<p>xiggi,</p>
<p>It is especially important with the UCs to consider the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Liberal AP credit acceptance at the UCs, which for the average UC student likely means 1 to 1.5 quarters (trimesters) of unit displacement = free tuition = 33.3% - 50% of a school year.</p></li>
<li><p>Liberal acceptance of Community College credits</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This is of course counterbalanced by two issues facing UCs and probably most public schools –</p>
<ul>
<li><p>difficulty in sequencing required courses in many majors = 1-2 quarters delay in graduating</p></li>
<li><p>Public schools have a large % of students who pay all or most of their way through school with part time to almost full time jobs. My father worked full time after returning from the Korean “War” while attending UCLA and then Cal State Long Beach to earn his degree and support his young family, with no parental support whatsoever. This of course means students often complete their degrees in a herky-jerky manner that doesn’t allow for high 4 year or sometimes even 6 year graduation rates.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>All that to say that there are both benefits and hinderances to graduating from a UC in 4 or 6 years, but to me the determining factor is that students are balancing school and work simultaneously.</p>