While planning my classes at the community college I’m at, I realized I could finish the minimum requirements in 2 years, or I could take extra classes that will help with my major (Econ) and finish in 3 years. Which would be the better option? I read that taking those extra classes gives an advantage, but is it bad to stay for 3 years?
Nobody cares how long you spend at a community college before you transfer. So many students take more than 3 years, primarily because they can only attend part-time while they also have a full-time job. In the end, the institution that you hope to transfer to will look at your transcript to see if you took a rigorous curriculum, earned good grades, and took the courses you need to enter as a fully-qualified Junior. For many students, this may take more than 2 years, even if they attended full-time.
The cheaper option would be to take as many classes for your major as possible at the community college. As ALF says, no one cares how long that take you.
I actually think it is pretty much expected for certain students (such as engineering) to stay at CC for at least 3 years since there are so many requirements and not all of them have tons of AP credits to help cover those. It took me 4 years to transfer out because I did not really attend full-time the first 2 years. Heck, I don’t even think I was even attending half-time. I really ramped up on my courseload when I was finally able to.