If you don t work part time and you can go to summer school, you can graduate in four years, other than that, it s very, very hard. The colleges with the best graduation rates remain the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary, at 91 and 88 percent, respectively. Students who go to William and Mary and the University of Virginia are academically prepared, Palmiero said. At some other colleges, students may be less prepared or they may have more challenges paying for school. So they re going to be dropping in and out, and taking fewer courses.
Academics say Virginia s figures are in line with nationwide results.
ACT Inc., an education organization in Iowa, surveys 450 public four-year colleges. It says the five-year graduation rate has fallen from 48.5 percent in 1987 to 42.2 percent in 1999. It does not compute six-year rates, as Virginia does. Neither compiles four-year rates. Krista Harrell hopes to graduate from ODU in May, five years after she started.