Is Graduating in Four Years Still a Reality?

Graduating In Four Years: Fact or Fiction?

The bleachers are up, the all-nighters have ended and the final papers have been submitted. Some students from the class of 2011 can finally say they have completed their undergraduate career. But other members of the senior class still have a semester or a year left to go.

The inside joke at Howard University is that it takes four to five years to graduate, and to some, that joke is their reality. In 2006 70.3 percent of students completed four years of college, compared to 68.7%, the national retention rate for a four year private institution. But of that 70.3 percent only 41.3 percent went on to graduate.

Senior pre-physical therapy major Ben Thomas came to Howard in 2007 and was set to graduate this May, but will be around for another year because he took Fall 2009 semester off.

"It's hard, seeing my friends graduate and go on without me, but everyone has their own life path. I needed to take time off," Thomas said.

Thomas went back to his home in Orange, NJ to deal with family issues and returned to school Spring 2011 to finish in May 2012

"It did hold me back from graduating on time, but I couldn't deal with the stress of school and the family issues I had going on," said Thomas.

Some students aren't ready to finish school in four years, due to personal issues and don't have a problem with staying in school longer but other's somewhat look down on graduating in more than four years.

Senior advisor to the President of Academic Affairs Dr. Alvin Thornton believes that graduating in four years is possible "because so many students nationwide, at Howard and at HBCUs do just that."

"We (Howard University) do a reasonably good job. We always want to have the (graduation and retention) rates to be high. We always want to improve. Even though we are doing better than most schools in the nation, we still want rates to increase," said Dr.Thornton.

Howard University's plan to implement factors that will assist students to graduate on time including timely and affective academic planning, adequate financial support and effective mentoring programs outside the classroom and extra-curricular activities, to name a few.

Beyond administration, it also helps for students to surround themselves with peers that support their academic goals.

Graduating Senior Audio Production major Tiffany Flowers has gone through a lot during her final year at Howard, but looks at those situations and uses it as a learning experience.

"I stressed a lot. I had a panic attack in October and to minimize that, I went to the counseling center (in the School of Communications). It's free and it was a big help. It helped me not to experience that again. It not only helped me during school but prepare me for after graduation," said Flowers.

Being in school longer than expected can be tense situation but the remaining class of 2011 should remember the reason why they are at Howard: to get their degree.