To those of you worrying about the timespan, a term can be a maximum of 2 weeks, but you can't graduate in only one term. After the term ends, your sim goes home, and then can return whenever you want them to.
Think of it like WA adventures. You're not expected to max your visa in one trip, nor are your sims expected to graduate after only one term. It's supposed to be the equivalent of going home for the summer. This was all clarified in the recent sims 3 blog uni post. I'm on mobile so I can't find it right now, but I'll link later if someone else doesn't get to it first.
They also mentioned that you can choose the number of credits you take-- up to 18 per term, and it takes 40 to graduate.