Ok…so which OOS student/parent will be the one to go after Cal for their application fee? It’s not insignifcant for most people (and there’s a pretty big gap between fee waiver and those for whom it is chump change), and OOS students were applying under the expectation of a historical amount of seats. Those are going to be almost non-existent. I imagine a very large % of OOS students would not have applied to Berkely if they knew the scenario for OOS acceptances.
Legal case can be made for both sides. Interested to see if anyone tries…
I don’t know what state you’re from, but I certainly wouldn’t feel my kid was entitled to admission to your top state school, even if her stats were perfect.
I think we’re in a different era now than in prior years. One, we have a budget surplus. Two, there appears to be strong sentiment to help our public colleges, if the legislature is strongly considering carving out an exemption to CEQA for universities to build housing. Traditionally, exemptions to CEQA have been like pulling teeth w/o anesthesia here in CA.
One…this year for OOS isn’t what anyone was expecting. It wasn’t clear to OOS applicants upfront what the situation for admission was going to be.
Two…the prioritization of IS students, which is common in many places. It’s not about being deserving or not. It’s about state and university policy, and being upfront with the general public about how this is handled. Georgia Tech is a great example. My nephew lives in Georgia. He and my son basically have the same stats. However, the acceptance rate for IS students is 39% and only 11% for OOS. Because Georgia offers scholarships for students from Georgia high schools with a certain GPA, they prioritize in state students. It just simply makes it harder to get in if you as OOS, something we understood well going into the process.
The only difference between CA and the states you have mentioned here is that they are transparent about their in-state vs OOS numbers. My daughter applied to UNC knowing the 15% OOS number and she still got in because NC didn’t decide to just change the 15% to zero few days before results came out unlike UCB is planning to. For all I care, CA public schools can choose to become 100% in-state: just don’t put OOS kids and parents through this type of unnecessary stress.
14% actually according to links provided WAY above. However, CA will likely increase that figure to cover the potential shortfall, assuming the ratio of in-state-to-OOS admissions increases.
I am rather pessimistic that the CA State legislature can be trusted to deliver on this commitment long-term. Right now, the finances are as strong as they have been and there is an election fight and so, this sounds good and simple (coming from the vote seeking politicians). Now, don’t the Regents have to consider what happens long-term and if there is a recession or two?
It just struck me why you might be making these statements suggesting that everyone in the United States should get equal access to a school like UCB.
Let me start by clarifying that I am basing this on my experience working for decades with foreign born colleagues from all around the world. If I’m off base here I apologize, because my only intent is to explain and nothing negative is implied.
So, yes the United States is one nation - but we are a federation (union) of 50 sovereign states. That means each state gets to manage its own budget and priorities. This is different from some countries where provinces and districts are merely administrative divisions of the country’s national government, which can choose to allocate resources and dictate policies as they please.
Therefore, UCB being an institution funded by California’s tax payers has a right to prioritize its own citizens.
My wife and I pay a huge amount of taxes to New Jersey, but for the reasons stated above this makes no difference to California or any other state.
Hope that clarifies. It may not seem fair, but that’s how it works.
People seem to think there is a scarcity mentality with regard to seats available, but the scarcity is real. In 2017 my daughter applied to 7 UCs, she was waitlisted at 2 and rejected at 5. She was also waitlisted at SDSU and Long Beach. She was accepted at Cal Poly SLO and Pomona as well as a few other csu safeties. Same kid was accepted at UT Austin (with a limit on oos) and Purdue with some scholarship money, as well as some other private schools. Had she not been accepted at SLO she’d have attended UT Austin or Purdue. She was accepted at impressive out of state flagships but wasn’t accepted at a single UC? That’s how competitive it is here. Could she have gone to UC Merced? Yes, but why when she had better programs available to her?
I don’t want to argue based on your predetermined thought process of being a California resident. As I said I have 2 houses in Cali
No point in arguing
Curious, Do you think because you own property in CA you should have preference to get in a UC or CSU or are you of belief it should be of equal playing field regardless of where u live?
This forum is not here to discuss taxes or rights to admissions for a particular state student
This is here to discuss and help each other the available resources and help our kids succeed
We are not teaching our kids the right thing by saying this is mine and this is yours based on which state you live in.
UC Berkeley is a great school and world renowned school
Harvard should only admit Massachusetts residents. And so should MIT
Nobody in California should deserve to go there
Duke should only admit North Carolina students and UPen only Pennsylvania
Let’s keep the competition within the state because we pay those taxes. That’s ridiculous
If I were an OOS applicant and I wanted to go to Cal, I’d definitely give it my best shot, with grades and ECs, knowing that it is a tougher road than in-state. I’d also never RELY on a great state school to adhere to admission precedents, as public institutions are continually going through changes and cuts all over the U.S. This years circumstances would be upsetting and frustrating to me, but also not completely unexpected.
I’m also not going to berate the 100,000+ excellent California applicants that are going to get rejected from Cal and UCLA about how unfair it is about all the preference they get.
Everybody deserves based on their intelligence and hard work where they should go. I am just bringing that point because people keep on saying that they pay the taxes for that state and they deserve the seat more than the others
