Arizona universities got a boost in admissions from California in the past decade

Parents Forum
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Here’s an article from the Arizona Republic about the surging numbers of California students enrolling at universities in Arizona. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/07/12/california-college-students-flock-arizona-schools-overcrowded-uc-csu-reject-them/753425002/. I was generally aware of this trend but the article has some interesting facts and figures. For example, ASU has 10 recruiters based in CA and has created a path for CA community college students to enroll in certain majors at ASU.

Here’s a partial excerpt:

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Nothing surprising there… University of Colorado, Boulder at one point was almost 30% Californians.

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It just shows how California has not kept up with demand in higher education.

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If is enlightening to look at a map of US colleges. The middle to the right of the country is saturated and the middle to left is barren in comparison. Students who wish to stay relatively close to home have far fewer options in the west.
https://hedberggroup.com/products/us-college-wall-map

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This is not surprising. Our DS2 knows a LOT of people from our area in So. Calif. who attended NASU. One good friend says that she regularly saw people from their high school as she walked around campus. She loved her time there and also the proximity to snow and snowboarding which was part of her reason for attending there. She was an average student in high school and was pretty much limited to the CSU’s rather than the UC’s. NASU provided a low COA, a “college experience” (unlike the CSU’s she was considering which were commuter schools) and snow. Other kids we have talked to give a lot of the same reasons. Even the lower tier UC’s have become very competitive and don’t give the “average performing” high school student many options.

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It’s normal for high-population states to “export” large numbers of students to public universities in other states. For example:

17,196 California residents enrolled at out-of-state public universities in 2014
16,461 Illinois
11,813 New Jersey
11,179 Texas
10,230 New York
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/26/us/college-student-migration.html

It’s true that California exports more students than any other state, but that’s simply because it has the largest population. If you were to adjust for population, states like IL and NJ would stand out as the biggest exporters, rather than CA.

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@2mrmagoo wow. Wyoming’s options are bleak (though I realize there are a couple of other small 4 year college options, plus online and technical schools).

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The fifth school has to be either University of Nevada-Reno or Southern Oregon University.

SOU basically functions as an extension of the CSU system for residents of far northern California. It’s in Ashland, just 15 miles over the border, which means that it is closer than Chico State or Humboldt State for some Californians. Furthermore, students who graduate from a high school or community college in far northern CA (five counties and three CCCs) qualify for the in-state tuition rate at SOU. In that case, the cost of attendance may well be lower than at a CSU.

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@Corbett that is 4 year old data, I’m sure it’s much worse now and will continue that trend…

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Corbett beat me to it. UNR and the Oregon schools, especially Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech, recruit very heavily for Northern California students.

When I first moved to California in the 70’s, community colleges were a very popular option for California students who couldn’t get into the UC or CSU systems, or who simply wanted to save money by going to school at practically tuition-free rates. (I remember when tuition when from $0 to $5 per credit, and everybody was outraged at how students wouldn’t be able to afford that!) Just about everybody I knew who had degrees from Berkeley or UCLA had spent their first two years at a CC. Now it seems like the CCs are much less popular, and students who previously would have gone to one are instead opting for 4-year colleges in other states.

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@simba I believe CC’s in California are as popular as ever. We have a high quality system. However, they are struggling with some of the same over-crowding problems as the UC’s and CSU’s. It can be difficult to get your classes in the city schools and many students will take more than 2 years to transfer (for a multitude of reasons of course.)

How many kids you see heading to CC will vary tremendously on area and type of school. My middle graduated from a well-respected charter school that has a highly diverse socio-economic make-up. More than half the graduating class is heading to CC. This is partially for financial reasons but also, our local public universities are not accessible to average students and so CC is their way in.

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NAU in Flagstaff is a WUE school and when we toured they said that after AZ most of their students come from CA and Hawaii. It’s an opportunity for a 4 year residential college experience and as @takeitallin said plenty of snow and snow boarding, urban trails, dark skies, etc. ASU and the U of AZ aren’t in WUE except in a very limited way for some less popular majors and campuses. But they do actively recruit especially in SoCal. We have a good friend whose daughter turned down UCSB (and some other UC’s and CSU’s) to go to ASU Barrett. They said the recruiting presentation impressed both her and the parents and the merit aid brought it down to a competitive COA.

The article suggests that most CA students return to CA after their education. So it doesn’t sound like CA is losing them for good. So maybe a win win for both states?

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The mystery 5th school is going to be a large enrollment school. The University of Colorado had 6,750 new freshmen in the fall of 2017. The school reported that 12.6%, or 850, of those freshmen were from CA. Nevada Reno had 3,643 new freshmen last fall, requiring over 23% of the class to be from CA to hit 850. Southern Oregon had 723 total new freshmen last fall.

It is interesting that UNR compared the required high school classes needed to get into a UC school vs a Nevada public university. The Nevada requirements are quite a bit easier. UNR also gives a lot of information on how they give tuition breaks to out-of-state students from Western states and not just the WUE program. Nevada is very actively recruiting CA students.

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I’m not sure why, but my kid’s HS had a whopping 11 kids go to NYU this year. More than the number going to UCLA. I’d be interested to find out what the California enrollment numbers are for NYU this year.

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I think in a few years time, the types of kids I saw at ccc where many high stats kids are there in hopes of getting into a UC will be almost non-existent, I think, and hope, that they’ll chase the merit, lower COL, and residential college experience over a second chance at a UC.

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Colorado has been a choice of California skiers for decades.

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Seeing that it’s not even a border state, that is quite a few Californians.

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A friend of mine is an English professor at both a CSU school and a CCC. Five years ago I asked him if there was a difference in the quality of the students between the schools and he said most definitely yes. The students at his CCC were by and large better students then his CSU students. His typical CCC student was working towards transfering to a four year school, most commonly USC and UCLA.

The CCC program is very much alive. The issues that have cropped up are a demand curve that far outstrips the supply and the shortfall in funding.

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It is interesting that it is primarily blue states that primarily offer only need based aid (for the most part), that have the highest percentage of students leaving the state. They all price their students out. Illinois charges 36K for instate, and 55K for OOS and international. The fastest growing group at UIUC is students from China. The number from instate drops every single year.

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^^ just to clarify- UIUC tuition for 2018-2019 ranges $16-21k depending on major- the $21k figure applies to College of Engineering or Gies College of Business, in state. All other majors pay $16k. Tuition is also frozen for 4 years once you enroll.