<p>That's the headline in today's copy of the San Jose Mercury News. The article points out how the UC freshmen enrollment jumped by 4,000 (from 33,000 to 37,000) in the past one year--and how this is having a major negative effect on students' probablilities of getting the classes, dorms, and majors they want. </p>
<p>The article starts by pointing out how one introductory economics class at UC Berkeley, with an enrollment of 720 students (which is about 1/6th of all the new freshmen admitted to Berkeley this year) was overwhelmed when an additional 150 students hoping to be admitted off the waiting list sat in. (The article had an accompanying picture showing all the extra students sitting on the stairs of the lecture hall, taking notes). </p>
<p>The article stated that many students, upon discovering that the waiting list was full, asked to be placed on the waiting list for the waiting list. </p>
<p>Apparently, one of the primary reasons for the overflow at the top UCs is that students don't want to go to the new (and therefore lower-ranked) UC Merced that opened last year--which was built primarily to handle the expected overflow.</p>