Is completing a CS degree in 6 years bad?
I’m 22M studying Computer Science in Pakistan and I need some honest outside perspective.
I started my BSCS degree in Fall 2023. I completed my first 3 semesters but struggled academically and personally during that time. My CGPA dropped to around 2.0. The main issue was that I entered university already weak in math and programming fundamentals, and when courses like Calculus and C++ got difficult, I honestly panicked instead of asking for help.
At the same time, I was dealing with heavy family pressure and didn’t communicate my academic situation properly at home. Because of that stress and poor decisions on my part, I ended up taking a long academic gap and stopped enrolling for several semesters.
During this gap, I wasn’t completely idle. I self-learned web development and cybersecurity, built websites and small apps for university students, worked on projects used by around 150+ students, and even taught basic networking and Kali Linux tools online to a few hundred students. So I did grow skills-wise, just not academically.
Now I’m trying to return to university and continue my degree. If everything goes according to plan, I would graduate around 2029, meaning my 4-year degree will effectively take about 6 years.
My concerns:
- Will employers see a 6-year CS degree as a red flag?
- Is recovering academically after a rough start realistic?
- Does graduating later actually hurt career prospects long term?
- Has anyone here taken a long gap and still built a successful career?
I genuinely want to finish my degree properly this time and move forward with cybersecurity as my focus.
I’d really appreciate honest opinions, not motivation, just real-world perspective.