<p>I'm very interested in this as I was told a lot of students were unable to graduate in the traditional 4 years. Thanks!</p>
<p>Most of the people who take more than 4 are double major or simultaneous degree students. Single majors generally finish in 4/-</p>
<p>tons of threads like this already and people are going to throw statistics at you and confuse you. </p>
<p>truth: it’s very easy to graduate in 4 years, even if you double major. the only people who need more time are transfers, people who actually fail a lot of classes, and people who completely change their major like 3 years in.</p>
<p>it’s just not a real concern for most people.</p>
<p>^double majors with completely different majors often (but not always) have difficulty with completing in 8 semesters. I was a double major for a while, I had schedule everything perfectly, and I would not have been able to finish in four years without doing some crazy things, so I dropped the second major</p>
<p>Really depends on the majors. Most double majors who planned things early on can do it. Some heavy terms may exist, but still.</p>
<p>you can find all the data you want on UCStatfinder. But as others have noted, it depends mostly on you and your background/readiness for college. UC is extremely generous with AP/IB credit so many kids start as a Soph-level student. UC also admits a lot of low-low income students – which is great for public policy – but UC then offers lousy finaid. Many of those low income students must work 20+ hours a week to attend college; they take a minimum academic load, requiring 5 years.</p>
<p>I had to work, so it took me longer, since I only took the minimum. Some students do a year abroad – which may slightly mess up the 4 year standard. Atheletes are allowed to take a reduced courseload, and generally (not always) spend 5 years working on their degree. Finally there are students who are granted a reduced course load who also might not graduate within 4 years.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the purpose is in knowing what a given percentage of students take more than 4 years to graduate. It fluctuates from year to year and there’s a lot of “what ifs” and “it depends” involved.</p>
<p>If I had my way, I would have stayed in college forever. Consider the alternative!</p>
<p>Latest data (2003 cohort):</p>
<p>4 years or less: 66%
6 years or less: 90%</p>
<p>[UC</a> Berkeley Common Data Set](<a href=“http://cds.berkeley.edu/]UC”>http://cds.berkeley.edu/)</p>
<p>^That does not look too good…</p>
<p>A lot of people stay an extra semester because they decided on their majors too late and need an extra class or two to graduate, or they’re transfer students. Most people who stay longer choose to stay or at least don’t mind staying. In fact, with how hard it is to find jobs these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if more students decide to stay an extra semester/year. It’s not like high school where almost everyone graduates in 4 years; in college it’s pretty common and there’s no stigma. Some people take a year off before applying to grad school. In any case, if you want to graduate in 4 years, it’s very easy to do so.</p>
<p>Its strange because all the people I know at CAl are graduating in less than 4 years because they had a lot of Ap credits. Honestly you can’t really look at stats to determine how you’ll fair. CAL has an admit rate of around 20%, but that doesn’t meant a specific person has a 20% chance of getting in. If you choose classes wisely and work hard you should be fine</p>
<p>With the recent tuition hikes, a lot of people are trying to cram in more classes and graduate earlier so the data may shift a little. But that might be offset by the budget cuts and not enough classes and screwing up planned schedules, etc. </p>
<p>Graduating in four years is totally doable, just try to get finish your requirements early on (major prereqs, but if you don’t know your major, breadth courses that overlap with possible major reqs), take ~4 classes (units can be anywhere from 13-15, just make sure they cover breadth courses) and save the fun classes/easier loads for later on. A lot of seminars in frosh/soph year cover breadth courses and they are usually 2 units, which are good because they you can take more classes to finish your breadth courses. You will also want the easier loads in junior/senior year, because that’s when people really get involved in their activities such as research or clubs.</p>
<p>In many cases, it’s not the unit requirement that prevents people from graduating, because almost everyone comes into Cal with AP/IB credit for at least 2-3 classes (which approximately is 10-15 units). It’s just getting into the courses you need and completing all of them.</p>