As illustrated in the Time To Graduation section, you can see that it gets costly to stay in school longer than four years. However, only you can determine whether there are other priorities in your life that are more important than graduating on time. You may have family and work obligations that require you to enroll in fewer units. Or, you may have health, transportation, and other challenges that some other students do not have and you can manage only part time enrollment.
Remember that you need to plan for adequate study time for each class and lab, not just class hours. You want to do well in your coursework. Plan how many hours you can work and still do well in your classes. You may need to consider student loans to allow you to reduce work time and time to graduation.
Financial aid rules only require twelve units per semester for undergraduates to be considered full-time. However, keep in mind that to graduate in four years you will need to take at least 15 units per semester. Also, enrollment in seven or more units will cost you the same fees, so the “per unit” fee will cost you more for seven units than fifteen.
At the market if you see that you can get a 15-ounce soda for the same price as a 7-ounce soda, which would you choose?