The universal refrain from my oldest and all his high stat friends last year was anywhere but a UC. They are at top 20 schools and top 100 schools all over now. A few are at UCLA and UCB but only the ones who didn’t have any other options. The UC campuses are hurting in many areas (not in app numbers though) but word is trickling back to the high school kids and they are casting a much bigger net than just a couple years ago.
I agree @dragonmom3 . The reality though is I’m Hispanic, my daughter is in an interracial relationship… the political climate in our country right now makes them fearful of other parts of the country. Is it rational? Probably not. But, it’s there. Neither of my teens could picture themselves at school in the Midwest or South.
Another reality is that my younger son is transgender, and a lot of states don’t seem to want people like him. He will happily stay in California if possible.
My S17 applied to 5 UCs and a bunch of privates. 1/3 of the privates he applied to are in CA. It is looking like he will attend a private that happens to be in California, though we aren’t sure yet. I think many at his school apply only/mainly to UCs and CSUs because that is what is familiar and also because those schools are familiar to the GCs at the school. His high school has group sessions for help with the UC and CSU applications.
Also, remember that California is 1/8 of the entire US population, so if the California proportion of anything–like students at an OOS school–seems large, first ask if it is more or less than 1/8 of the total to see if CA is over- or under-represented.
I think your group is a small sample and there are zillions of small samples all over California and their mileage varies. At our private high school, they barely mention the UCs as an option at college night, as most of these parents aren’t interested. The majority will likely end up at privates around the country (many up and down west coast, but they do fan out, especially the high stat kids). At our local public high school, the UCs and CSUs are a popular choice - seems everyone goes to Cal Poly or Davis. But no sense in paying 50K+ for UW which seems to have many of the same issues the UCs do. I have heard it referred to as UC-Seattle.
@socalm om007, I live in Texas. I was married to an Indian, I am white, we never had any problems. We are no longer married but it was not because of racial problems. Our daughter has not had any problems either.
@Jliu32472 UT Austin (and Austin in general) is actually very liberal so I don’t think they’d think that about Californians 
I can assure you that we have no shortage of California students at the University of Colorado-Boulder, in spite of the fact that our OOS tuition is high and our aid is low. But the number is probably much different in Kansas and Nebraska.
And then we send all of our kids to school in California except for a few splitters who go to Ivies or top LACs.
In 2015, 9,386 California residents applied to the UW (11,275 applied from Washington), and 800 of the 1,393 US OOS freshmen who enrolled were from California (ACT 27-32).
For these students, tuition, room and board totaled around $45K, with many receiving a Purple and Gold Scholarship of $5 to 7K per year, bringing the cost to around $38 to $40K. This is only around $10 to 12K more than UCB and UCLA, and around $20 to $25K less than many California privates.
Projecting to 2017, with a 26% increase in US OOS applications over 2015, approximately 11,800 California residents applied to UC-Seattle (perhaps exceeding the number of WA applicants).
I think most kids in most states go to college in their home state, not just Californians.
That said, I think some of you might need to get your kids out to see more of the US, you might be surprised. We live in literally the most diverse county in America, Fort Bend County …In the red state of Texas. Our HS was white, black, hispanic, asian, christian, hindu, muslim, etc. all getting along together for the most part. We even had socioeconomic diversity. And gay kids not afraid to be out. Can the rural areas in Texas be monocultured, yes. And those areas determine State politics for the time being. But the urban and near urban areas are anything but.
With hundreds of CCs, 23 CSUs and 9 UCs spread all over the state, the public system here is so diverse that there is no need for most kids to leave. (I don’t mean racially, i mean varied environments/sizes/focus areas and personalities) It is also quite cost effective - making OOS hard to rationalize for those that aren’t wealthy. The reality is, the weather sucks in most of Arizona and Texas, the East Coast and virtually all of the mid-west. Why leave unless it is for a unique opportunity?
Both Duke and Vanderbilt were significantly less than UCLA (Regents) who offered $200! for our D14 (currently at Vandy)
We just had a counselor meeting with our current HS Junior and she gave us the dreaded list of “impacted majors”
(basically all the desirable ones) at the state publics.
Couple that with the low acceptance rates and ridiculously high standards–1450+SAT/ 4.0–waitlisted or denied–
those out of state schools with generous merit and need based aid should be considered.
And the “Red State” thing seems both arrogant and immature.
Somehow CA young people think they are so enlightened.
It’s weird.
Practically impossible to graduate in 4 years? Patently ridiculous. Last I checked, 7 of the 9 UCs had 4yr grad rates over 50%. Practically impossible would be rates of 5-10%. Over 50% = you are more likely than not to graduate in 4 years.
My CA S17 is considering schools in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, all for their very large merit scholarships.
Like many other middle class CA families, we can’t afford the UCs, so we have to look OOS.
Want to graduate in 4 years? Go to a private school
Daniel Wheaton Daniel WheatonContact Reporter
California Gov. Jerry Brown wants more college students to graduate within four years, something that is becoming more difficult for students nationwide.
In proposing his latest budget summary, he listed the four-year graduation rates of the Cal State schools (average 19%), and nearly all of them fell behind the national average of 34 percent for public universities.
As later noted in this 2016 article the average 4 year grad rate for UC’s is higher at 57% but those have already pre-selected high achieving students-most likely with several if not many AP credits.
And even at the UC level 43% are NOT graduating in 4 years!
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/data-watch/sdut-graduation-rates-2016jan29-story.html
4 yr grad rate- Stanford 76% Berkeley 72%
Berkeley is out of reach (17.5% acceptance rate) and over-rated in my opinion as a parent of a chemistry grad.
My son also started with 12 AP’s but did finish in 4 years.
4 year grad rate - UCLA 74%, UC Irvine 72%, UCSB 70% (numbers may vary a point or two depending on source, these are from US News for consistency)
It’s very possible to graduate in 4 years or less from any of the UCs and CSUs, even as an engineer at Cal Poly. My son will take his first graduate level course this spring as a third year. He’ll have 7 classes his 4th year which means he’ll get a significant amount of his MS done in 4 years. Don’t dodge time and don’t dodge professors and it’s no problem.
Based on the above article (#33) the numbers vary a lot!
That article seems to use a chart with older data. Try this link:
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=university+of+california&s=CA&ct=1&ic=1&id=110705