I’m honestly not here to fight. I’m not sure why you are being so combative. UC Merced is a tiny school with a very different applicant pool than Berkeley. Yes, I know that SoCal is now and has always been bigger than Nor Cal, but the data shows that Nor Cal is still growing at a faster rate (thanks, I am sure, to the tech boom in the Bay Area over the past 20+ years)
UCLA has just shifted and become a more desirable school to many high school seniors, and is no longer seen as the “second choice” school to Berkeley that it once was. I think applicant and admit rates are pretty clear on that.
Also, for the record, those 10 CA counties represent about 75% of the state’s population.
Regardless of which UC a student applies to, whether it is UCM, UCR or UCI, it is effortless to just check the box for UCB or UCLA and take a lottery chance of getting accepted, assuming the stats, EC’s and essays are decent.
From the 2018 to 2019 school year, UCLA’s total applicants have dropped from 113.7K to 111.3K and yet the admits have decreased unproportionately during that time from 16K to 13.7K.
As you know, yield can be a measure that the school is a priority choice to attend. I don’t have the 2019 yield %, but from 2017 to 2018, UCLA’s yield went up from 36% to 38% and in contrast, UCB’s yield % increased from 41% to 45%. For 2019, if the trend continues, UCB will have a higher yield % than UCLA, but the gap can inch a little closer if UCLA or UCB is playing the yield game.
Look, this is the third year in a row UCLA has had a lower admit rate than Berkeley. I understand Berkeley alums HATE those data points and scramble to find any counter data they can to explain it away. (Berkeley’s applicant pool went down this year as well, though the number of students accepted went up.)
Love it or hate it, the numbers are what they are.
That’s supposition. An opinion without facts. I’m sure there are students in the Central Valley and beyond who once had to travel to the SF Bay Area, now only have to travel to UC Merced. Cheaper, because they can live at home.
Adding a entire new campus in NorCal, plus a new CSU in Monterey must change the numbers in some respect.
I don’t love or hate either school. My own kid decided to leave CA. You’re here to promote UCLA, because you have a connection. I’m assuming you’re a student or alum. I’m not a student or an alum of the UC system.
What I’m saying is that you can’t just look at the raw applicant and admittance data and say “Look how great UCLA is” or the “numbers are the numbers.” There’s a lot more to it than that, including population and demographic trends, like folks moving out of the counties outside the 9-county Bay Area in NorCal. Or Cal Poly SLO’s rise (and UC Merced, Davis, Santa Cruz) as an excellent alternative to Berkeley.
Maybe, everyone loves the quarter system now. Do we know if that’s a factor?
And add one more factor or two. Cal has had a bit bad press lately and has gotten a bad reputation, deserved or not, having nothing to do with academics.
Just one data point but I was born and raised in NorCal and in the 80’s when I graduated HS, UC Berkeley was considered the top public flagship in CA.
1980 data:
UCLA 74% acceptance rate, 67% yield
UCB 54% acceptance rate, 69% yield
**Source (for UCB) Academic Senate Berkeley Report “Freshman Admissions at Berkeley: A Policy for the 1990’s & Beyond” (1989)
Some other data points:
In 2000, UCLA had 20% more applicants (37,000 to 31,000) and in 2018, 27% more applicants (113,000 to 89,000).
IMO, UC Berkeley is more of an acquired taste with it’s liberal city, social activism, and East Bay culture which might not appeal to some applicants. Conversely, UCLA is in desirable West LA (Westwood) sandwiched between Beverly Hills and Brentwood/Santa Monica, has better year-round weather and very accessible to the beaches while still maintaining a world-class education.
I love the Berkeley area (even lived there for several years) but it’s not for everybody. I hate to say it but UCLA might have caught up to, or even surpassed, UCB as the state’s #1 public flagship (not withstanding individual majors, like Engineering for example).
I grew up here in NorCal as well and have many friends and relatives who went to Cal. Why did they ALL chose Cal? Because it’s close to home.
Certainly the culture and weather hasn’t changed much in either location. They’re both world class institutions and were back when I went to school. Cal being the #1 flagship of the UC system was not discussed in my network when I was a kid.
Sushi, it might be a minor point in the greater scheme of things, but since you seem so concerned about the proximity of the UCs to in-state applicants, its good to note that only 57% of Berkeley applicants are even from California, and only 62% of UCLA applicants are from California. The rest are from every state in the country and international. These really are not “regional” commuter schools the way you are treating them.
And as an aside, Sushi, I too grew up in Nor Cal, and ALL of my family and friends went to UCLA! So now that YOUR personal experience and MY personal experience have completely negated each other, let’s just keep the focus on broad-reaching data.
Moderation Note @KTJordan78@sushiritto Please be respectful and remember that CC is not a debate forum, as debating violates the TOS. I think the point has been made UCLA has had a decreasing admit rate and both cal and UCLA are fantastic schools. If this continues to be a back and forth debate I will close this thread. Thanks for understanding.
I doubt that Merced is pulling from Berkeley significantly. I wonder, however, how Merced is affecting the top CSUs as well as the (relatively) local CSUs.
Personally, as a southern Californian who is a Cal alum, I think Berkeley has its head in the sand. In the past three years, we have been to two Cal prospective student admissions presentations & tours, attended Coast to Coast as well as a weekend overnight potential student recruiting event at Cal. The people at Berkeley know their weaknesses (housing shortage, difficulty getting classes, difficulty finding friends, cut throat, sketchy neighborhood, low four year grad rate, etc.) but avoid discussing them and don’t have answers when asked (and they are asked at EVERY presentation we’ve attended). UCLA has many of the same problems but they address them up front during the pre-tour admissions presentation with a positive spin. In our experience, after visiting both schools with prospective students, they feel optimistic about their future when leaving UCLA but wonder if they will be just another number after leaving Berkeley.
Agree completely with @lkg4answers. UCB is in a downward spiral, the campus is not maintained, the classes are overcrowded and it’s more well known as a miserable college experience than a great one. Mommy and daddy want little junior to go there - herd mentality rules so many things in CA without good cause. The students feel it lost its shine. I wouldn’t send one to either school, but in terms of reputation and desirability, I think UCB has problem going forward.
I think trends in a school’s popularity are hard to determine. I believe The Princeton Review started their “Hopes and Worries” national survey in 2007, and at that time UCLA placed #10 on students’ “Dream School” rankings, and didn’t even make the top 10 for parents’ “Dream School” rankings. This year UCLA placed #5 with students and #7 with parents. Why? Who knows.
(If you are interested in seeing where other schools place I would just look it up, I don’t want to turn this forum into a debate stage again.)
Let me guess, you and/or your kids went to USC? I know dozens of kids who graduated from UCB and UCLA and had a fabulous time. If someone has a “miserable college experience” it says a lot more about you the individual than that of the actual college IMO…
I guess time will tell how much of a difference USNWR really matters to UCB. I think the school’s name and reputation is well established and there are enough other ranking systems that it won’t have much of an impact.
I don’t think it will matter. New rankings come out in September. But the thought that they have been boosting the data they provide to US News for the last 5 years is concerning. I hope it wasn’t intentional. And we’ll see how things play out now that they will be sending more accurate data.
The error was self reported when discovered internally by UCB. Since USNWR does not have the staff to audit most reported data, I wonder how many other schools reported undiscovered erroneous data or if discovered errors, self reported the errors?