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Undergraduate time to degree

Over 4,000 bachelor's degrees earned in fiscal year 2009 by students entering as new freshman:

• The single most common pattern -- with over 1,600 students -- is entry fall 2005, degree awarded spring 2009. 
• The median elapsed time from entry to degree is 4.0 years -- e.g., entry fall 2005, degree awarded summer 2009, exactly four years later.
• 55% earned their degrees in four years or less. 
• The average elapsed time from entry to degree is 4.3 years -- e.g., entry fall 2004, degree awarded fall 2008.  The average is longer than the median because some students take a very long time, and that affects the average.  For example, 55 entered as freshmen in the 1990's.

Here we present median and mean time to degree, and percentage earning degrees in four years or less, for bachelor's degree recipients in several fiscal years, overall and in various groupings including graduation college and major.

Tables

• MEDIAN time to degree |  ...by college and major
• MEAN time to degree |  ...by college and major
• Percent of bachelor's degree recipients who graduated in four years or less  | ...by college and major
• Reference table with counts of degrees (by year) contributing to the data in the tables | ...by college and major

Methods

• The primary measure is time to degree (TTD) in years for degrees received in a fiscal year (FY 2007 = summer 2006, fall 2006 and spring 2007).  Time is measured in elapsed time, not enrolled time.
• Population of students: Bachelor's degree recipients who entered CU-Boulder in the summer/fall as first-time, full-time freshman (full time = 12+ hours, counted at end of the fall term)
• For all calculations: One elapsed term = 1/3 of year.
   Examples:
• Begin fall YYYY and finished spring YYYY + 4 = 11 elapsed terms (3.7 years)
• Begin fall YYYY and finished summer YYYY + 4 = 12 elapsed terms (4.0 years)
• Begin fall YYYY and finished fall YYYY + 4 = 13 elapsed terms (4.3 years)
• Results are consistent with the CU-Boulder submission to the AAU Data Exchange Undergraduate Time to Degree Survey. However, the AAUDE Survey collects mean time to degree only, not median.  Comparative data for other AAU publics should be available in spring 2009.

Run date 11/09/2009 -- L:\IR\Reports\AAUDE\UG_TTD\ttd10.sas

Last revision 11/09/09