Living in NY, would I have either an advantage or disadvantage in applying to the UCs? Or is geographic distribution not too important for UCs? For instance, if there is a californian out there w/ very very similar grades/scores/extracurricular/essays/etc to me, would one person have an advantage? I am interested in UCB and UCLA 
<p>I am pretty sure people from cali get a huge advantage.</p>
<p>You can get into any UC you want, including UC Berkeley and UCLA from NY.</p>
<p>However, you have to go to a local community college first and then transfer in after 2 years. You're guranteed a spot.</p>
<p>"Living in NY, would I have either an advantage or disadvantage in applying to the UCs?"</p>
<p>Huge disadvantage. The whole admissions process of a UC will always favor an in-state student over an out-of-state student. And if you do get in, don't count on financial aid. $40,000 worth of loans the first year (and establishing residency for tuition purposes is nearly impossible). It's the painful truth I faced when I got accepted, and it's the primary reason I turned Berkeley down.</p>
<p>As golubb said, your best bet would be to come to cali and go to a cc. However, you'll have to take honors classes and have a 3.8ish gpa with a bunch of ecs to have a shot at Cal or UCLA. On the up side, you could probobly earn instate tuition by the time you transfered.</p>
<p>The facts:</p>
<p>It's much harder for a non Californian to get into a UC, you must have much higher stats than the average for each school. Most UCs are have under 6% out of state students.</p>
<p>Though kids do get in from other states without having to go to a cc. Apply to those where your stats will be in the top 20% and you'll have a reasonable chance.</p>
<p>As mentioned, you will have to pay the full out of state cost, almost $40K, for all years. Expect it to take 5 years to get all the classes you need to graduate. Making UCs more expensive than most private colleges. There was a thread on whether it was worth it, and I think the consensus was that it isn't for most.</p>