Graduating does not count as dropping out. Since a 4 year degree does not require completion within 4 years, it makes sense to extend the statistics longer. That way you include people who tried to spend extra time to be able to graduate.
How do US universities work with regards to this? In the UK you don't really need to pass anything to graduate. I've got a BA (Hons), the BA I got for showing up, the (Hons) indicates I actually passed something.
Second I would guess the vast majority of drop outs are within the first 6 months? How many people are going to waste 6 years for nothing?
Somebody needs a pair of math classes to meet the requirements. They ignore it for 3 years. They then begin a 2-semester sequence of really basic math that is pretty much 7th grade (12 year old) level. They drop the first class, tray again and fail, and then pass. They fail the second class, fail the second class again, fail it yet again, and then are prohibited from attempting it because there is a limit of 3 attempts.
> How do US universities work with regards to this? In the UK you don't really need to pass anything to graduate.
In the US you have to maintain both satisfactory overall GPA to not be dismissed and pass a required set of classes (which may include a number of electives) in order to graduate.
Not necessarily. The reasons people drop out are family emergency, cost, personal emergency, and not being able to deal with the workload. Most of these reasons don't necessarily cluster in the first 6 months.
