{"id":184136,"date":"2022-04-12T07:45:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T11:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=184136"},"modified":"2022-04-12T07:54:02","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T11:54:02","slug":"uconn-students-completing-their-degrees-at-fastest-rate-among-all-peer-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/04\/uconn-students-completing-their-degrees-at-fastest-rate-among-all-peer-institutions\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Students Completing Their Degrees At Fastest Rate Among All Peer Institutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

While most of their counterparts elsewhere are still finishing up their college careers, the average UConn student has already graduated and is putting their degree to work in their fledgling career or graduate school.<\/p>\n

According to new data, UConn students receive their undergraduate degrees in 4.1 years on average, making it among five universities tied for the fastest time-to-degree rate in rankings of 58 peer public research institutions.<\/p>\n

That means UConn students save money by avoiding the need to enroll for extra semesters, and can begin earning salaries or entering advanced degree programs before many of their peers.<\/p>\n

And despite graduating more quickly than many students elsewhere, UConn students are still receiving valuable experiential learning opportunities such as serving internships, conducting research as undergraduates, and studying overseas through UConn Education Abroad.<\/p>\n

UConn identifies those and other kinds of experiential learning activities as \u201chigh-impact practices\u201d in its work to maximize retention and graduation, saying they\u2019re critical to keeping students engaged as they persevere toward their degrees.<\/p>\n

Those practices and programs are also a key part of UConn\u2019s mission to provide life-transformative education<\/a> to every student, ensuring their experiences inside and outside of the classroom have a lasting positive impact long after they\u2019ve graduated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a point of pride that UConn students graduate at the fastest rate among peer institutions, but what\u2019s equally important is that they receive an abundance and diversity of opportunities for experiential learning during that time,\u201d Interim President Radenka Maric says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe strongly that students should never have to choose between graduating on time and participating in these kinds of life-transformative experiences. Through intentional and strategic planning, UConn ensures they can do both,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The speedy time to graduation is also important to students and their families because it helps them avoid the need to stay extra semesters to complete required credits, which helps make UConn more affordable, she says.<\/p>\n

This can be particularly critical for low-income students and others who want the full benefit of a robust UConn experience but also want to quickly enter their chosen field and build their earning power without lingering education expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is also part of the broader conversation about affordability and access. To have our students be in the position to receive their bachelor\u2019s degree in 4.1 years is truly exceptional,\u201d says UConn Board of Trustees Chairman Daniel Toscano \u201987 (BUS).<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s time-to-graduation figure of 4.1 years also marks an improvement from the 4.2-year average that UConn students previously experienced \u2013 also an impressive figure, and one that had still placed it among the best in that metric.<\/p>\n

UConn officials attribute the time-to-degree success to several initiatives to which students have access before they are even enrolled \u2013 such as the ability to earn UConn credits while in high school \u2013 and which continue throughout their college careers in academic, social, and support programming.<\/p>\n

Those high-impact practices were inventoried in a 2018 report by UConn\u2019s Retention & Graduation Taskforce<\/a>, and are among the kinds of activities proven by research to reinforce student success.<\/p>\n

These practices include global learning, the First-Year Experience seminars, undergraduate research opportunities, internships, Learning Communities, capstone projects and courses, community-based service learning, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of the research, we know that high-impact practices make a difference in the success and experience of our students,\u201d says Nathan Fuerst, UConn\u2019s vice president for enrollment planning and management.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we emerge from two years in which the pandemic required more opportunities to be virtual than in person, we are more deliberate that ever in ensuring that our students have access to these opportunities that drive life-transformative education at UConn,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Other factors that contribute to the UConn\u2019s strong 4.1-year \u201ctime-to-degree\u201d metric include transfer-credit pathways established with the state\u2019s regional universities and community colleges; academic support programs to help students get over bumps that might otherwise slow them down; and others.<\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s first-year students also often come to the University with credits from its highly successful Early College Experience (ECE) program. Thousands of high school juniors and seniors take UConn classes yearly and receive credits through that program, learning in their own schools from teachers who\u2019ve been certified as UConn adjunct faculty members.<\/p>\n

Many students also enter UConn with credits they earned by performing well on the College Board\u2019s Advanced Placement exams. Some also take courses during UConn\u2019s intersession and summer sessions, or enroll in more courses than their peers during regular semesters.<\/p>\n

Nathan Wetherell \u201922 (ENG), who will enter Pratt & Whitney\u2019s Manufacturing Engineering Development Program when he graduates, was part of the University Scholar Program, a peer mentor in engineering, and other activities during his four years. He says juggling the various activities was worth it, and that he received strong support along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy UConn experience has been great,\u201d says Wetherell, of South Windsor. \u201cWhile COVID put a damper on my sophomore and junior year, my professors and advisors have been great in helping me stay on track as I navigated all of the professional and academic commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advice and guidance I\u2019ve received along the way have culminated in reaching all of my senior year milestones such as finishing up Senior Design, finding a job after graduation, completing my University Scholar project, and submitting my Honors thesis,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn students receive their undergraduate degrees in 4.1 years on average<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":177100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2235,2227,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1932],"class_list":["post-184136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 16:12:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184145,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184136\/revisions\/184145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/177100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184136"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=184136"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=184136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}