<p>Under</a> Financial Stress, More Colleges Cap Enrollments - TIME</p>
<p>Here's looking at the bright side of life: Cal States will be a better place for those who remain:</p>
<p>"Still, for students already enrolled at Cal State — or for those lucky enough to gain admission under the tougher standards — the crackdown could ensure the quality of their education. The cap should prevent classes from getting so big that there's not enough, say, lab equipment or academic advising. It will also increase the likelihood that students will be able to get a spot in each of the classes they need to take in order to graduate, thereby saving many students from a costly fifth (or sixth) year."</p>
<p>is this affecting the UC system too?</p>
<p>They're talking about it for sure. UCSD and UCLA have been over enrolled for a few years now, and the whole system is getting their funding cut this year. I won't be surprised at all if UCs have to follow CSUs this year - there's simply not enough room to match the growth in qualified applicants.</p>
<p>It's sad that California can't keep the promise we made years back, but that was a vastly different time. Either tuition/"fees" will have to go up, funding will have to increase, or growth will have to reduce or stop. The first has already/is still happening (doubling every few years - to be fair, 'only' ~$9,000/year at UCs), the second has gone the opposite direction, and CSUs are already making the third happen.</p>
<p>Actually, I believe that the UCs are already planning to curtail freshman enrollment:
University</a> of California - UC Newsroom | UC Regents warn freshman enrollments will be curtailed without sufficient funding, adjust budget to clarify no student fee increase assumed</p>
<p>Does anyone else but me think this is especially unfair to the Class of 2009? Many of these kids had certain expectations and now they won't be able to even go to CSU.... I understand the economic situation. Heck, I am a state employee about to have a 5% pay cut. But I accept having the state budget balanced on my back. After over 15 years as a state employee, I am used to it. But I hate having the budget balanced on the backs of our children, especially without any warning to them. They are our future.</p>
<p>The budget problem has been playing out in California for quite some time and I don't consider this unexpected. The stock market started it's slide in summer/fall 2007 and it was hard not to see if you've been watching. I'm in NH and knew about California's problems last year. These sorts of problems are in the states that we're interested for public colleges too and we've been watching for a while.</p>
<p>What is the problem in CA? My sister's kids have had a miserable time getting classes to get out. Yet the tuition charged is way more than our system in NY that doesn't have these problems. One is coming to NY for a SUNY and his OOS costs are the same price as a UC.</p>
<p>CA has chronic budget problems - they want to spend way more than they take in.</p>
<p>HOw does illegal immigration play into the budget crisis in California?</p>
<p>Here's NY's budget summary. It seems that their problems arrived with the problems on Wall St which is different from California's problems which seem more structural. I wouldn't be too sure of any state university system without studying their budget positions and projections.</p>
<p>NYS</a> DOB: 2008-09 Mid-Year Update to the Financial Plan Executive Summary - Introduction</p>
<p>California has a bizarre budget and funding structure that I am not really able to comment on, since I don't know enough about it. Perhaps someone else can comment on this.</p>
<p>In any event, I think it is interesting that all of the enrollment caps are being placed on Freshman admission and seemingly not transfer admissions. I think that both the CSUs and CUs want to shift some of the cost to California's Community Colleges. California has a very strong (but also underfunded) Community College system with state-wide articulation agreements between all Com Colleges, CSUs and UCs. I feel that the CSUs and UCs are effectively encouraging kids to begin their college education at Com Colleges and then finish up at UCs. That way students are at UCs for only two instead of four years.</p>
<p>These enrollment caps couldn't be coming at a worse time since there will be a record amount of HS grads this year. This will be a very competitive application cycle in California: Fewer slots for more applicants.</p>
<p>Other states have had this problem for a while. I read an article a few years ago on students using UNH as their safety and finding that they didn't get in. This due to a shift to public universities and out-of-state applications growth.</p>
<p>I would think that universities do better financially teaching general ed courses as they charge more for the same courses.</p>
<p>California has been incredibly generous to their university and community college system. A comparison of community college prices in New England compared to California is a little shocking showing how little some states fund community colleges compared to California.</p>
<p>I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let's learn!</p>
<p>
[quote]
HOw does illegal immigration play into the budget crisis in California?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>We spend 15 billion dollars a year on illegal immigrants. I'd much rather the tax money my parents paid went towards better public schools and more who are able to go to college.</p>