Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Even if you knew what your finals schedule was at the time, you don't have much say in "accepting" the court date. The officer would have selected the date based on a schedule that's inflexible and your choice would have been to sign the citation or be taken into custody.

You don't say what you're charged with, so I'll do my best to answer without knowing that crucial piece of information.

If it's a traffic ticket (as in a traffic infraction, not just the document you signed looks like a traffic ticket), you can appear before that date and see about having your case put on calendar. Get there early, bring the citation and be ready to see the judge that day. Depending on when you got the citation, you can go as early as tomorrow morning and see if it's in the court system and you can get it heard then. If not, the clerk can give you a better idea of when your case might be available to be heard.

If it's anything else, such as a misdemeanor, either you'll have to show up on the court date or send an attorney in your place. There are times when clients of mine have a future court date for their arraignment and I can advance it so it's heard earlier, but it has to have been filed with the court already. If the DA hasn't filed yet, there is no court case to advance, so there is nothing the court can do.

Depending on what you're charged with, an attorney may not be as expensive as you think. It beats having a warrant go out for you.

You can go to the court clerks office on an earlier date, request they send the file up to the court, and you can request a change of date. You could hire an attorney to do so for you, as long as this is a misdemeanor, but you said you can't afford that. If you had already applied for the public defender, they could do so for you.