Electives! Who knew?

I almost always send my legacy heir to university as a teen, but I don't really love the gameplay, so they live at home, and I just grind it out asap. So I never have them take electives because I figured it would make it take longer to get the degree, but it doesn't? My current heir is getting a drama degree because acting is my favorite active career to play. It drives me crazy that the distinguished drama degree doesn't build acting skill, so I decided to have him take acting as an elective, and it looks like the credits count towards the degree! Do you have your sims do electives? Are there even more benefits to this than I've found? Give me all your university secrets!