Thousands of Eastern Michigan University students have applied to receive degrees at the spring 2025 commencement ceremonies in April. The university has awarded an average of 3,925 degrees each spring for the past five years. For many of those students, the college journey began more than the traditional four years ago.
In a 2024 university data book, Eastern Michigan reported that 46% of the students who first enrolled in 2018 had received their degrees by 2024. That six-year graduation rate is a common measurement tool among universities across the United States.
The National Center for Education Statistics, a federal agency that collects education data, reported that among first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree at four-year, degree-granting institutions in the fall 2014 across the United States, 64 percent finished their degree within six years.
As for graduating in four years, the Center reported that the graduation rate for those who entered college in 2009 and received degrees in 2013 was 39.8%.
Years of similar data have led education experts to focus on the six-year rates. EMU's six-year graduate rate is about 47%. Among the 2,588 first-time students who enrolled full-time in the fall of 2014, there were 1,215 who received a degree by 2020.
A nonprofit group called Complete College America, based in Indianapolis, noted in a 2014 report that on-time or four-year graduation rates "have become little more than modern myths for far too many of our students." Founded in 2009, the organization advocates for changes that would improve those four-year rates, chiefly because it would make college more affordable.
"Four years in college is a lot less expensive than five or six," the organization stated in the 2014 report titled Four Year Myth. "Hands down, our best strategy to make college more affordable and a sure way to boost graduation rates overall is to ensure that many more students graduate on time."
The report also acknowledges the right of student choice in the elements that can delay graduation, such as changes in area of study, the need for students to work while attending class, unpredictable class schedules, uninformed choices for majors, the need for prerequisite classes and course credit transfer policies.
April Calkovsky, a career coach at EMU’s Advising and Career Development Center, said students shouldn't worry because employers do not care how long it took to earn a degree.
“On a resume, a person should only list when they expect to finish rather than listing your start and end dates,” Calkovsky said. “If an employer has an online application portal and it requires listing the start and end dates, then you’ll list those dates correctly, but it is not a negative.”
Lahleh Walker, a sophomore at EMU, said all students are on their own journey to getting a degree, and timing isn't the most important goal.
“As long as someone is on the path to get their degree, that’s what matters, not if they get it done within the ideal four years,” Walker said. “I think people put a negative stigma on that when it should be normalized.”
Mikayla Squirewell, on the other hand, entered EMU through the university's Early College Alliance program and said she supports the four-year graduation goal. The early college program helps students attain that goal by allowing them to take college courses toward a degree while they're still in high school.
“The longer you wait, the harder it is to obtain your degree because life happens," Squirewell said. "People get married, have kids, end up having to work more hours and that clashes with the steps it takes to obtain your degree."
Squirewell will earn her associate's degree in April, the end of this semester. She said the key to graduating in four years is pursuing a major that sparks interest, therefore making it easier to stick with the program and get the requirements completed on time.
That's also a recommendation from the Complete College America group, which suggested that universities need procedures that helps students stay on track.
"Students should be given a structure designed to empower their decisions and guide their academic trajectory," the group's 2014 report stated. "All students should be scheduled to maintain steady progress on their chosen path. Random acts of enrollment should be replaced with deliberate and directed advancement toward degrees."
The most recent graduation rate data provided by EMU’s Institutional Research and Information Management 2024 data book reported on first-time college students who entered in 2018. The full-time cohort consisted of 2,375 students who were admitted in fall 2018. From this group, 1,103 graduated by 2024.
EMU offers students a number of resources to help them plan that degree program, from academic advisors to career counselors and tutoring. Many of the resources are listed on the university website's Student Success page. The university also offers assistance through the Holman Success Center in room G04 in the Halle Library.
