Complex pathways lengthen time to completion

The median time it takes community college students to earn an associate degree is 2.9 years. For those earning a certificate at a community college, it’s 2.3 years.

Those are among the findings in a new National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report on time to degree for baccalaureates, associate degrees and undergraduate certificates for first-time credential earners based on 2024-25 academic year data.

What stands out in the report is that about one-quarter of community college students take seven or more years to attain their degree — the same for community college students earning certificates.

While the bulk of community college students earn their degree in two to three years (45.2% combined), and another 18.9% do so in four to five years, for 24.4% it takes seven years or more.

For community college students earning a certificate, 29.8% do so in one year, with another 30.4% doing so in two to three years. For 25.2%, it takes seven years or more.

The longer time-to-degree/credential is mainly due to the complex pathways students take, said Matthew Holsapple, senior director of the NSC Research Center.

“Disruptions along the way can impact how long it takes for them to finish,” he said in a release about the findings.

What are those complexities and disruptions? The main culprit across all higher education sectors was stop-outs, but attending multiple institutions, transferring and enrollment intensity were all factors, the report shows.

For example, full-time students earn their degrees faster than part-time students. Students who attend exclusively full-time complete in 1.7 years, compared to predominantly full-time (2.3 years), predominantly part-time (6.7 years), exclusively part-time (3.9 years) and a mixture of both (2.7 years).

The findings are parsed by dual enrollment, transfer from a community college, institutional count (the number of institutions attended), number of stop-outs, completion at the same institution and prior degrees. Bottom line: The more institutions a student attends for their first credential and the more a student stops out, the longer it takes them to earn an associate degree or certificate, the data show.

Researchers also looked at demographics. For associate-degree earners, the median time-to-degree was shortest for Asian and White students (2.8 and 2.9 years, respectively) and longest for Black students (4.5 years). Hispanics and multiracial students completed in 3.2 and 3.3 years, respectively.

Among degrees, students in health professions took the longest to earn an associate degree (4.9 years), followed by computer and information/support services (3.6 years), then education (3.3 years) and business, management, marketing and related support (3.3 years). The other listed majors hovered around 2.7 years to 2.9 years.

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