How Long Did It Take To Get Your Bachelors Degree?

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I'm still in high school, but I suspect it will be at least 5 years for me. I just do better with a lessened schedule - my marks have gone up over 10% in most subjects since grade 9

My course should have taken 3 years. I started when I was 18 and did my first year. Then I went to a different uni and tried to start a different course but left after a couple of weeks. The following year I went back to the original uni I was at and took my second year. I failed, not on points but because I didn't finish some of the work. I took my second year again. I passed and took the third year. By the end of that year I still hadn't completed so I was allowed to do the remaining assignments as an external student. This took two years.

The whole thing took 7 years, although the year "at" the other uni doesn't count, so really it took six - four taught and two studying at home.

I took the standard 4 years to get my bachelor's; luckily my parents were nice enough to support me so I didn't have to work. Right now I'm working on my master's and working part-time. I have roughly two years to go.

I graduated HS four years ago, and I am working on sophomore year part three right now. I dropped out of university in the middle of my second year, worked for a year, and now I'm at community college taking some classes to transfer to university again. Despite doing 1-1/2 years at community college, I will probably enter university as a sophomore (again).

I am looking at another 2-3 years to finish my Bachelor's, and then my Master's and/or MBA (management is gross but necessary for salary to support my lust for supercars), and I know I want to complete a PhD in some area of Chemistry and/or Physics because I won't be happy unless I am learning and doing research for the rest of my life.

Basically, I am both a genius and a massive screw-up. The best advice I can offer is to have a mentor, someone who will both guide you and get you off your ass when needed. I'm looking for mine now. Stay in school. And for the love of science, do not chase LSD with a tumbler of vodka.

I took my first college class while I was in the military in 1986. I graduated in...oh, goodness, I don't remember. I ought to know that, but I don't. I think my oldest son was about two or three, so that would be 1999 or 2000. So that's 13 or 14 years. The last two years I went full time, at a "normal" pace. Before that, I squeezed in classes when I could, and ended up taking about a zillion classes that never counted for anything.

I never experienced the traditional "go live in a dorm and experience college life", although the military was kind of like that.

I took five years to finish my bachelors degree (plus one year for an internship). It was my thought to take two years to finish my last year of the program in order to obtain better grades for application to graduate school. However, I was involved in a rather serious automobile accident, which resulted in being bedridden for some time, constant migraines and other pains, and inability to concentrate. There went that idea...

In addition, I had rather entangled myself in departmental politics in order to enact change that was desperately required. I along with several other students and a collection of other professors were able to rid the department of its Associate Dean of Student Affairs (whom students had been attempting to rid the department of for ten years), and two professors (one of which was telling select students full solutions to examination problems in the middle of the final exam). I had my group of allies, and my group of enemies. My allies had higher status in the department than my enemies, the head of my portion of the department was an ally ally of mine, and I had a graduate school position promised to me by him, and life was good. I distanced myself from the department politics (so much effort).

Then something happened. I am not certain what or how. However the Head (who had promised me the graduate position) resigned with two weeks notice halfway through the summer preceding my supposed graduate school. The result was that the position promised to me evaporated into thin air, and I needed to submit a formal application. In addition, there was a complete reversal of department status, with my allies now with lesser status, and my enemies with greater status. In particular, the professor now in charge of graduate admissions was one that I had nearly forced out of the department. Needless to say, I did not gain admission.

Upon looking back on it, I am not certain if I would do matters again in the same manner. I enacted a lot of beneficial change. However, the personal expense is too large to ignore. Ah! Life!

It took me five years to finish my undergraduate, but that was partly because I couldn't decide on what to study and kept chopping and changing majors. I was also involved in student activism

Im guessing I'll take 4-5 years. Most probably 4.5. My major is really hard and my school is tough, I have to be careful with how much of a load I have. As in most semesters Im always under the full load credits. My parents told me theres no rush to graduate on time well as long as I dont take 8 years like myn cousin. Going a semester or a year over is fine. Its better for me anyways so I have more opportunities to do more things as an undergrad.

Four years, but it was a four year course. Technically it was an undergraduate masters, not a bachelors anyway. Somehow I ended up being one of the hardworking geeky students (with a lot of reliance on writing everything, even extra reading I wanted to get done, in my student diary and checking it religiously) and I'm just starting a phd now.

I completely agree with VivaLaConfusion about wanting to carry on learning and doing research. Right now I'm hoping to actually go into academia and become a lecturer and researcher. Staying out of the real world seems like the way forward.

Hello

I've changed my major, i left with a DipHE diet and health (diploma of higher education) due to a near breakdown in 2005. Then last September i embarked on my BPhil in autism which im still working on.

So far its taken me 3.5 years and ive got about 1.5 years to go. So that would be around 5 years excluding the time out i had in the middle.

Alexis

It depends on whether you count actual time in coursework or time spent from beginning to end. In actual coursework, it was about six years. In time from start to finish, it was about twenty years.

Rough timeline:

- 1983 I dropped out of high school (slated to graduate in 1985) due to excessive bullying and getting kicked out of my parents' house.

- 1985 I took my G.E.D. (high school equivalency exam). I would have taken it sooner but was told I could only do so with parental permission and otherwise had to wait to take the exam until such time as I would have graduated anyway.

- 1987 I took my first semester of community college. I had been unable to get financial aid because my parents refused to submit their tax returns which meant I would have to wait until I was 25 to submit on my own income unless I joined the military or got married. A very short-lived marriage allowed me to to go school at age 20. But I ended up homeless near the end of the semester so I did not re-enroll for another term.

- 1989 I took my second semester of community college. I didn't finish that semester as I became homeless again, much earlier in the semester this time, and ended up dropping my classes so I could focus more on survival.

- 1990 I enrolled in a college that no longer exists (Watterson College). This was a private college set up on the business-college model and really racked up the financial aid as the school took care of all paperwork for you but in the process signed you up for maximum student loans to pay their overinflated tuition. This was before the new laws that make students watch videos and sign lots of contracts about student loans so I didn't even realize they were doing it since I was just so glad to have someone "hold my hand" through the bureaucratic process.

I was dismayed by the low-level of education (I was in the computer science track and my professor thought I broke something on my computer when I reprogrammed the DOS prompt to say "your command, my lady?" I was so peeved at how she treated me over that, that I reprogrammed the DOS prompt to say something nasty about her, then backspace, then print out the standard DOS prompt. When she tried to say something about it, I pretended not to see it, knowing that she didn't know how to reprogram a DOS prompt and knowing it would drive her nuts trying to figure out what I did yet not being able to do anything to me about it because I kept swearing I didn't see what she was talking about.)

Also, half-way through the semester, a bunch of former Watterson students came on campus to tell everyone in the student lounge that they couldn't get hired because employers just laughed at them (yes, literally laughed at them!) when they told them where they got their education. I got really nervous about what I was doing and didn't return for a second semester.

- 1993, I took a semester at a University. I realized I was pregnant early in the semester. (very pregnant. I'm often bad at being in touch with my body and thus I was many months pregnant before I realized what was going on.) I signed up for the next semester as well, but when my daughter was stillborn, I dropped out and didn't cancel the registration so I got a whole lot of Fs that really worked a number on my GPA (not that I cared about it at the time.)

- 2003, I started at the university I ended up graduating from in 2007. Due to being much more stable, both in emotional development and in physical ability to keep a roof over my head, as well as having developed much deeper insights, self-understanding, and ability to cope and accomodate thanks to a diagnosis of Asperger's in 2001, I was able to go straight through from 2003 to 2007, finishing up with a double bachelor's degree in political science and applied economics. In 2008, I began graduate level classes, which is where I am now.

What I learned: For those of us with difficulties in areas such as executive function, problem-solving ability (particularly solving problems that require enlisting the assistance or co-operation of other humans), meltdown issues, etc. it is crucial to get the rest of one's life reasonably together and find reliable supports (be they people or other resources) before signing up for classes. Too often, college can be that "straw that broke the camel's back", meaning it is the stressor that tips the scales and makes the difference between holding one's life together (however well or poorly) and watching one's life shred apart and fall through one's fingers.

So far, though, I would say that if college is possible at all for one, it is worth the effort. even if I never get to use my education formally to make a living, I have gained important skills and experiences through everything surrounding the overall college experience and am grateful that I have kept trying to push through until I finally succeeded.

Sparrow

Welcome to WP!

Thank you. I've been reading for a while and finally decided to come the rest of the way in.

Sparrow

Welcome Sparrow from your friend Alexis!

Personally education gave me a reason to live at times. i haven't been through homelessness like yourself so that could be possibly why it worked for me. However it has been much easier to get my coursework done in my own home than my Grans.

i hear that you can get psych support in the US for an aspergers diagnosis? We don't get that here, but education is much further along in regards to services (at least IME) than our health care system. i mean for disability access since i was able to access educational testing that helped me identify my dyslexia whilst i was at university. i have sometimes enrolled on an education course just so i can get some extra support to keep me going.

Social support in my area of the UK Bristol is however a lot better compared to the rest of the country. Probably helped by the fact that the NAS employed Andrew Powell, in 1999 who identified a need of adult social groups as well as other services. 10 years later and despite being funded by DoH this report is being ignored. i got my comments taken off the DoH website on this matter (in the autism discussion groups of all people) sounds like the DoH doesn't want to admit "er we messed up".

To be frank if i had waited until those services were in place before i went to university then i wouldn't be in my own place today. Going to university gave me a taste of independence at my pace and control so in 2005 i started the "i want to move out please help me" process with relatives help.

Alexis

I'm working on my associates degree right now. Technically, I should have been able to finish it this semester, but I've been taking a lot of electives that just sounded like fun but don't help me toward completing it while I try to figure out exactly what I want to do (I'm in a program for students who are planning on transferring anyway and haven't actually declared a major - I keep changing my mind about what I want to do with my life, but don't want to be one of those people who constantly change majors). I'm looking into a bachelor's degree program for computer science and engineering technology, but I'm going to think that over while I finish my associates degree before I decide.

I've been at my current community college since fall 2008, but I was in the Tech Prep program at a different college when I was in high school from Fall 2006-Spring 2008. So essentially it's taking me 4 years just to get my associates degree.

Five years for my Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering. Five's pretty normal for this degree (it requires more credits than any other major), but I could have done it in 4 had I not decided to go to a community college to get the bulk credits out of the way (Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, etc.), since $1000 a year for tuition sounded better than $15-25k per year. Now I'm getting my Master's, that should take a little under two years. Then I may eventually get my PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and that's another 2-4 years.