Some publics for students who come in w/o AP or CLEP may have less wiggle room - if they don’t follow a ‘finish in four’ scenario for their major, and do not understand their course loads to finish on time. Some want higher grades and taking one less technical class each term, so it takes them a 5th year. I have seen some kids actually take 6 years to finish - they were working a side job all the way through, having lots of recreational opportunities, and didn’t see that finishing school was their main objective; and somehow parents supported that because they don’t review what their student is actually doing and didn’t direct them.
DD had to ‘step it up’ when we found out by more informed adviser that she had 6 hours of humanities required in her degree plan - so one was taken on line during this past summer and another was crowded into her fall class schedule.