Save some money and finish without another semester.

Time reports.

4 Ways To Spend One Less Semester in College—and Save

The average college graduate takes an extra semester to earn a degree. Here’s how you can finish up in four years and avoid those additional costs.

In all the paperwork sent by colleges in those fat acceptance envelopes mailed out in the spring, one distressing fact is typically being left out: You’re probably going to pay at least one extra semester’s worth of tuition.

If past trends continue, only about 40% of the freshmen who start at a four-year college this fall will earn their bachelor’s in four years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Another 15% will take five years. A few more stragglers will need six years or more, while 41% percent of freshmen won’t ever earn a bachelor’s degree. Overall, the average student who does graduate takes 4.4 years to earn a degree.

That means the typical student is paying for one extra semester of school, since about two-thirds of the students who need extra time are taking courses full-time and paying full tuition all the way through, according to analyses by Judith Scott-Clayton, an economist at Teachers’ College, Columbia University.

But Scott-Clayton and other experts say there are four things you can do to reduce the odds that you’ll have to pay for more than four years of college.