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<p>This is not true for Berkeley. 76.6% of Berkeley engineering and CS students who entered as freshman in 2005 graduated in 4 calendar years (high than the overall Berkeley average of 71.4%), according to UC StatFinder. For other UC campuses, the 4 calendar year graduation rates for freshmen entering in 2005 were:</p>
<p>Davis: 28.8% (50.0% for CS reported separately)
Irvine: 56.4% (49.5% for CS reported separately)
Los Angeles: 42.1% (43.2% for CS reported separately)
Riverside: 27.4% (35.1% for CS reported separately)
San Diego: 45.3% (44.1% for CS reported separately)
Santa Barbara: 59.3% (37.2% for CS reported separately)
Santa Cruz: 22.2% (48.0% for CS reported separately)</p>
<p>Note also that delayed graduation measured in calendar years does not necessarily reflect extra semesters or quarters in school, since some students (particularly in engineering or CS) take semesters or quarters off of school to do co-op jobs. This will result in a taking longer than four years to graduate, but without taking extra semesters or quarters in school.</p>
<p>What I suspect is a big reason for taking extra semesters and quarters in school is the same as what I observed when I was in school – many students voluntarily chose to take below normal course loads each semester*. This was even more common back then, since the cost of attendance was much lower (about half as much, adjusted for inflation) and extra semesters were not as big a financial penalty as they are now. Also, admissions selectivity was lower then, so more students needed remedial course work upon entry, or had difficulty in general with a full schedule of college course work.</p>
<p>*Engineering normal course loads were often slightly higher than normal course loads for other majors (e.g. 16-17 units average instead of 15 units average).</p>