By CNNMoney

Filed under: College, College Savings Plans, Education

By KIM CLARK

Now that the average college freshman takes more than five and a half years to graduate, a growing number of colleges are trying to entice students with guarantees that they will finish in four years — or the extra tuition will be free.

But most of these four-year guarantees come with fine print that can disqualify many applicants, such as requiring students who sign up for the program freshman year to declare and stick to a major all four years, take inconvenient classes or forgo study abroad. In addition, even the most generous of the guarantees only offer to cover tuition after the fourth year — students still have to pay for dorm and living costs.

To qualify for a guarantee program, students are typically required to complete at least 30 credits each academic year, meet regularly with advisors, and take required courses.

In return, the colleges typically promise to help students finish in four years by eliminating roadblocks to graduation, such as reducing overcrowding, lowering the number of credits required to graduate, and creating standard four-year plans that can easily be followed. If school-caused delays prevent a student who signs up for a guarantee from finishing in four years, the college promises to pay for any extra courses they need.

Last year, for example, the University at Buffalo launched its “Finish in 4” free-tuition guarantee, and added 30,000 extra seats in bottleneck courses to help ensure students could meet their requirements.

The moves attracted hundreds of new applicants, says vice provost Scott Weber. “We had one of our largest freshmen enrollments this fall,” he said.

But some colleges offering these guarantees aren’t making the reforms needed to help students finish on time.

“I would be shocked if [these guarantees were] anything more than a marketing strategy” at schools where a majority of the students take longer than four years to graduate, said Tom Sugar, vice president of Complete College America, a nonprofit that works with states to raise graduation rates.

Some colleges are setting requirements so high that they are discouraging or disqualifying students from taking advantage of the guarantees.

At the California State University, San Bernardino, where only 13% of freshmen finish in four years, priority enrollment and free tuition after four years is only given to students who have committed to a major and the guarantee program before the start of their freshman year.

Officials at the University of Maine at Farmington blamed a low signup rate for its four-year guarantee (only 75 of the school’s approximately 480 freshmen signed on last fall) on a contract that was “two-page, dense, and filled with legalese” says associate provost Robert Lively.

Last fall, the school drafted a shorter and simpler contract that it is now promoting to applicants.

Whether or not four-year graduation guarantees actually help students graduate …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance