# Poll: Did you/do you know when your college catalog expired/will expire? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266 "2010-11-11T02:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/21 "2010-11-12T02:24:21Z")
I never thought about it either because I also graduated in four years. But also I’d assume my advisor would have let me know… ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/22 "2010-11-12T12:28:25Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > What it means is this: Let’s say you start college in 2011 going for a chemistry major. Your “catalog” requires you to take 130 credit hours broken down into so many physical science, so many life science, so many math, humanities, arts, electives, etc. > > As long as you continue through college, those are your catalog requirements for your degree. > > Now lets say another student enters college for a chemistry program in 2012. The school has decided that now a chemistry degree needs 132 credit hours and that it needs to be weighted a bit more heavily towards humanities. That catalog only pertains to the 2012 student. NOT YOU. You continue to progress under the catalog you started with. > > The OP is addressing those situations where there was a hiatus in the degree progression and the returning student doesn’t realize that he has been changed over to the new catalog (and thus different requirements than when he started.) Happened to me, but my break was short, the requirement change minor, and the school worked with me. I looked in the published catalog for my undergrad school and couldn’t find anything. I imagine that it’s not often an issue, since the 6 year graduation rate is 93%, and that 7% is mostly students who transferred away, failed, or went crazy. A leave of absence requires a stated time of return that must be approved by the school. Returning after withdrawing from the college requires an application for readmittance. In all cases I’m aware of, students are tied to the requirements of their expected year of graduation. For example, if I were expected to graduate in 2014, my requirements would be the same even if I finished in 2013 or 2018. I know of only one person who graduated extremely late. 8 years IIRC. His requirements never changed, although those for the rest of the student body did extensively. I’ve found smaller school can often afford to be flexible and they want students to graduate. My PhD is an example of that; I skipped my defense (or “viva” as I’ve heard it called here) because it was inconvenient. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/23 "2010-11-12T17:32:14Z")
I never thought about this while I was in college, but now that I’m involved in actuarial exams, the issue is very familiar to me. We reorganize the syllabus every five years or so, and every time, there are _huge_ controversies over what old exams are equivalent to what new exams and how new requirements apply to people in mid-stream. In hindsight, obviously, colleges face the same issue, although probably less intensively and less often. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/24 "2010-11-12T17:57:32Z")
How could you not know you didn’t graduate? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/25 "2010-11-12T18:02:40Z")
I never even thought about it. I finished the requirements in 4 years and graduated. Or did I? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/26 "2010-11-12T18:10:34Z")
Well, did they give you a diploma? I didn’t show up to commencement and I forgot to go to the registrar’s office to pick mine up, but I know it was there because they kept calling me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/27 "2010-11-12T18:17:47Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > How could you not know you didn’t graduate? Yeah, I wonder about that, too. You’d think either having or not having the diploma would be a clue… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/28 "2010-11-12T19:51:16Z")
As an undergraduate, it didn’t matter – I went for four years, so it was never an issue. As a graduate, I did get a letter that said I would have to reapply to get my degree. Luckily, they had already awarded it to me. SUNY Albany was hardly a paragon of efficiency. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/29 "2010-11-12T20:03:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, did they give you a diploma? I didn’t show up to commencement and I forgot to go to the registrar’s office to pick mine up, but I know it was there because they kept calling me. Yes, I got a diploma. I was joking. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266/30 "2010-11-12T20:19:59Z")
I never really thought about it as an undergrad, but I know the rules for my grad program better than I’d like. Without an explicit waiver (from the graduate school, not from your adviser or individual department chair), MS classwork expires after six years and PhD work after eight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-did-you-do-you-know-when-your-college-catalog-expired-will-expire/560266.md?page=1)