So in one of my last posts a person mentioned that it’s going to be super difficult to get into a UC or CSU school since I’m an out of state. How difficult is it really? I know my tuition is going to be high (I’m not worried about that), I just want to see if they prioritize in state to the point where there is barely any out of state students being accepted
It varies a lot, depending on the specific campus. For Fall 2017, the UC system as a whole actually accepted a slight majority (54.1%) of out-of-state applicants (this means US out-of-staters, not internationals). So that may not sound unreasonably difficult.
But there is a catch: most out-of-staters target two UC campuses specifically: UC Berkeley and UCLA. And for those two campuses, the Fall 2017 OOS acceptance rates were much lower than the overall rate (22.1% and 23.1% respectively). And those two campuses (along with UC San Diego and UC Irvine) are now subject to caps on OOS/international enrollment, so the acceptance rates for those groups are likely to drop further in the future.
In general, the best odds for out-of-staters in the UC system are at less popular campuses that are currently under their OOS/international enrollment caps. These include UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, and UC Merced. The Fall 2017 OOS acceptance rates at those campuses were as high as 83.2% at UCSC.
I don’t know if the CSU campuses break out the resident vs. non-resident acceptance rates. In general, CSU campuses aren’t well known on a national basis, and they attract relatively few out-of-state applicants. Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and San Diego State are probably the principal exceptions.
Below is the non-resident enrollment summary for all the Cal states. I do not see specific acceptance rates for in-state vs. OOS, but CSU’s specifically prioritize in-state (local service area) applicants from non-local in-state vs. OOS. OOS applicants are cash cows for the UC’s and CSU’s so they will consider competitive OOS applicants. The difficulty as an OOS getting into a UC or Cal State is very dependent upon your qualifications and schools like UCLA/UCB will set a higher bar for OOS applicants.
http://www.calstate.edu/as/stat_reports/2017-2018/nrf17_01.htm
Statistical Application reports for Cal States showing In-State and All so you can determine how many are OOS.
http://www.calstate.edu/as/stat_reports/2017-2018/apps_f2017.xlsx
Keep in mind that the cost of student housing in most cities in California is also quite high by national standards. So if you are from OOS, the total cost of attending a state school in California (tuition plus housing) is likely to be far higher than it would be in your home state. And while California does have some highly ranked state universities (primarily UCs), many others (primarily CSUs) may not be any better ranked or have stronger national reputations than those in your home state.
You can see this at UCLA’s “Freshman Profile” page, which shows comparative stats for the frosh entering in Fall 2016.
For example, look at the “Quartiles - Admits” table. For CA Resident admits, the 25th Percentile ACT score was 27 and the 25th Percentile SAT was 1790. For OOS admits, the numbers were 32 and 2060. So the bar was clearly higher for OOS admissions.
http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof16.htm