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You are fond of mentioning that MIT has an unusually extensive set of graduation requirements, so I think UNCA does quite well to have a ~43% figure. Mentioning colleges like St. John’s is entirely unhelpful within the context of this thread, as it is obviously radically different from a typical LAC, as are the many other unique institutions like Juilliard and Webb. </p>
<p>Let’s not pick nits. My point was simply that UNCA has rather extensive requirements, and since it contains things like themed clusters and a year long humanities core, students are more limited than at colleges with open distribution requirements (i.e. any 2 humanities courses, any 2 social science courses, etc.). Indicating that there are other universities with rigorous requirements - including some possibly a little more so - doesn’t really detract from this point and simply reveals that (shockingly) I am not conversant with the requirements of every college in the US. </p>
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No, UNCA doesn’t like students who take too many courses – or, if you prefer a cynical perspective, perhaps it does since they pay more money. That rule charges students an additional fee for exceeding the traditional graduation limit (120 credits) and has little to do with how long a student takes to graduate, except in the sense that students taking more than four years sometimes (but not always) take more courses than those who graduate within four years. </p>
<p>Many colleges have such fees. For example, overloading at Chicago increases your tuition by $4000 per quarter. Colleges that have these policies include private universities (e.g. BU), private LACs (e.g. Lawrence and Pitzer), and public universities (e.g. Wisconsin and Alabama).</p>