The type of institution a student attends and the challenges they encounter along the way can play a role in how long it takes them to graduate from college.
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Of the 2.33 million undergraduates who earned bachelor’s degrees in the 2024–25 academic year, most did so in four years or fewer, according to data released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. But the disaggregated data shows that Black, Hispanic and Native American students often took longer than that, as did adult students and those who transferred, attended part-time, went to for-profit institutions or stopped out during their education.
NSCRC’s Time to Degree report shows that just 44 percent of Black undergraduates who earned a bachelor’s degree in the 2024–25 academic year did so in four years or fewer, compared to about 62 percent of white students and 67 percent of Asian students.
At the same time, it took 195,000 of the 2024–25 graduates —or 13.5 percent—seven or more years to earn their degree. That figure includes about 25 percent of all Black and Native American students who earned a degree, 18 percent of Hispanic students, and 12 percent of white students.
The type of institution a student attended and the challenges they encountered along the way also played a role in how long it took them to graduate. Students who transferred from a community college to a public four-year institution took an average of 5.3 years to graduate, while those who attended three or more institutions and landed at a public four-year college took an average of 6.7 years.
Every time a student stopped out for longer than four months, their time to completion grew; if they stopped out twice, it took seven years, three times took 9.7 years and four or more times took an average of 15.9 years to earn a bachelor’s degree at a public four-year college, the data showed.
“Students’ pathways through college matter for how long it takes to earn a credential,” Matthew Holsapple, senior director of research at the National Student Clearinghouse, said in a statement. “Most students complete their first credential in less than four years, but disruptions along the way can impact how long it takes for them to finish.”
The latest report represents only students who earned a degree. Previous NSCRC reports have shown that not all students graduate from college, and that an estimated 43 million adults have attended some college but never earned a degree or credential.
