How Long Does It Take to Graduate from Ole Miss?

It’s been said that being a student at Ole Miss is the best six to eight years of your life. That joke is a reality for some students.

Ole Miss biology student Sydney Holland is in her senior year at The University of Mississippi, and making it this far was not that easy. As a freshman, she had heard about the difficulties of intro biology courses. She didn’t think she would make it.

“My first test, we all like pretty much bombed them,” Holland recalled. “And so I remember calling home to my dad and being like I am not smart enough for this; I can’t do it. And he was like Sydney it’s who can put up with it the longest, just keep putting foot in front of foot.”

She made it. She was recently accepted to dental school and is now one semester shy of doing what many students can’t – completing the Ole Miss biology program in four years.

“From the beginning I have always just been like I need to get it done in four years,” Holland said. “Because I have at least four more years after this, if not way longer, because of residencies.”

For some students the academic path takes a little longer to travel. More than 500 Ole Miss seniors who enrolled in fall 2011 did not graduate last spring. Just under 5 percent of the students on that list were B.S. Biology majors, 3.8 percent were Pre Pharmacy and 3.2 percent were B.A. Biology.

Paul Lago is chair of the biology department on campus. He says there are specific reasons why many students don’t graduate in four. He says to be successful you must have high aptitude and sharp study skills.

“For some students, they catch on right away,” Lago said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ For other students they don’t. They don’t catch on. It’s easy to get a year behind. Even when you start as a freshman doing the right thing.”

It’s not just biology. Most students at Ole Miss don’t graduate in four years. Records from the Office of Institutional Research show that last year, only 37 percent of students graduated in four years, 58 percent graduated in five and 61 percent graduated in six.

These stats may seem alarming, but the university is not an outlier when compared to other Southeastern Conference schools. According to statistics from the Princeton Review, compiled by Saturday Down South, 30.9 percent students at Mississippi State graduate in four years, Alabama and LSU experienced a 39 percent rate and Auburn had one of the highest with 42 percent.

A fifth year senior at Ole Miss, Logan Kirkland, changed his major three times during his academic career. He says he changed not because of the difficulty of his courses, but because of difficulty with his advisors.

“I’ve seen that across the border for many people,” Kirkland said. “They don’t even know their advisors on a personal level. I feel like that’s really important.”

Kirkland doesn’t regret taking the extra time. His fifth year has allowed him to become the editor in chief of the Daily Mississippian. He says he has also matured.

“There’s nothing wrong with taking a victory lap,” Kirkland said. “People feel like, ‘Oh, I am a fifth year; I’m old,’ but you know honestly, it’s good to walking around here like a veteran. I’ll tell you what, ya know you get your chest poked out and ready to go.”

Story contributed by Ole Miss journalism students Lacey Russell (llrusse2@go.olemiss.edu) and Maggie McDaniel (mhmcdani@go.olemiss.edu).

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