USF needs improvement in graduation rates!

[willia33]

http://www2.tbo.com/news/education-news/2012/jun/21/11/education-board-hits-usf-over-grad-rates-ar-418613/

The article mentions only about 1/3rd of students graduate in 4 years and only 1/2 graduate in 6 years! Not sure what stat is worse lol.

Curious your guys thoughts and why it's that low. More importantly what can they do about it...

[charsibb]

give diplomas for beer drinking?

[SattyBull]

I'll be graduating in 4 years next spring. Could've done it in 3 1/2 but stretched it out....who the hell wants to rush undergrad?

[ctbrown24]

Finished in 4.5...could have done 4 as well, but stretched it out one more football season.....

[Gismo]

I graduated in 4 but I knew tons of people that didn't and are still in school. I know people that are pushing their 6th and 7th year at this point. This is in engineering however which takes a lot of people 5 years. The problem I think is that taking 15 credits is not as encouraged as it should be. A lot of people I knew were just going through taking like 9 or 12 credit hours, some working part time and some not. My impression is they just don't care how long it takes them, they take a low course load so its easy and they have more free time. I think they don't want to graduate. I think the advisers are part of the problem. They should really push heavily the 15 credit hours more than they do.

[outrunner]

I graduated in 4 but I knew tons of people that didn't and are still in school. I know people that are pushing their 6th and 7th year at this point. This is in engineering however which takes a lot of people 5 years. The problem I think is that taking 15 credits is not as encouraged as it should be. A lot of people I knew were just going through taking like 9 or 12 credit hours, some working part time and some not. My impression is they just don't care how long it takes them, they take a low course load so its easy and they have more free time. I think they don't want to graduate. I think the advisers are part of the problem. They should really push heavily the 15 credit hours more than they do.

I disagree with this philosophy. 15 credit hours equals about 5-6 classes. That's a full course load for any student. Now, go back to your high school days, remember what they said about your college application; that colleges are looking for well rounded students who did community service and extracurricular activities. Why then does that stop once someone gets to college? This is one problem I see, the university pushes two competing ideas; take 15 credit hours and be involved with extracurriculars. Then if you throw in the fact that some students need to work part time jobs, and you really get in a messy situation. I'll admit I was partially a victim of this when I first got to college. I was overwhelmed and wanted to try all the new things. Even to this day as I finish up my degree, I'm still pressured by the university to do other activities. I have professors wanting me to join the history Fraternity or the American Archaeological Association, saying that it will look good on my resume; but when am I to participate in those organizations when I am taking 4 classes with mountains of reading?

[Gismo]

I know it's different for each person and of course working part time and some full time may require a lower course load. I was able to find a way to graduate in 4 years while holding an officer position in an organization my last two years and working a few hours per week in a research lab my last two years. Also with an internship one summer.

Now I don't mean to come off as better than thou, I know everyone is different in terms of what they can handle, but even with these other obligations 50% in 6 years is too low. The students are capable of more. I guess what I mean to say is that in my experience my peers chose 12 over 15 without much good reason except its easier.

I do agree though that a 5 or 6 year time to graduate with a co-op or two and organization involvement in a leadership capacity may be more beneficial than 4 year graduation without those things.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Gismo

[USF_Grouper]

Typical degree is what, 120 hours? I was engineering so our degree was a bit longer (136 and I believe track was 5 years).

So 120 hours / 4 years = 30 credit hours per year. I just don't think that is explained to most students. If you can't swing 15 credit hours so be it, take 2 summer courses every year. But if you want to be out in 4 then you can't get past that math.

My feeling is even today a lot of USF students are in/from the Tampa area. So the result is they don't have to carry the greater cost of someone who is paying room and board to live in some remote college town. As a result there is just less motivation to squeeze that 4 year graduation rate. The 6 year is far more concerning to me. We really should keep increasing admission standards until we hit it. Sorry, but if 50% of our students aren't getting a degree in 6 years then we aren't doing a good job screening applicants!

[&rew Bull]

Typical degree is what, 120 hours? I was engineering so our degree was a bit longer (136 and I believe track was 5 years).

So 120 hours / 4 years = 30 credit hours per year. I just don't think that is explained to most students. If you can't swing 15 credit hours so be it, take 2 summer courses every year. But if you want to be out in 4 then you can't get past that math.

My feeling is even today a lot of USF students are in/from the Tampa area. So the result is they don't have to carry the greater cost of someone who is paying room and board to live in some remote college town. As a result there is just less motivation to squeeze that 4 year graduation rate. The 6 year is far more concerning to me. We really should keep increasing admission standards until we hit it. Sorry, but if 50% of our students aren't getting a degree in 6 years then we aren't doing a good job screening applicants!

What engineering degree is 136? I don't recall seeing that on any of the engineering curriculums.

[Gismo]

Engineering is 126 credits. Department graduation plan is 15 credit hours nearly every semester and 1 summer of 9 credit hours. This will have a student graduating in 4 years. If you were to take 12 credits per semester and 1 summer it would take 5 years to graduate. 9 credits per semester and two summers of class would take 6 years.

Based on that, the statistics indicate that 50% of the students are taking on average 9 credit hours or less per semester and/or not taking classes in the summer. That's pretty terrible, the students should be capable of at least 12 if not working. This is why I am a fan encouraging the 15 credit hours per semester.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Gismo