Credits to Degree

The UW System aspires to minimize the number of credits that students take to complete their bachelor's degree.  To learn more about this goal, see Achieving Excellence: The University of Wisconsin System Accountability Report 2003-04 (UW System Administration, Office of Policy Analysis and Research, Madison, WI).  The following table shows the average number of credits completed by degree recipients at UW-Green Bay over the past 20 years.   About 1% of degree recipients were excluded from the table because of incomplete records.   Data are grouped into 5-year segments to increase the number of students summarized in each cell. Averages are not shown for cells with fewer than 9 graduates.

  Number of Graduates Included Average Credits to Degree
Major 1984-1988 1988-1992 1992-1996 1996-2000 2000-04 1984-1988 1988-1992 1992-1996 1996-2000 2000-04
Professional Studies
ACCTG 137 124 125 113 116 136.7 142.4 143.3 145.9 152.7
BUS ADM 549 540 503 545 662 131.8 132.0 134.2 135.1 135.8
ELEM EDUC     108 214 247     171.8 159.1 154.1
NURS COL       9 41       133.7 133.8
NURS NAT         28         148.7
NURSING 92 97 93 94 61 131.8 128.8 131.9 134.4 140.2
SOC WORK 58 89 94 96 110 132.1 132.7 134.7 136.5 137.9
Liberal Arts and Sciences
ART 64 76 67 68 72 135.5 136.1 142.5 140.6 143.0
BIOLOGY 55 76 71 108 134 143.1 141.0 135.5 138.9 136.8
CHEM 30 35 27 27 29 140.2 140.3 144.1 142.7 149.1
COMN ART 158 38 58 61 74 140.0 132.3 131.6 129.5 129.7
COMN PRO 143 151 204 204 241 131.7 130.7 131.4 129.4 128.9
COMP SCI

 

   5 39 77     135.9 137.2 135.2
EARTH SC 8 11 19 9 14 146.3 151.5 143.9 148.8 138.9
ECON 13 55 47 44 39 129.9 127.6 131.5 126.3 128.9
ENGLISH 21 95 114 104 110 140.3 137.2 143.2 141.5 141.4
ENV POL PL 33 18 68 76 61 129.2 135.7 132.2 129.7 128.0
ENV SCI 69 47 118 151 94 145.1 136.3 134.2 135.0 134.0
FRENCH 3 15 18 8 13 138.7 146.4 147.5 155.6 143.1
GEOG 12 17 41 21 4 131.5 136.2 131.7 133.8 128.3
GERMAN 10 21 26 26 19 141.8 146.5 155.4 151.8 152.7
HISTORY 11 46 63 81 131 143.8 138.4 145.3 151.1 138.6
HUM BIOL 66 74 108 186 221 135.2 137.7 136.5 134.7 131.4
HUM DEV 329 480 439 310 388 133.5 136.5 135.7 127.5 125.8
HUM STUD 66 63 75 80 89 132.6 135.0 133.6 129.2 128.9
INDIVIDUAL 18 9 11 18 21 130.3 130.1 136.7 132.7 133.7
INFO SCI 23 25 25 14 28 136.3 138.1 142.1 137.9 136.8
INTERD STU 16 30 39 85 74 126.9 126.4 125.8 125.0 126.4
MATH 84 77 77 36 42 138.4 142.5 142.6 148.1 142.0
MUSIC 40 46 43 47 42 170.8 170.5 178.8 163.1 155.9
NUT SCI 26 29 35 42 2 134.6 138.6 141.8 135.8 161.5
PHILOS 3 11 11 19 19 144.0 130.5 131.0 133.9 130.9
POL SCI 40 53 49 58 79 132.7 131.5 130.6 132.0 132.5
PSYCH 114 192 266 260 301 129.8 131.7 130.7 128.2 126.5
PUB ADM 26 38 45 95 82 132.2 131.4 128.2 126.3 129.3
SOC C D 51 53 94 83 69 131.2 133.4 129.0 128.6 130.3
SOCIOL 10 22 26 3 133.1 130.6 129.4 128.3
SPANISH 8 22 36 40 54 141.5 147.2 149.7 149.0 148.7
THEATRE 20 29 19 28 40 142.5 137.6 144.8 135.6 137.4
UR RE ST 114 53 77 74 41 131.5 129.3 130.5 128.5 126.2


The graph below shows the trend in credits to degree for four categories of majors over the past ten years.  Students who complete a major in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and either a major or minor in education have the highest average credits to degree.  The next line documents the average for students in Elementary Education (without an LAS major) or Accounting, whose students have typically required a fifth year to complete their degrees in the years covered here.  The bottom two groups on the chart show that once one moves away from Education and Accounting, students typically graduate with between 130 and 135 credits. (Analysis done in Spring 2003.)