Hi,
I am an international student who is studying at UCI, which use quarter system. I feel bad that I will be graduating late. First of all I have epilepsy since I was born making me have seizures and right side weak. However, when, i am under control my medication and I just need to exercise my right hand and leg. Before being accepted to UCI, which is my ideal school, i was a lazy student. So my mom hired a tutor for me. This made a an industrious student who has many honors and studied for SAT very rigorously to be accepted by UCI. My tutor who graduated from Canada indirectly forced to study either UK or US. So i chose US, specifically California. But then my parents didn’t want me to go at first since i have epilepsy. But i insisted to go. This made me have a big seizure which didn’t occur for 12 years. After that, seizure occurred frequently for about 4-5 months until my mom needed to change doctor to a an adult epileptologist( a doctor who specializes in epilepsy). He added a new medicine for me and now seizure stopped. Finally, my parents let me study at UCI. For the first 2 years that I studied at UCI, everything went perfevtly normal. But on junior year, on the morning, i drank a little bit of soft drink and eat breakfast. Then, i hurt my stomach. When time went by, it got worse and worse until I couldn’t sleep so i press the pendant that i ordered when i first came to UCI on Freshmen to let ambulance take me to nearest hospital. And they diagnosed me as pancreatitis. Therefore, I decided to withdraw from UCI for only a quarter and recovered and health. When I went back to my home country, the doctor needs to change medication since the side effect of this best seizure medication is pancreatitis. But the doctor cannot guarantee that the cause is due to medication since patient who take this medication should have pancreatitis instantly. The new medication’s side effect are gallbladder stone, weight loss, and leg spasm so I need to drink at least 2 liters of water, eat more, and exercise a lot to reduce leg spasm . When I came back on Winter 2016, I had stomach growling at the middle of the night but I thought that it would be better. So I tried to sleep for a few more nights. However, it still happened. the stomach sound was very loud that I couldn’t sleep so my mom suggested me to drop for a whole ACADEMIC YEAR( not a year) to recover my health. My doctor said that it might due to pancreatitis consequence. So, I took 2 UCI online summer courses to gain credits. Right now, 22 years old and Junior year and a half ( in order to gradrate, i must have 180 credits, i currently have 104 credits(AP for 16 credits, UCI online courses 8 credits, courses that i currently taking, and the rest from the first 2 years), I feel bad since all of my friends will be graduating this year since they are Senior, which I should be Senior as them. Though i can graduate next Fall 2017 or Winter 2018, bad things are that i cannot attend commencement unless i need to wait for a quarter and there would be few or no friends, i can take photos with only my parents but not with my friends who learn with me since Freshmen. 
PS: my health now is above 90% but not 100% like on Freshmen and Sophomore due to pancreatitis and medication’s side effect)
It isn’t a race. The goal is to actually graduate and get a degree, no matter how long it takes to get there. My father started his BS not long after I was born and didn’t finish until the year before I graduated from high school.
As far as I know if there a session gap then this can be late. Or if you drop a year or 2.
The main thing is that you have your health under control, a good GPA, and you finish your degree. There is no “late”. Companies or grad schools won’t care. You might be sad you don’t get to graduate with your class, but the main thing is that you graduate!
In your case, I’d say there’s absolutely nothing wrong, as you have a legit reason for graduating late. But your situation is one of the only situations where I would consider it acceptable to graduate late.
Honestly, almost everyone that I know is graduating on time or early. My parents made it very clear to me that I had 4 years of undergrad. I started college in the Fall of 2013, transferred after 2 years and lost a lot of credits setting me back to sophomore status. However, I loaded, took extra classes at the local community college, took summer classes, and I am now set to graduate in the Spring of 2017 again, just like I was at my old college.
Students need to make it their priority to finish on time. Taking longer than 4 years is inconsiderate to whoever’s paying for their education whether it’s their family, an employer, or the school. And it’s not difficult. Had I not transferred, I’d probably be graduating early.
But like I said, your situation is totally excusable. I’m sorry to hear about what you are going through and I hope you get well soon.