I’m curious as to what would happen if the UCs did indeed drastically drop OOS enrollment, perhaps cutting it in half as seems to be the common desire of this forum. Will we see any real change in number of in-state students admitted? Surely there will be 100s more at the most desired UCs and maybe a couple thousand more at the other UC campuses, but this is unlikely to move the needle of the CA public’s perception: UCLA, the most applied to UC campus, admitting several thousand more in-state students will be hardly noticeable given that 100,000 in-state students apply. This is just the nature of a state with almost 40 million people with above average levels of educational attainment.
On the flip side, many OOS students (who do not compete for the same spots as in-state students by and large) are from neighboring states in the Western US. Many of these states have a sliver of CA’s population, and have public university options that will not serve the state’s brightest as well as a UC campus or the University of Washington (another very solid state flagship that takes in many Western students as OOS). Cutting OOS enrollment will have a very noticeable impact for these students.
These students also bring interesting perspectives and geographical diversity, despite making up less than 20% of the UC student body. I like to think that my classmates, dormmates, and friends from NV, NM, CO, and OR bring some diversity to my school that seems to take almost half of its students from three CA counties.
To all of the Californians here venting about their UC decisions: I understand your pain. I was initially denied admission to my major back at my in-state university, and only won admission after a long appeals process ending in late May that left me disgruntled. At the end of the day, everything will work out, especially given how resourceful and accomplished the students posting on this forum are.
Full disclosure: I am an OOS student attending a UC.