Spring Break
Tuition price cuts for students who graduate on time
Erik Myers
Issue date: 9/25/07 Section: News
Four years has long stood as the traditional time spent during a student's college career, from orientation to graduation. And, CSU students, on average, tend to graduate within those four years closer than neighboring universities.
While this is far from the case at regional universities, CSU-Pueblo has cooked up an offering to encourage its students to graduate earlier, using a tuition discount as an incentive.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education's latest "Higher Education Guide," released in 2005, showed graduation rates for students who had studied at a single university, starting their freshman year in 2001, that at CSU, 33.9 percent of graduates took four years, another 24.7 percent in five years, and 5.1 percent in six years.
There is, however, a different trend shown in universities near the state of Colorado. At the University of Wyoming, 26.2 percent graduated in four years, while 23.9 percent graduated in five years. At the University of Nebraska, 22.6 percent graduated in four years, and 32.5 percent in five years.
Graduation rates were even lower for regional universities, such as CSU-Pueblo: 17.6 percent took four years, 25.7 percent took five years, and 33.9 percent took six.
Russ Meyer, provost of CSU-Pueblo, explains that the student populations of such universities are of a non-traditional sort.
"Our numbers are going to be different from (CSU-Fort Collins') numbers because we have a very different student body," Meyer said. "Our average age here is about 26 or 27 for undergraduates. (CSU-Fort Collins) is closer to 19 or 20, as I recall."
Meyer noted this particular statistic to show that there are a great deal of CSU-Pueblo students who tend to have full-time jobs outside of their classes, therefore available credit hours are limited.
There is, however, a new effort to battle this trend at CSU-Pueblo. To encourage students to graduate in four years, officials offered incoming freshmen the chance to save extra money by doing so; students in the program will receive a return on the tuition for their final semester, or $1,500, if their tuition is above such a rate. Freshmen enrolled in the program are required to sign a contract before their first semester.
While this is far from the case at regional universities, CSU-Pueblo has cooked up an offering to encourage its students to graduate earlier, using a tuition discount as an incentive.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education's latest "Higher Education Guide," released in 2005, showed graduation rates for students who had studied at a single university, starting their freshman year in 2001, that at CSU, 33.9 percent of graduates took four years, another 24.7 percent in five years, and 5.1 percent in six years.
There is, however, a different trend shown in universities near the state of Colorado. At the University of Wyoming, 26.2 percent graduated in four years, while 23.9 percent graduated in five years. At the University of Nebraska, 22.6 percent graduated in four years, and 32.5 percent in five years.
Graduation rates were even lower for regional universities, such as CSU-Pueblo: 17.6 percent took four years, 25.7 percent took five years, and 33.9 percent took six.
Russ Meyer, provost of CSU-Pueblo, explains that the student populations of such universities are of a non-traditional sort.
"Our numbers are going to be different from (CSU-Fort Collins') numbers because we have a very different student body," Meyer said. "Our average age here is about 26 or 27 for undergraduates. (CSU-Fort Collins) is closer to 19 or 20, as I recall."
Meyer noted this particular statistic to show that there are a great deal of CSU-Pueblo students who tend to have full-time jobs outside of their classes, therefore available credit hours are limited.
There is, however, a new effort to battle this trend at CSU-Pueblo. To encourage students to graduate in four years, officials offered incoming freshmen the chance to save extra money by doing so; students in the program will receive a return on the tuition for their final semester, or $1,500, if their tuition is above such a rate. Freshmen enrolled in the program are required to sign a contract before their first semester.
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