As for length of time in community colleges, it just depends where you go. Out here in California, if you’re out of favor with the campus’ identity politics you’ll get NO priority when registering for classes and you’ll find most of the sections of the classes you need will be filled long before your window opens. In addition, there is a host of prerequisite classes that most don’t successfully test challenge out of. These prerequisites are nontransferable they create major scheduling bottlenecks. Under these circumstances you can expect to spend 3-4 years in community college in California. My high school counseling department steers students to CSUs whenever possible and only sends those with severely damaged transcripts to CCC. Chances of entering our local community college and one day holding a Bachelor’s Degree is somewhere below 10%.