State Residency fairness??

<p>I was on the collegeboard website and I noticed a very import determinant on being admitted to UC Berkeley is state residency. Does that mean that students living in California have a better chance of being admitted than students from other states? Even if the students from out of state have high marks and test scores? Sorry, but this really confuses me, I plan on applying to UC Berkeley so this really struck my attention.</p>

<p>Yes. The State tax payers have funded the University and so the residents get first dibs.</p>

<p>You are competing for a seat with the other out of state residents in a separate pool of 10% of the seats. You also get to pay a much higher rate of tuition than in state students.</p>

<p><a href=“http://opa.berkeley.edu/statistics/UndergraduateProfile.pdf[/url]”>http://opa.berkeley.edu/statistics/UndergraduateProfile.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@texaspg Yikes…that’s a small percentage for out of state residents.</p>

<p>Why do u think it’s unfair? </p>

<p>Do the taxpayers/voters of CA have an obligation to educate children of non-taxpayers/voters, any more than the taxpayers/voters of your state have the obligation to educate children of non-taxpayers/voters?</p>

<p>It is, dreamwriter, but it’s important to realize that states establish public colleges and universities for a fairly narrow mission: to educate and train residents of a state so that they can serve that state as nurses, teachers, dentists, architects, doctors, business leaders, lawyers, EMTs, etc. So Berkeley’s mission is to train Californians to do jobs that California needs done.</p>

<p>(x-post with GMT+7)</p>

<p>150 years ago this might have made sense when it took a week or more to travel from one state to another.</p>

<p>Now it makes no sense whatsoever.</p>

<p>Someone get their cheap in-state tuition “to supprt the good people of the commonwealth” but sit at their desk and actually work for an entity 1,000 miles away.</p>

<p>Times have changed. The rules should change with them.</p>

<p>@GMTplus7 When did I ever say it was unfair? It was just the subject of my question. All I asked for was a straightforward answer, I’m applying to college soon so I just wanted some clarification.</p>

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<p>You implied it in your title:</p>

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<p>@Entomom Yes because it was a question. I never said it was unfair.</p>

<p>Good try, but your argument does’t hold water. How about: State Residency policies? IS vs. OOS Residency? etc. You brought up the question of fairness. So own it.</p>

<p>@entomom Umm ok didn’t know this was a debate forum sir.</p>

<p>Her username is entomom – how did you get “sir” from that?</p>

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<p>It has nothing to do with distance and everything to do w taxes and voting. A resident of CA still has to pay CA income taxes to support UC Berkeley no matter how far away their desk is in CA.</p>

<p>In practice, Berkeley frosh admissions is competitive enough that the baseline UC eligibility (which differs for California and non-California residents – 3.0 HS GPA versus 3.4 HS GPA) is not really relevant at Berkeley (but is relevant at less selective UCs). All applicants are considered similarly, though selectivity varies by division or major. But one area where applicants from non-California high schools are at a disadvantage is that non-California high schools do not have designated honors courses listed in <a href=“http://doorways.ucop.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://doorways.ucop.edu</a> that can give bonus points in calculating HS GPA.</p>

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<p>Actually … there are at least two forum members here who have, reportedly, different genders than their user names would imply.</p>

<p>“entomom” could stand for gender-neutral Enterprising Ohio Managerial Occupational Masseuse for all we know. ;)</p>

<p>OP: there’s an argument to be made that being from outside California actually is a favorable factor for admission to UCB and UCLA. The year by D was accepted from OOS to UCLA, I believe the statistics showed a slight advantage for OOS at her level of SAT scores etc. This is a little bit fuzzy as she did not matriculate to UCLA in the end. </p>

<p>My understanding looking in from the outside: the CA legislature has systematically decreased funding to the legendary University of California system to the point that UC campuses need a critical mass of OOS students and their full out of state tuition. Therefore your top concern may be gaining an offer of admission, but don’t apply to Berkeley unless you are 100% positive your parents will pay at least $50,000 per year out of pocket for you to attend.</p>