2 Extra Years in College Could Cost You Nearly $300,000

Taking six years to get a four-year college degree can cost students up to almost $300,000 in tuition, interest on loans, and forgone income and retirement savings, according to a new study from NerdWallet.

Only 40% of college students receive a bachelor’s degree in four years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Within six years, 60% of bachelor’s degree seekers will receive a diploma.

Those who take out student loans will have a much bigger college debt to pay off if they need more than four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. In addition, taking one or two “victory laps,” as some students jokingly call extra years, can stunt lifelong retirement savings. NerdWallet’s research shows that students who take six years to obtain a bachelor’s degree could miss out on more than $150,000 in retirement savings compounded over 45 years.

Tuition and loan costs

To find out just how much an extended bachelor’s degree is costing students, we looked at a student cohort that began college in 2008 and was set to graduate in 2012 but instead finished in five years or six years, using data provided by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

We started with the average out-of-pocket tuition costs at public and not-for-profit private colleges, as well as the costs of student loans to be paid back at an annual interest rate of 4.9% over the standard 10-year repayment period, to determine the total cost of taking one and two additional years to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. All amounts are adjusted for inflation to reflect 2016 values.

Here’s what we found:

Tuition and loan costs	One extra year, public college	One extra year, private college	Two extra years, public college	Two extra years, private college
Portion of tuition paid out of pocket	$12,557	$18,992	$25,375	$38,115
Cost of a loan, with interest, over 10 years	$6,040	$7,823	$12,080	$15,645
Total cost	$18,598	$26,815	$37,456	$53,760

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