Get your kid to graduate in 4 years

To graduate on time, see that your child takes at least 15 credits per semester.

(Money Magazine)

You should be so lucky.

Most students take five to six years to earn an undergraduate degree, the Department of Education reports. That adds about $35,000 to the sticker price of attending a typical in-state public university and much more to the cost of most private colleges.

These moves will help your child get to the finish line in four years.

Pick a supportive school

Colleges with much-better-than-average graduation rates -- look for 50% and up at public colleges, 70% at private schools -- often have adopted strategies to help students finish in four years, says Tom Sugar of Complete College America, which works to boost the number of Americans with degrees.

Related: Colleges offer four-year graduation guarantees

Among them: capping graduation requirements for most majors at 120 credit hours; making sure students aren't crowded out of required courses; and identifying kids in danger of falling behind early on and assigning advisers to help them.

Still unproved are the graduation "guarantees" that a growing number of schools offer -- essentially, if your kid doesn't earn a degree in four years, the remaining tuition is on us. Be skeptical, Sugar says.

To identify schools with superior track records, search for your target college's four-year grad rate at collegeresults.org. Then hit the "similar colleges" tab to find competitors with better outcomes.

Don't lighten the load

Your student's first college math lesson: Divide the 120 credits typically required for graduation into eight academic semesters, and he'll see that he needs to take at least 15 credits per semester, not the minimum 12 usually allowed.

To make sure Junior has plenty of time for academics, have him limit jobs to 12 hours or less a week.

Related: Guide to college savings plans

Changing majors, which can involve a new set of required courses, may also set a student back. A possible solution: Go with a related major that will accept many of his existing credits.

Get back on track cheaply

If a change of major or overcrowded courses threaten to delay graduation, your child may be able to fulfill requirements by taking summer or community college classes or a growing number of accredited online tests and courses.

Hundreds of colleges give credit for passing grades on the College Board's 33 College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests or the competing DSST's 38 exams. Cost: $80 per test.

Traditional colleges have been slow to grant credit for online or alternative tests or courses, so students should check with their registrar and department head before committing time or money to an off-campus class.

How the biggest schools stack up

Four-year graduation rates at the nation's largest colleges vary widely. Opting for a school where most students get their degree on time can save thousands.

Largest private colleges for "A" students
	School Name	Four-year grad rate	Annual cost of attendance	% getting grants
	Notre Dame	90.0%	$57,800	61%
	Georgetown	88.9	60,100	51
	U. of Pennsylvania	88.6	59,600	48
	Boston College	87.2	59,000	47
	Harvard	87.1	59,000	70
	Duke	86.8	59,300	54
	Northwestern	86.3	60,840	56
	Cornell	85.9	59,600	55
	Washington U. (St. Louis)	85.9	62,600	48
	Vanderbilt	85.1	61,600	61
	Columbia	84.6	62,600	53
	Emory	82.4	58,200	57
	New York University	79.3	62,900	55
	Stanford	78.4	59,800	60
	U. of Southern California	71.7	60,000	62
Largest private colleges for "B" students
	School name	Four-year grad rate	Annual cost of attendance	% getting grants
	Syracuse	71.6%	$55,600	71%
	Loyola Marymount	71.1	56,900	86
	Quinnipiac	69.9	54,000	84
	Ithaca College	69.5	53,600	88
	Duquesne	63.3	42,800	100
	U. of St. Thomas	61.2	46,600	97
	U. of Dayton	58.1	46,200	98
	U. of San Francisco	55.8	56,600	70
	Texas Christian U.	54.1	48,300	69
	Baylor	50.4	51,200	96
	Howard	47.8	41,500	68
	DePaul	47.6	47,000	88
	The New School	47.4	58,100	97
	Hofstra	43.8	54,000	91
	St. John's (New York)	36.4	55,500	95
Nation's largest public universities
	School name	Four-year grad rate	Annual cost (in-state)	% getting grants
	U. of Ill. Urbana-Champaign	67.4%	$29,000	46%
	Penn. State (main campus)	62.3	28,100	37
	U. of Florida	59.4	20,600	98
	U. of Wash., Seattle	53.9	26,100	33
	U. of Texas, Austin	52.5	24,900	54
	Florida State	50.2	21,000	95
	U. of Wisconsin, Madison	49.7	24,200	55
	Indiana U., Bloomington	49.5	23,100	53
	Ohio State (main campus)	48.6	24,900	70
	Michigan State	48.5	24,700	48
	Texas A&M	46.2	20,900	61
	U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities	45.8	24,700	88
	Perdue (main campus)	38.1	23,500	47
	U. of Central Florida	34.8	20,300	95
	Arizona State	32.3	23,000	83

NOTES: "A" schools reported their students scored an average of at least 1300 on the math and reading SATs (90th percentile and up); "B" schools reported their students scored 1080 to 1200 (61st to 80th percentiles). Costs are for 2012--13 and include tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, and miscellaneous expenses; percentage getting grants includes scholarships.
SOURCE: Collegeresults.org, Department of Education, individual colleges

First Published: March 6, 2013: 6:03 AM ET

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