toledoblade.com --

Students like Courtney Leonard are no longer catching college leaders by surprise.

They're the ones taking large amounts of credit hours semester after semester. Many start college with credits already in hand. And they have one main mission: to get their degrees in four years or less.

A growing number of students like Ms. Leonard, 19, are quietly gaining ground on those fifth-year and sixth-year college seniors, as four-year graduation rates have been on the rise at many institutions, including the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University.

A desire to enter the work force quicker, coupled with more graduation-related assistance and incentives to students from college and state leaders, has students reaching the finish line at a faster pace because they're motivated by their pocketbooks.

The cost of getting a college degree has been increasing nationwide, and a report released last fall, known as "Measuring Up 2004," gave all but 14 U.S. states failing grades - Ohio and Michigan were among those receiving F's - for not making college affordable for students and families. Tuition increases were capped by the legislature this year in Ohio at 6 percent or $500 - whichever is less.

"I'm sure it's evident to students that if I can take 15, 16, or 17 credit hours, I can avoid next year's price increases," said Rob Sheehan, senior vice provost of academic affairs at UT.

The university's rate for full-time, first-time degree-seeking students has jumped to 21.4 percent from 15.7 over a four-year period.

BGSU has seen a jump in its baccalaureate degree, four-year graduation rate to 34.5 percent from 30 percent in just the past two years.

Ohio State University and the University of Michigan also have reported significant increases. At the Ann Arbor campus, 70 percent of freshmen who started in the fall of 2000 graduated in four years, compared to 61 percent of freshmen from the fall of 1995. At Ohio State, during the same time periods, the number increased to 39 percent from 23 percent.

For Ms. Leonard of Maumee, this phenomenon - one that's being welcomed by college leaders - doesn't seem unusual.

"I don't think anything of it. I take 18 hours, but I'm only here two days. I have a lot of online classes," the University of Toledo student said.

"I just want to get done," she added, citing a future job with her family's company. "It's hard to make sales calls without a degree."

Students at public institutions like UT and BGSU also know they can pile up their course loads all for the same price as taking 12 credit hours, which is considered full-time status.

"Now I see a lot more students taking 16, 18, or 19 hours, so they don't have to have another year of loans, of debt," said Tom Crawford, president of student government at UT.

Mr. Crawford - who's on track to graduate in four years this spring with an engineering degree, typically a five-year program - said students also are motivated for timely graduation because of their scholarship regulations, and he's among them. About five years ago, UT required its scholarship recipients to take 15 credit hours per semester.

"This is a wonderful by-product of that," Mr. Sheehan said of the graduation rates.

At UT, the results of timely graduation have been most apparent to leaders over the past two years, with healthy graduating classes. Last fall, officials cited a larger-than-anticipated class - about 400 more students graduated than they expected - as one reason that fall enrollment was down.

At BGSU, officials also are focusing on four-year graduation rates. Part of their emphasis includes a team approach of quickly tracking down students who fail to register or only partially register in between semesters, said Alberto Gonzalez, vice provost for academic services there.

He also said they work with advisers so the students know if they register for more than 12 credit hours each semester, their chances of graduating in four years are greater. Mr. Gonzalez added, though, that some of the university's degrees take more than four years to complete, but those graduations are still considered timely when they finish in a longer period.

Some of the colleges' efforts are a result of the state's "Success Challenge" program, which provides financial rewards to colleges with greater percentages of students who graduate in a timely manner, usually four years. BGSU received $4.3 million through this distribution in the recent fiscal year, while UT received $3.69 million.

The program specifically rewards the campuses for helping "at-risk" students with their degree completion.

According to a recent BGSU study of its graduating seniors, minority students were more likely than white students to have an extended undergraduate education.

Reasons include that they chose not to enroll for one or more semesters, they transferred to BGSU and needed different courses, or they had financial problems.

While public institutions still struggle to find ways to increase their four-year graduation rates, it's typically much higher at private schools.

Take Bluffton University for example.

Of the students who started and graduated from Bluffton, an average of 86 percent of them in the past four years have done so in a four-year period.

Eric Fulcomer, vice president of enrollment management at Bluffton, said the graduation rate has remained consistent for at least 15 years.

Coupled with aid and scholarships, he believes the high graduation rate is something that ultimately can help to make a private education more affordable than a public one.

"Our goal is to get students out in four years. We work with them very closely, individually, to do that," he said. "It's not a problem we're trying to improve. It's something we've had for a long time that we're trying to continue."

Contact Kim Bates at: kimbates@theblade.com or 419-724-6074.

Permanent Link