I was originally planning on transferring in two years, but I had to make some changes to my educational plan to spread it out across 3 years after I realized that trying to get all my prerequisites done in two years would be academic suicide. I don’t mind taking 3 years to transfer if it means getting a higher GPA and a better chance of getting the UC system. However, I do feel a bit disturbed that all my peers who are at 4-year schools will pretty much graduate in 2021, while I spend 3 years at community and 2 at university, thus graduating in 2022. Is it normal for people to spend 3 years at community college and 2 years at university and by doing that, does that mean I will graduate a year behind my peers?
It is not unusual to need five years to finish college. Especially in STEM fields when students so often wipe out in freshman calculus, organic chem, or introductory engineering classes. Your goal should be to Plan your schedule so that you can do your own best work, and graduate when you are ready. Don’t measure yourself against anyone else.
5 years is actually pretty close to average, if not very slightly faster than average. There are a number of reasons to take more than 4 years. The fact that your extra year will be at community college should make it much more affordable than it would be to have an extra year in university.
Most of your peers have not yet figured out what they are going with their life, and if they have figured it out they will probably change their mind at some point. Personally, I ended up being relatively successful in life (I am mostly retired now), but I definitely did not take the quickest route to get to where I ended up. Most of the successful people that I know similarly took an extra year or two or three somewhere along the way.
When budgeting for universities for my daughters, I didn’t tell them this, but I made sure that nothing terrible would happen if it took them 5 years to graduate.
IMHO you are fine.
Five or six years to graduate is surprisingly common. It’s a selling point for colleges that x% finish in 6 years.
Very common! I wouldn’t sweat over it.
FWIW, it is looking like I will finish undergrad having spent four years (on and off) at community college, and another three years at university.
To be frank, who cares? The degree I’ll get at 25 will look the exact same as the one crossing the stage after me at 22. Your peers were your peers in high school. Your peers now for the most part is just the network you’ll create for the rest of your life.
I’m probably going to have to take 3 years to finish as well if I go to Mizzou. (I already have 64 credits.) Thankfully, financial aid doesn’t run out until you attempt 150% of your required credits (so like 180 credits if your normal program is 120)
It’s really frustrating because my community college required SO many stupid, non-transferrable classes to graduate from its business program. I had to take crap like “Customer Service and Professionalism” and “Principles of Retailing.” I cringe just writing that out. I applied to Vanderbilt, Wash U and Cornell, but I highly doubt I got into any of them even with a 4.0 GPA just because my vocational classes look SO bad.
If I get into Cornell, I plan to major in Industrial & Labor Relations. My classes would actually transfer semi-decently and I’ll “only” lose like 18 credits. However, if I go to Mizzou and major in a STEM field (as I would do if I don’t get into a top school), I am so screwed and will be transferring in as basically a second semester freshman.
I’ve heard people say that it’s better for Transfer Students to take their time at community college, instead of trying to get out as fast as possible. Personally, I think it makes sense, but what do you all think of this?
An extra year at community college is less expensive than an extra year at a four year school. Once you transfer to a four year school, you are on an administrative clock to graduate as soon as you can, and a financial clock because it is more expensive. So if you need to complete more lower division courses and have to choose between staying an extra year at community college to take them there, versus staying an extra year at the four year school because you have to “catch up” after transfer, the first option is less expensive. The trade-off is less clear cut if the “catch up” after transfer would only require an extra semester or quarter at the four year school, rather than a whole year.
However, some students may not be able to take all of the needed lower division courses at community college before transfer, because the community college does not have the equivalents of lower division courses that they need for their majors. So they may be required to “catch up” after transfer, which may require extra semesters or quarters at the four year school.
Only 10% of students graduate after two years at a community college.
During orientation at my community college, I was told that it takes 6 - 10 years on average for our students to get their associate’s degree and graduate. At first I thought that was insane, but after spending 2 years getting into almost no classes, I realized that there might be a kernel of truth to what that lady said. I expanded my CC options, but it still took me another 2 years before I transferred. After this, I was at USC from January 2016 to August 2017, so I spent about 1.5 years there. All in all, it took me 5.5 years to get a degree. I thought I was ancient being 23, but then I realized that it was not a race. I was surprised to find out that one of my peers was 27. He wasn’t significantly older than me, but it just put things into perspective. Nobody is going to know how old you are. You aren’t wearing a sign that states your age. Taking longer to graduate is perfectly common in STEM fields. In fact, I remember seeing a course plan for this one major at UCLA that was a 5 year plan - even they seemed to admit that it was impossible to complete all of the requirements in 4 years. Good luck on your academic journey 
zettasyntax, if I may ask, was it that difficult for you to get your classes at CC?