Hi!
I live in the state of Washington and really want to get into a UC. However I am unsure about the rumors that it’ s much harder for out-of-state students to get into a UC. My dream UC’s are UCB and UCLA. Because these are two super competitive UC’s would it be almost as competitive as an ivy league for an out of state student to get in?
Any help or advice on this is apreciated!
It would also be nice if some out of state seniors who have gotten into UC’s could share their stats/ECs to help me get a gauge of competitiveness.
Can you float full pay OOS? That is your primary question.
UC’s give little to no financial aid to OOS students so expect to pay $65K/year currently to attend.
OOS students require higher GPA and test scores for admission.
OOS students have a slightly higher acceptance rate but this is do the fact that many OOS students cannot afford the UC OOS fees and will not matriculate. Also all the UC’s have a cap on OOS admissions.
See UCLA’s Freshman profile and compare the stats for In-state vs. OOS
http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof19.htm
UC admission rates for 2019 Overall:
Freshman:
UCLA: 12.4%
UC Berkeley: 16.8%
UC Irvine: 26.6%
UC Santa Barbara: 29.7%
UC San Diego: 32.3%
UC Davis: 39.1%
UC Santa Cruz: 51.8%
UC Riverside: 56.7%
UC Merced: 75.4%
Admission Rates for California Applicants:
UCLA: 11.8%
UC Berkeley: 19.2%
UC Irvine: 21.3%
UC Santa Barbara: 26.9%
UC San Diego: 27.6%
UC Davis: 35.5%
UC Santa Cruz: 42.5%
UC Riverside: 55.8%
UC Merced: 77%
Admission Rates for Out-of-State Applicants (Domestic):
UCLA: 16.5%
UC Berkeley: 17.1%
UC Santa Barbara: 38.7%
UC Irvine: 44.2%
UC San Diego: 59.6%
UC Davis: 62.8%
UC Merced: 72.4%
UC Riverside: 73.9%
UC Santa Cruz: 85.5%
It has always been a puzzle to me that the UCs with their fantastic rankings and rep, phenomenal academic offerings, opportunities providing a top of line education do not get the OOS draw that schools like UVA, Michigan get, especially given the OOS cost premium those TWO schools have over the UC’s.
I finally know someone who is going to UCDavis from the East Coast. Wanted a big state school, eschewed own state universities and was looking at UMinn, UWisconsin, Pitt, Purdue and several others schools in addition to Davis and CalPolySLO. Other than UCLA and Berkeley, I don’t even know kids from this side of the country applying to UCs. I don’t understand why things are that way.
@chemisamazing . . . yes it’s true; the individual UC campuses must be compliant to a bill that the prior governor signed in 2017 which took effect in 2018, requiring that non-resident students must have higher academic qualifications than in-state students. Here’s an article on this bill:
This, however, could have a negative effect on 1st generation CA students because they might be shut out of the high-demand E/CS type degrees.
Additionally, @cptofthehouse , there is a cap on all the UCs to limit enrollment of out-of-state and International students. For the UCs besides UCB, UCLA, UCSD and UCI, non-resident enrollment is capped at 18%, which is tough to measure because of the mix of freshman and transfer admits. For these four it’s at the percentage they enrolled non-residents in 2017-18.
As you said, UCB and UCLA have no trouble attracting OOS students. All the others rely on Internationals to fill their quota of 18% and whatever UCI and UCSB enroll.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary
that link will take you to a tool that gives admit rates by residency status for each campus.
IMHO the OOS tuition at the UCs is absurd and intentionally unrealistic for all but the wealthy. An OOS applicant who gets into UCB would probably get merit aid from a CA private - (Santa Clara, USD, LMU, etc) that will give an equal or better education for a fraction of the cost.
Would one say that the % for, say, UC Davis, Santa Barbara, Irvine campuses hover at the 15-18% of OOS and international students, in terms of matriculated students?
I just realized I do know another east coast student who ended up at a UC. The only applicant I know to UCSB and she went there because it was by far the most highly rated school where she was accepted. The UCDavis student for this year does not appear to me to be o& the caliber of what I’ve seen on these boards, and what I’ve heard from Californian friends as to who gets accepted there. In fact, this kid did very well at the OOS flagships but struck out at similarly rated in areas private schools.
Though the sampling is way too small to reach any conclusions about whether UCs give some preferences to OOS applicants, both cases I personally know are academically under what CA kids on CC are getting in terms of UC admissions. In the case of one kid I knew who got into UCLA, it was the again the most highly rated school (USnWR) to which he was accepted and he got merit money to sweeten the deal. He came of the waitlist at Wesleyan through aggressive GC assistance where he went instead. The prep school he attended has a large contingency of kids going to Wesleyan.
@cptofthehouse . . . here are the campuses you mentioned and the percentage residencies for 2019 for the total undergrad student bodies; I’ll throw in UCB and UCLA:
Campus…Int’l…OOS…Combined…CA
UCD…14.5%…3.4%…17.9%…82.1%
UCI…16.7%…2.2%…18.9%…81.1%
UCSB…13.7%…4.8%…18.5%…81.5%
UCSD…16.6%…5.8%…22.4%…77.6%
UCB…11.6%…13.0%…24.6%…75.4%
UCLA…10.9%…12.1%…23.0%…77.0%
Both SB and SD are gradually increasing their OOS enrollments. UCLA just flipped the switch to have more OOS students a couple of years ago. I’ve looked at social media and the University is popular in Washington, Hawaii, Arizona, Texas, and somewhat popular in the tri-state region, Mass, Maryland, Virgina, Florida.
The freshmen classes for all need to have more OOS students – at UCB and UCLA it’s probably closer to 2:1, OOS to International makeup – because more International students transfer in primarily from the California community colleges. There are effectively no OOS students who transfer in from them, or they become independent and get residency, which I think happens more than one would think. The Internationals transfer in pretty much as full-pay students. (The UCs have great world-wide appeal.)
Thank you so much for all your comments!
So what I’m getting is that it’s not necessarily harder to get into UC’s as an out-of-state student, but it’s more about how outrageously expensive OOS tuition is.
A lot of you mention merit aid… is this aid that UC’s will offer you or private companies/orgs will?
Though pricier than most of the OOS flagships , the UCs are less expensive than like rated private colleges and state schools like Michigan , UVA. Thank you for the information!
Merit aid is available but you usually need to be in the top 1-2% of the admitted applicants and it is offered by the schools. In general, the UC’s give good need-based aid to qualified California applicants.
Regents is the most common merit aid at the UC’s and it is something you should not count on making a huge dent in the costs.
**Regent Amount: Awards vary by campus and are not transferable if you transfer to another UC campus.
- UC Berkley $2,500
- UC Davis $7,500
- UC Irvine $5,000
- UCLA $2,000
- UC Merced $7,000
- UC Riverside $10,000
- UC San Diego $2,000
- UC Santa Barbara $6,000
- UC Santa Cruz $5,000
In addition, certain perks are provided to Regents recipients: priority registration, extended library privileges, honors dormitories, faculty mentorship, and others, dependent upon campus.
Number of Scholarships Awarded: Varies annually—students in the top 1-2% of the applicant pool are considered for the scholarship.
Eligible Students: Entering freshman or transfer student who demonstrate academic excellence (based upon GPA, standardized test scores, and other academic criteria) along with personal accomplishments. Must be a US Citizen, Permanent Resident or CA Dream Act Student. Students must be enrolled full time and maintain a 3.25 GPA in order to continue receiving the scholarship.
One huge difference is that private schools offer need-based aid and/or merit aid and the two publics you mention do offer need-based aid to OOS’ers.
UMich and UVa are also within a days drive of millions of OOS’ers. (and most kids go to a college not more than a days drive from home) The UC’s are more of a days plane ride. (sorry, Nevada)
to the OP: U-Dub is a fantastic school. No way a UC offers 2x more value (to match teh 2x price)
@bluebayou . . . you’re recommending an OOS university over a UC, regardless of price on the UCLA board, but you recommend an in-state university, Washington, over a UC here.
If OP has intentions of attending a UC being resident of Washington, don’t you think that he or she would have considered cost beforehand along with his or her parents, especially since Washington sends a lot of students to UC?
If UCB and UCLA admit 1,000 OOS students per year, or an average of 20 per 50 states, there will be more than 20 who attend each of them from Washington. That could be a good deal over 20.
U-Dub similarly draws well from California. Try to stay true to your advice. 