The University of California has been tracking a steady rise in the number of students graduating in three years instead of four.
A new San Francisco Chronicle report linked the trend to undergraduate students’ fiscal concerns, as well as the rise in high school advanced placement and dual enrollment programs.
“Since 1999, the freshman three-year graduation rate has risen from 1.8% to 6.4%,” according to University of California data. “The largest increases occurred between the 2016 and 2018 entering cohorts.”
The public university system also noted “significant differences” between some demographic groups, “with first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients less likely to graduate within three years.”
The Chronicle reports more:
Abigail Francisco arrived at UC Berkeley a year ago, fresh out of high school. One year from now, she’ll be a senior preparing to graduate.
It doesn’t take a math degree from the University of California to figure out that Francisco, 19, will earn her college degree after just three years in school.
“Really excited — and really relieved” is how Francisco described the moment she realized that the academic credits she had accumulated in high school would be enough to shave off an entire year of college.
In a world that relishes hot new trends of all kinds, scoring a UC degree in just three years — and saving a year of tuition and expenses — is one of the hottest.
Francisco will save more than $45,000 — the annual cost of books, housing, meals and in-state tuition, which she pays in full. Out-of-state residents who zip through UC in three years save about $86,000.
The prospect of all that cash in hand has become increasingly tempting to brainy UC students who don’t mind extra hours in the library and are good at planning ahead. Most begin accumulating college credits while still in high school.
