Four-Year Graduation Guarantee

At Pacific University, we expect you to graduate in four years. In fact, we guarantee you can.

Nationally, fewer than 50 percent of college students graduate in four years. Those who do save thousands of dollars in tuition, fees and other costs and are ready to enter the working world sooner. One reason that students sometimes take longer to graduate at some institutions is that they cannot always get into the classes they need.

Our Promise

For entering freshman pursuing a 4-year bachelor degree in a Forest Grove campus program, we guarantee that Pacific will provide all the courses you will need to graduate within four years. If you will not graduate on time because we failed to offer a required course, Pacific will authorize a substitute, waive the requirement, or cover the tuition costs for you to take the required course(s) at Pacific the next semester that it is offered.

Here’s How It Works

Students will be invited to sign up for this guarantee in their first semester. The Advising Center distributes the four-year guarantee forms to students via their First Year Seminar (FYS) course sections. The purpose of asking students to sign an agreement is to ensure that students fully understand what they need to do on their end to stay on track for timely graduation and remain eligible for the guarantee, including:

  • Submitting the signed agreement by the end of the fourth week of their freshman year.
  • Maintaining continuous, full-time enrollment for eight semesters
  • Declaring their majors by the end of the sophomore year
  • Remaining in Satisfactory Academic Standing in all semesters of attendance
  • Maintaining satisfactory progress toward completion of the degree such that all requirements can be completed within the four-year timeframe
  • Meeting with Registrar's Office staff at Countdown to Graduation event during February of the graduation semester for review of their degree audit; contacting the Assistant Registrar in February if they are unable to attend
  • Having no registration holds or restrictions that would prevent them from registering for their classes during their assigned registration periods 

Other Considerations

Some majors have complex progressions and sequences or required courses that must be taken and passed in the first or second year to complete the program in four years. Students should carefully consult the Academic Advising Handbook, Advising Center, and their faculty academic advisor to plan their course of study.

There are a few undergraduate degree programs at Pacific that are specifically designed to be completed in more than four years, such as the bachelor of music therapy, the p exercise science/athletic training 3:2 program, and the engineering science 3:2 program. These programs of study do not qualify for the four-year guarantee.

Pacific encourages study abroad opportunities, but study abroad programs cannot be guaranteed to work with all majors in a four-year timeframe. If you are interested in a study abroad program, consult with your faculty academic advisor to see if it is feasible within your program’s four-year plan.

Students may change their minds along the way, such that they may change their majors after their sophomore year, or they may at some point experience a registration hold. With good planning, most students will still graduate in four years, but the university would not be in a position to guarantee it. In the same way, students may intentionally choose to extend their time to graduation beyond the four-year time frame, such as by taking advantage of a 5th year athletic eligibility, or studying abroad knowing it will add a semester to their plan. Again this may be the right choice for some students, but students who do choose to extend their time to graduation thereby remove themselves from the tuition coverage guarantee.