It is becoming more common for college students to take longer than four years to finish their undergraduate degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Education. 

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) used recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education that showed averages in determining the time it is taking students to receive bachelor’s degrees. According to these findings, during the 2007-2008 school year, students who started college within one year of graduating high school took about five years and 10 months to graduate. Students who entered immediately into a four-year college instead of a two-year college took about five years and eight months to receive their degrees. 

This trend is occurring across the U.S. However, NC State’s graduation rates have increased in general according to the Thomas Griffin, the director of Undergraduate Admissions at NC State, and the Official New Freshman Graduation Rates report on the Office of Institutional Research and Planning’s website.

“Graduation rates have actually been fairly high in the last few years compared to earlier years,” Griffin said.

According to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning’s website, of the freshmen who came in to NC State in 1994, about 25 percent graduated within four years, while 53 percent graduated in five and 60 percent graduated in six. Of the freshmen who came in 2007, 41 percent were graduating within four years, 68 percent graduated in five and 74 percent obtained their degrees within six years.

There are various reasons why students take more than four years to graduate. Travis Toth, a fifth-year senior majoring creative writing, said he has taken longer than four years to graduate because he came to college undecided about his major.

Toth didn’t come to college expecting he would take longer than four years to graduate, but later found himself juggling between a few majors. 

“It kind of just happened,” Toth said. “I started in the First Year College program and then became an accounting major, then switched to economics. Then I was an economics major with a creative writing minor, and now I am a creative writing major with an economics minor.”

According to Toth, his final decision is indeed final, and he plans to graduate in December.

“I was just trying to pick which path I actually wanted to follow,” Toth said. 

Toth said taking more than four years to graduate has more benefits than disadvantages.

“Finding what pace works best for you is a pro,” Toth said. “I think it is silly to think that there is a specific amount of time that it’s going to take people to finish with school.” 

But Toth said he has experienced disadvantages as well.

“I guess the main con would be the expense,” Toth said. “Other than that, it would be having to take more tests and having more schoolwork to do in general.”

Toth said he is a strong believer that the college experience should be less restricted and structured. 

“I think college should be less standardized,” Toth said. “I do not think there should be a semester-by-semester type schedule because it’s not necessary. I think education should be a lot more in the hands of students and how they want to take it.” 

Ben Thomas, an NC State alumnus, graduated in May 2014, five years after he started. Thomas’s reasons for graduating later were due to fulfilling two semesters worth of a co-op program. 

“The two spring semesters I took the co-op I did not take any classes,” Thomas said. “I received class credit, but I only worked during that time.” 

Thomas said there are some cons for most students, but the cons did not apply to him.

“Definitely some of the cons for most are not really applicable to me because I didn’t have to pay extra tuition,” Thomas said. “I had to pay a little more for co-op, but not as much as if I had been a full-time student during those times. Sometimes it was different being older in my classes, and most people I had come into college with had already graduated before I did.” 

Thomas said he appreciated the benefits of having a co-op. 

“I really enjoyed my college experience and enjoyed having extra time with my classmates I’d met,” Thomas said. “With the co-op I got experience of how the real world would be. I got real work experience outside of class, and I received several internships out of that.”