If I understand correctly, with junior transfer standing, she anticipated completing her degree in two years, and it took three years (one additional year)?
A possible downside to transfers (not that this specifically occurred with your sister's education) is that individuals may receive many of their transfer credits as "electives", then face the challenge of scheduling the required courses for their major. For decades, many colleges have not offered every course every semester. For example, some courses may be offered during the Spring semester only, Fall semester only, or offered on a rotational basis every third semester.
Correct. The courses she needed were offered on a very reasonable schedule. However, due to budget constraints, only half the students who needed a course were able to register for it at a time. At least once, she had to go on leave for a semester because she could not register for the exact courses she needed - they were offered, but were full by the time her registration lottery number came up. (I did not count time off in the 3 years above.) She did fully utilize online options, and these were not small classes.
Students were also capped at less than a full credit load, decreasing their eligibility for financial aid if the schedule was not perfect - for instance full load might be defined as 16 credits, but the cap is 12 credits, and for financial aid you must register at least 3/4 time. This means that if you can't register for exactly 12 credits, you are not eligible for any aid at all. Caps were declared as little as 2 weeks before the registration date. If a class is cancelled after the first day of the term, you *will* have to repay any financial aid you have received for the term, unless you can miraculously late-add a course that is exactly the same number of credits.
My point is that while a state school can look like a great deal on paper, the logistics of actually graduating can make it a lot less attractive. This changes year by year, with little notice, and is getting much worse very quickly.
ETA: CSU may still be a great choice for an accelerated kid who can live at home. In that situation, it makes much less of a difference whether you graduate in 4 years vs 6 or more. There would be less urgency about finding a job to cover rent on zero notice when financial aid is pulled and you therefore have to go on leave for the semester. For an independent adult, it was a nightmare.
