Four & More

Exploring the valid reasons why students take more than four years in undergrad.

BY JACOB DURBIN

PHOTO BY JACOB DURBIN DESIGN BY PEARL SCHAFER

Among the many more visible trends experienced by college students across the country, one that is sometimes cast in an unfavorable light is taking more than the traditional four years to complete a bachelor’s degree.

There are a multitude of reasons it would take someone more than four years to graduate, ranging from changing areas of study or transferring schools to academic and financial struggles. Taking more time can also put excess pressure on a student’s mental health.

“We have students who, for one reason or another, aren’t successful in a course or semester. As a result, they’ll need to retake a course, things like that,” Aaron Block, a success advisor for the College of Business at Ohio University, says.

Most universities measure graduation rates in six-year brackets instead of four years, according to Jon Marcus, an editor at The Hechinger Report.

In 1989, New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley,who played college basketball, along with other senators began to question the academic success of student athletes. At that time, the NCAA and universities did not disclose any graduation rates. According to The Hechinger Report, academic eligibility for college athletes covers a five-year period, so it was proposed by the senators to disclose the graduation rates of these students, which was then expanded to all students. By 1990, Public Law 101-542 to disclose graduation rates for all students was passed, however universities did not publicly disclose the rates until 1997.

In regard to taking more than four years to graduate with a bachelor’s degree, the trend has been rather hidden in the past but is now becoming more recognized.

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“I think that it is a trend that has always been there, but it’s now being recently looked at due to the cost of education,” Mychael Ihnat, a doctoral student studying higher education at OU, says “In 2000, you’re probably spending about $10,000 for an entire education, that quadrupled to about $30,000 to $40,000 to $60,000 to $70,000 depending on what school you’re looking at.”

Sometimes the major a student is studying will cause them to take an extra year.

“When I was a freshman here back in 2019, I missed the deadline to declare my major for music education,” Wyatt Deely, a senior studying music education, says. “And so, they said, you can either declare for it and then you try to audition for next semester, but you’ll have a lopsided curriculum, and you will be in a limbo state and I would be offset by a semester.”

Students working a job and trying to maintain a full course load may also be the reason their graduation timelines get pushed back. It can also lead to some programs feeling “forced” to be completed in four years.

“You think of marching band specifically, they go 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day and then I think like 10 [p.m.] to midnight before game day,” Wyatt says. “It’s like, that’s already so much overtime, and then people try to be [residential assistants], have oncampus jobs, off-campus jobs…”

Wyatt also says that pressure put on students by jobs and involvement with organizations can negatively impact their classes. In essence, they would have less time to dedicate to their classes when they have to balance that time between jobs and classes.

Sometimes there are unseen insecurities that a student may be dealing with by taking extra time to complete their undergrad, even if they are an overall hardworking person. The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University reported in fall of 2020 that 58 percent of college students experienced insecurities about their basic needs. These insecurities included housing difficulties, food insecurity and homelessness in some situations.

The Ohio University Dean of Students

Office reports that 48 percent of students reported food insecurity in the last 30 days. Of those students, 32 percent indicated that their education was impacted by their hunger. 64 percent of the students that identified as food insecure also experienced housing insecurity in some way.

In a world where a four-year bachelor’s degree is a goal that often has a haze cast over it, many people need more time to reach their academic aspirations. There are benefits and drawbacks to straying from the traditional path. “If you have the ability to complete your degree, to become who you want to be academically, that I think is more important than finishing within four years,” Block says.

“I don’t think there should be any shame by any students who need more time when it comes to finishing their degree,” Block says. “I think the four-year metric is something that a lot of people use to measure success. You’re working towards your goal … the fact that you haven’t quit screams volumes.”b