The fastest way to increase the cost of attending college is to graduate in more than four years. The longer it takes a student to graduate, the greater the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses. And, the longer it takes to start earning money. One way to graduate on time, or even early, is to maximize pass-fail credits.
Most colleges have some sort of grading option that allows a student to take a class for credit but not a grade. The only notation on a transcript is whether or not the student passed; there’s no grade associated with the course. The idea is to encourage students to take classes that they might not otherwise because they don;t have to worry about their GPA.
There are many reasons why students don’t graduate in four years, but one is that the amount of credits needed to be “full time” for financial aid status is different from the number needed to be “full time” for four-year graduation. In general, taking 12 credit hours of classes a semester will allow a student to maintain financial-aid eligibility, but it usually takes eight semesters with 15 credit hours each to graduate in four years.
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I teach, a student needs 120 credit hours to graduate. Full-time tuition covers 12 to 18 credit hours. It takes 10 semesters to graduate on a 12-hour per semester schedule; 8 semesters taking 15 hours; and just under 7 semesters taking 18 hours. Of these 120 credit hours, up to 21 may be taken on a pass-fail basis to a maximum of one non-major course per term.
Many students opt for a lower course load because it will be easier, even though it will cost more money. By using all the pass-fail credits allowed, a student can take a heavier course load without a significant increase in difficulty. That makes it easier to take 15 credits instead of 12 or 18 credits instead of 15, allowing you to graduate on time or even early.
That’s a sweet deal, isn’t it? And it’s one that many colleges offer.
