Planning Time to Graduation
When you are in college, you may be interested in determining the length of time you have until your projected graduation date. This can be helpful for projecting the cost of college, determining how much financial aid you need, determining certain visa requirements, signing a lease in an apartment, or just having an estimated length of time before you need to determine post-graduation plans.
Because of the many reasons a student may want to know their time until graduation, I wanted to dedicate a full post to this topic. There are a few ways to estimate the time remaining until graduation, but in this post, I want to provide details on the best way to confirm your projected timeline.
How to Complete the Quick Calculation
All undergraduate degrees require at least 120 credits to graduate. Usually, the goal is to graduate in 8 total semesters (4 fall and 4 spring). So stated simply:
Example:
Quick Calculation with College Credits Earned
If you have already started college and have some credits earned already, you may want to be able to determine the approximate number of semesters you have remaining to graduate.
Quick Calculation with Pre-Earned Credits Before College
But maybe this calculation is not reflective of your exact standing. If you enter college with AP credits, dual enrollment, transfer, or other pre-earned credits you will need to adjust the formula. If you are entering college with 9 pre-earned credits, the formula for the minimum number of credits you would have to take in a semester would be:
Example:
Quick Calculation When Retaking a Course
On the other hand, if you need to retake a class you have earned credit for because your grade was too low, you should adjust this formula further to accurately reflect your academic standing following the semester in which you retake the course. For instance, sometimes a major may require a grade of C or higher, but by earning a D in a class, you technically earned the credit but still need to retake it for the course to count toward your major’s requirements.
Example:
Although the above formulas can help you quickly determine your time to graduation, I suggest you start to plan classes for a future semester to clearly determine the number of semesters remaining and the credits you will complete each semester. The reason for planning classes is that, depending on course sequencing and when classes are offered, your estimated time to graduation may not be possible.
For example, let’s say you need four levels of language classes for your degree. Almost all language classes are sequential, and you can only take one per semester. This stipulation means that even if you have already earned 75 total credits, despite our quick calculation of your earned credits, you would still need 4 more semesters of classes. By using the calculation above, you can see the potential error:
(Total Credits Required to Earn a Degree - Earned College Credits) / 15 Credits per Semester = Approximate Number of Semesters Remaining
So, (120-75)/15 = 3 semesters remaining
Although, in this case, the student needs 45 more credits (or 3 semesters of 15 credits) to reach 120 total credits, this student will still have 4 semesters remaining to complete the language requirement.
Pro Tip: Check your major requirements to confirm if you need 120 total credits or more than 120 credits in order to graduate. If you are not sure where to check, reach out to your academic advisor to ask how many total credits you need to graduate with your major.
So How Do You Start Planning Classes?
Well, I love a good spreadsheet.
First, you need to know how many credits your degree at your institution requires to meet graduation requirements. All four-year degrees require at least 120 credits, but some require more, and that specific credit amount will have an impact on your planning.
Then, write the names of the current semester in the first row starting in the third column. Fill in future semesters based on the number you calculated using one of the quick formulas detailed above. Next, add the term “so far” in the second column header. Then, in the last row, add a line for total credits. Feel free to create a blank chart similar to the one below.
The “so far” column condenses the courses you have completed so far. It is also a place to enter your already earned college credits, such as AP credits, completed college credits, IB credits, etc.
Then, look up the requirements for your major(s) and minor(s). Personally, I prefer to make a list of every single requirement left and then place them into a spreadsheet. After each registration period, revisit your plan and update the courses in your plan as needed. Make sure to check with your academic advisor along the way to make sure your place is accurate and has no errors.
My Tips
If a class is a retake but you either withdrew, failed, or did not pass originally, your retake will count as newly earned credits. On the other hand, if a class is a retake where you earned credit in the original course, do not add those credits to the “per semester” credit total line.
Second, confirm that your class plan aligns with the class offerings. In the example below, Spanish 101 might only be taught in the fall, meaning you could not add it to your schedule in spring 2024.
Lastly, after you make this tentative plan, check with your academic advisor to confirm if it makes sense, includes all your requirements, and if your timeline is feasible. They may also have other course suggestions or ideas regarding class combinations you have planned for a future semester.
Example: Retake and Need Requirements That Go Past Estimated Time to Graduation Calculation
This above example shows why placing classes in future semesters is the best way to predict the time to graduation. Again, this sample student has 72 earned but needs four semesters of language classes, so, the student will need to complete four semesters to graduate instead of the three semesters that would be calculated with the quick calculation formula. Additionally, the class in pink called “RETAKE:Gen Ed” was not added to the 13 total credits attempted this semester because the course credits are already in the 65 total from a prior semester.
Example: Minimizes Time to Graduation
The above example prioritizes minimizing the time to graduation because the major/minor has more flexibility, the courses left are non-sequential, and a summer semester is added. If the summer semester was not added, in order to help this student graduate in May 2025, they would have to complete more than 15 credits in a spring or fall semester to reach that graduation goal. The example below shows how this same student could complete it by May 2025 without summer credits.
Example: No Summer Courses, More credits Per Fall and Spring
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