[Mick]

Why is a UC 5 years?  Is it because it is difficult to schedule the right classes in 8 semesters given the student body size?

My two sons toured UCB and UCLA as high school juniors in 2009 and 2013.  During the 2009 tour (prior to the 2009 admissions date), the Berzerkley tour guide told the kids to plan on five years, but that four years was certainly doable.  Five months later, at the start of his senior year, I was talking to one of the counselors at his high school who told me that the counselors had to tell 80 families (out of a graduating class of 330, almost all of whom went to four year schools) that they weren't going to get into the UC that had been considered likely for them.  Their annual average up to that point was disappointing between three and six families, and twelve was the prior record.

Eighty students were told that they weren't getting into their target UCs, and forget about reach UCs.  The bar raised that much in a year.  UC Santa Cruz's acceptance rate went from the mid 80s to the low 60s in a year.  Part of that may have been because of the dismal economy and shrinking college funds.

My son had six close friends who went to Berzerkley in 2010.  Two of the six graduated in 2014.  One of them told my older son that it meant having to do a lot of things he'd prefer not to do, and included two summer sessions, scheduling classes he didn't want to take, scheduling classes at times he didn't want to take and in at least two instances pestering professors until they allowed him into the class.

By the 2013 Berzerkley tour, my younger son was told to count on five years minimum for most majors, and not to be surprised if it was six years.  Not coincidentally, the smaller private colleges were selling the fact that the net cost of four years in private schools was equal to or less than five years at public schools, once you included private school discounts (available for the asking at many schools) and factored in an additional year of working outside of school.  One of my younger sons attended a well known nondenominational Northern California private university for $17k annually, all in.

[Mick]

Why is a UC 5 years?  Is it because it is difficult to schedule the right classes in 8 semesters given the student body size?

My two sons toured UCB and UCLA as high school juniors in 2009 and 2013.  During the 2009 tour (prior to the 2009 admissions date), the Berzerkley tour guide told the kids to plan on five years, but that four years was certainly doable.  Five months later, at the start of his senior year, I was talking to one of the counselors at his high school who told me that the counselors had to tell 80 families (out of a graduating class of 330, almost all of whom went to four year schools) that they weren't going to get into the UC that had been considered likely for them.  Their annual average up to that point was disappointing between three and six families, and twelve was the prior record.

Eighty students were told that they weren't getting into their target UCs, and forget about reach UCs.  The bar raised that much in a year.  UC Santa Cruz's acceptance rate went from the mid 80s to the low 60s in a year.  Part of that may have been because of the dismal economy and shrinking college funds.

My son had six close friends who went to Berzerkley in 2010.  Two of the six graduated in 2014.  One of them told my older son that it meant having to do a lot of things he'd prefer not to do, and included two summer sessions, scheduling classes he didn't want to take, scheduling classes at times he didn't want to take and in at least two instances pestering professors until they allowed him into the class.

By the 2013 Berzerkley tour, my younger son was told to count on five years minimum for most majors, and not to be surprised if it was six years.  Not coincidentally, the smaller private colleges were selling the fact that the net cost of four years in private schools was equal to or less than five years at public schools, once you included private school discounts (available for the asking at many schools) and factored in an additional year of working outside of school.  One of my younger sons attended a well known nondenominational Northern California private university for $17k annually, all in.