Online Orientation - Section 3

Definition of a Full-Time Student. What is a Unit? How Long to Graduate?

• Students enrolled in 12 units for the semester are considered full time students. Full time status is required for full funding of financial aid and for "good student" insurance discounts.
  
  
• The value of a lecture course is computed on the basis of one unit of credit for each 50 minutes of lecture time per week. So a 3 unit course typically meets either three times per week for 50 minutes per meeting (MWF 10:00 to 10:50; two times per week for 75 minutes (TTH 10:00 to 11:15), or one evening per week for 150 minutes.
  
  
• Community Colleges are referred to as "two-year" colleges because the curriculum fulfills the first two years of a four-year college/university program. However this is somewhat of a misnomer. It takes a minimum of sixty units to complete a degree or transfer. This assumes that the student knows exactly what he/she wants to major in, and the student does not have any basic skill deficiencies in English, math or reading that need to be made up. This is seldom the case, but lets overlook this for the time being. If a student is full time, and he/she completes 12 units each semester, after two years the student would only have completed 48 units, and would need another semester to achieve the sixty unit total. Historically, full time constituted 15 units, and a student would have sixty units after two years.
  
  
• We have only been considering full semester (fall and spring) schedules. Many students accelerate their progress by taking summer school classes. Yuba College offers a six-week summer session. So a 17 week regular semester course is condensed into six weeks. Many students like the fact that they are only taking one or two classes and are thus able to concentrate on those courses. Daytime classes are offered Monday through Thursday. Evening courses are typically offered two nights per week. During the summer the campus is closed on Fridays.

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