the classes you want. And I am not sure that a lot of students WANT to graduate in 3 years.</p>