@ocmom1000 my daughter graduated four years (CPE) despite taking two quarters off her junior year to study in Korea (she did take some classes there though). She did come in with lots of AP credit though. She would have easily graduated early if she did not do that. And she did not take an unusual load of classes, some quarters she only took 12 units when the classes were hard (that’s what she did when she took CPE357). She did not take any summer classes, used summers for internships, was involved in the engineering sorority and clubs (which helped her score the internships).
It did require some planning, she persuaded professors to take concurrently classes that were required to be taken in sequence, was on waiting lists often, etc. She was creative and determined and not necessarily overly zealous about taking a large load of classes. I have a good friend who’s daughter took one extra semester to graduate from CMU due to the difficulty of getting classes. That extra semester was about $35K, what it costs a whole year at CalPoly. The stories about difficulty of getting classes are often blown out of proportion and they seem common at many colleges.
Yes, direct admit to CS UW is great and definitely comparable in educational value to CalPoly, it was really, really difficult to get in when she applied, not sure what the situation is now. At that time, the total cost of in state UW wasn’t that different from OOS for CalPoly with the scholarship and the added bonus was smaller classes for undergrads and the weather.