December 11, 1998

State Colleges Try to Match Private Institutions With Promises of Timely Graduation

By FRED WOODHAMS

In 1994, 16 private colleges in Minnesota ran advertisements in Time, Newsweek, and other magazines to proclaim a "revolutionary concept" in higher education: a four-year-degree program that could be completed in four years. The private institutions mockingly noted how their average four-year graduation rates were more than four times as high as those of public colleges.

A short time later, some public rivals

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