Smaller course loads costly to students

Study: Taking 6 years to graduate means lower returns

Jordan Wolfe left high school with advanced placement and honors classes under his belt, and a solid GPA. That made it all the more surprising when his Youngstown State University adviser recommended he take 12 credit hours his first semester.

Looking back, the fourth-year political science major says his adviser should have recommended a larger course load — given that students need to average 15 credit hours a semester to graduate within four years.

Students at Ohio universities often take less than the needed credit hours to graduate on time. For instance, 48 percent of full-time students at Wright State University took a course load between 12 and 14 credit hours in the fall of 2015. At Ohio State University, that figure was 35 percent.

Not only will that mean those students will take longer to graduate, the return on the investment of their college education will go down. The longer it takes to graduate the more it costs, and the longer it takes to recoup those costs.

Meanwhile, most graduates at local colleges and universities take more than four years to graduate. At Wright State, just 18 percent of its students graduate within four years. That figure moves to 41 percent by year six.

“We have to understand some students truly do have circumstances, such as a job, children, they’re a caregiver or they have learning difficulties which means they can only do 12 to 14 credit hours per semester,” said Rep. Mike Duffey, R-Worthington, the chair of the Ohio House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education. “But there are a good number of students who are just unfocused. The social life of college has taken over and maybe they don’t have a family that is holding them accountable.”

Costly decision

Taking an extra year or two to graduate doesn’t come without cost. A 2014 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that students who take six years to graduate receive about 40 percent lower returns from their degrees.

That’s because two more years in college means more tuition and housing costs, two years of lost wages and fewer raises throughout a graduate’s career.

“Students often don’t realize that it’s more than just the direct out-of-pocket expenses that goes into staying in college longer than four years,” said Richard Deitz, a researcher at the New York Fed.

In addition, six-year graduates typically leave with more debt. As an example, students who graduate within four years at the University of Texas-Austin leave on average with $19,000 in student loan debt. The university’s six-year graduates typically leave with $32,000.

“For students who require five or six years to graduate, the value of a bachelor’s degree no doubt remains substantial, but staying on in college certainly takes a financial toll,” wrote the New York Fed researchers.

Varying pricing models

Colleges vary on how they charge for tuition, and some say that’s part of the problem. Some schools charge by individual credit hour, which can serve as a disincentive to take a larger course load that would shorten the amount of time needed for a degree. Others, like Wright State University, charge students the same amount for 18 credit hours as they do for 11.

That can work as an incentive for students, but those who don’t take advantage of the pay structure are leaving credit hours on the table. For example, under that model the student who takes 11 credit hours is paying the same as the student who takes 18.

In a report released this month, researchers at Ohio University’s Center for College Affordability and Productivity found that students at colleges that charge for each credit hour typically have 5 percent lower four-year graduation rates than schools that have pricing models like Wright State’s.

David Holman, a researcher at Ohio University, said models like Wright State’s encourage students to take larger course loads, and thus improve the odds of a quicker return on the cost of their college education. (This only works if they can handle the additional load.)

In September the Ohio Department of Higher Education sent a memo to Ohio public universities, informing the schools that they need to change their pricing model to the “12 to 18” model, and this fall Kent State, Youngstown State and three other universities implemented that model.

Holman says his research shows that Ohio students are already starting to take more classes. For instance, in the fall of 2014, Kent State had 1,828 students taking either 17 or 18 credit hours. This fall that number rose to 3,211.

In total, Holman says, the credit hour change cost Kent State around $3 million in lost revenue per year.

Wolfe wishes that option at Youngstown State was available to him sooner.

“I missed out on that for three years,” he said. “I would probably have graduated a semester early (if Youngstown State had implemented the change his freshman year) because theoretically I could have taken an extra hour or two every semester. If I stuck to the four-year route, I could have gotten a double major or an extra minor.”

Yet higher education experts say pricing models aren’t the only reason students don’t take more classes.

“There a lot of kids in college these days that aren’t necessarily there for what college use to be. Some students go just to go. Some do it just because it’s the next logical stepping stone, and then don’t worry about taking the necessary amount of classes,” Holman said.

Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said she’s long wondered how college went from a four-year to a six-year experience.

“I couldn’t ever figure out why it takes some people as long as it does,” said Lehner, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

Lehner and Duffey both said changing the state’s financing of higher education from headcount to performance-based, should encourage universities to get students out the door faster.

In addition, they point to plans put forward by Ohio public colleges and universities in October as another way to help cut costs and improve graduation rates. The college’s plans included an outline for how they intend to create at least a 5 percent cost savings for students — a provision added into the state budget.

Wright State offered up the idea of a tuition rebate. Here’s how it will work: If a student completes 24 credit hours in a given fall and spring semester, they would earn a 20 percent discount on a course the following summer semester. That represents a possible savings of $945 over four years.

Wright State has said the plan would encourage students to take more classes.

Better advice sought

Students rely on advisers to steer them onto the right path, and no one wins if an overloaded student flunks out.

But Wolfe and others say some students should be pushed to take on a more demanding load.

Wolfe said he took 14 credit hours his first semester, after his adviser recommended that he take 12. To catch up, he then took an overload of credit hours his next semester, and wasn’t happy with his grades.

“I don’t think they (advisers) had a good concept of my transcripts from high school,” he said. “They didn’t know if I could handle the college course load. It affected my grades because I took 18 credits hours the next semester — courses I wasn’t ready for — so I could stay on pace to graduate within four years.”

Holman says he fears that colleges don’t do enough to explain to students that taking fewer than 15 credit hours could mean an extra semester or two of college.

Wolfe agrees and points to Youngstown State’s low graduation rate as evidence that students aren’t getting the guidance they need.

“There are other factors that go into it, like nontraditional students who attend college and so on, but for traditional students, I think the college needs to give better individual advice,” he said.

“I know a lot of students who do just take 12 credit hours a semester. It makes sense why so many people take six years to graduate.”

About the Author