<p>Perhaps the word “most” was too nuanced? 
IMO, the biggest “cause” of the low UC four year grad rate is the high proportion of low income kids and poor finaid.</p>
<p>There is nothing in my post that said that “all” UC students are low income. Indeed, you could never find that in any of my post for the xx years I’ve been on cc. But, if you search my posts you’ll see that I frequently post the correct number: ~33% of each campus is comprised of Pell Grantees – the highest of any major public Uni - twice that of UMich, and 3-4 times that of UVa. While a Pell may cover a Cal State, it ain’t close to covering the CoA of a UC. Even the current Chancellor at Cal recognizes that a family with a ZERO efc has to pay $9k per year…</p>
<p>sakky’s posts notwithstanding – yes, Engineering is brutal at Cal – it ain’t hard to graduate from a UC in four years for most kids bcos “most” kids have family money. But, I think sakky is correct in that Cal (and UCLA) accept a lot of marginal kids who might be better off at a lower UC; not only do some of these kids take 6 years to graduate, some also flunk out and have a graduation rate of zero.</p>