Increasingly, undergraduates take more than 4 years to complete a baccalaureate, a situation widely perceived as a waste of time and money, for students, their families, and taxpayers. We first identify several phenomena that result in a longer time to degree and document the frequency of such delays. Then, using nationally representative data from the Baccalaureate & Beyond 1993–2003 surveys, we estimate the relationship between delayed time-to-degree and later employment and postcollege earnings, using negative binomial hurdle models. We find that delayed time-to-degree is not related to employment chances but is associated with lower post-college earnings: averaging 8–15%, depending on the length of delay. This average disadvantage is in line with signaling theory. The unique contribution of this study is its thorough analysis of different types of delay, as caused by stopping out and employment. Contrary to the popular assumption that delay is a waste of college resources or a student’s time, we find that delayed graduation in combination with working full-time during college has no negative relationship to post-college earnings. We discuss the time-investment trade-offs and the implications for the applicability of human capital theory to college graduation delays.

越来越多的本科生需要超过4年的时间才能完成学士学位，这种情况被普遍认为浪费时间和金钱，对学生，他们的家庭和纳税人而言。我们首先确定几种现象，这些现象会导致更长的时间延迟并记录此类延迟的频率。然后，我们使用来自Baccalaureate＆Beyond 1993-2003年调查的全国代表性数据，使用负二项式障碍模型来估计延迟学位学习时间和以后的就业与大学后收入之间的关系。我们发现，学位升学时间的延迟与就业机会无关，但与大学毕业后的收入较低相关：平均为8％至15％，具体取决于延迟的时间长度。该平均缺点与信号理论相符。这项研究的独特贡献在于它对由停工和就业造成的不同类型的延误进行了详尽的分析。与普遍的认为延误是浪费大学资源或浪费学生时间的假设相反，我们发现，延迟毕业与全职工作相结合，对大学后的收入没有负面影响。我们讨论了时间投资的取舍以及对人力资本理论对大学毕业延迟的适用性的影响。