Parents, generally speaking, are NOT selecting the best programs or best fit, instead they’re seeking brand and prestige with their college selections. Brand recognition, however, takes decades to develop and may never truly disrupt existing hierarchies. I recall reading somewhere that the list of top US universities in 1920 is essentially the same as in 2020 (i.e. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.). I also recall a survey of parents about the best law schools, in which Princeton was highly ranked. The problem is that Princeton does not have a law school!
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That brand is absolutely what is valuable. The reality is that if a company is evaluating a Cal State Fullerton graduate against a UC Berkeley graduate, the UCB graduate will get the job. The mere fact that someone is “accomplished enough” to even get into a UCB is impressive as hell. But the reality is that a CSUF graduate has received a fantastic practical education preparing them to hit the ground running. Does that matter? Not usually.
These perceptions are powerful. And it’s human nature for people to seek out something that will give them a clear life advantage and “bragging rights”. It’s much harder to ignore the influence that has.
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Another facet of that “commuter school” issue is what students do at weekends. The D of friends here in NorCal went to UCR and found most kids she met were from SoCal and went home at weekends. That may be exacerbated if a large fraction of students are poor and don’t have much money to spend on social activities. She found the social life was so challenging that she eventually dropped out.
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That’s too bad. UCI is also very quiet on weekends as a lot of local students go home.
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Yes, very few of our NorCal students go there because they are aware of that challenge.
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As an OOS parent, I am definitely biased towards the OOS perspective. Just doing some quick research on UC funding, it seems like the UC schools revenue come equally from state, federal, and tuition sources. Thus, just from a mathematical perspective, State residents could claim 1/3 of the seats. But as a federal income tax payer, I should also have access to UC seats. If I am off on this analysis, I apologize in advance.
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I think the students at UCB generally oppose the nonresident caps:
https://www.dailycal.org/2021/07/08/a-nonresident-cap-wont-solve-education-inequality/
This is more an issue for parents who fear their in-state flagship may be out of reach for their child. So I doubt nonresidents would experience hostility from other accepted students.
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Having no dog in this fight, I think that UCB could go 100% in state students if they want. No issues with me. However, I know they won’t do that. Why? They cannot be considered a world class university if they close their doors to OOS and international students.
Frankly, I always used to wonder what Berkeley would be like if it was a private school.
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In fact, nobody can claim anything. It is ultimately up to the Regents but this is the issue: UCs need the State of CA/legislature for a number of things (and currently, to modify the environmental rules). So, state politicians have the biggest carrots and sticks in that sense and have pushed UCB to tilt more IS. Oh well. UCB is a great college and fit for so many IS and OOS students. I wish all of them best of luck - and it’s going to VERY rough for OOS in this cycle.
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I agree there isn’t going to be hostility from current students toward OOS but then these surveyed students are safely inside the gates. I wonder about the opinions of waiting seniors. My son and his friends are angry with UCB, not OOS students who want a seat. He understands why they do but is still thrilled more in states will be admitted. Speaking anecdotally, my son is the one in our house who has Cal as first choice due to it being #1 in CS and its ties with Silicon Valley. For myself, I worry we won’t be able to find a place for him to live that we can afford so I’m hoping for Irvine or UCLA. At least he can commute if he has to.
You do as an OOS Student
Looking at federal total dollars is not as simple as you make it out to be.
Federal Funding is mainly Student Aid and research funding.
Student Aid is awarded to the student wherever he enrolls and not awarded to a specific institution.
Research aid the Federal government is buying a product “research” from whatever institution
they contracted with.
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The research activity on campus is one major factor in making institutions like Berkeley top ranked and highly desired by students. Federal funding is critical to meet that purpose.
“Federal funds are the university’s single most important source of support for research, accounting for more than half of UC’s total research awards.”
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The California Governor, Legislature, UC Regents, UC Presidents and CA voters are the ones who decide on UC funding and the enrollment make-up of its public universities.
But Congress holds the power of the Federal purse. Interestingly, the previous President proposed cutting federal grants for schools as well as the Education Department’s budget, but Congress rejected those proposals. Anyway, I don’t see Congress agreeing to anything right now. 
As a Berkeley resident (who does not support the NIMBYs behind this most recent decision but also has been around long enough to see that there’s plenty of shared blame as to why UCB is in this terrible situation, and mostly I just feel awful for prospective students), I’m watching all of this with interest and concerns about how it will shape admitted classes this year and in the future. We’ve got one child who is a freshman at UCLA, and he talks about how important the OOS and international students are to the overall experience. It’s part of what makes the university top-notch – if you limit admissions so that it becomes almost all kids from CA, you are in some senses changing the very nature of the education everybody is getting. On the other hand we have a daughter who is a junior in HS, and she’ll be going through all of this next year (it’s been great to have a year off! not really looking forward to it all again!) – of course I’d love for her chances of getting in to go up a little bit by having an in-state advantage (though Cal certainly won’t be her first choice as it’s too close to home). Complicated matters! As an aside, you are pretty much guaranteed 3 years of campus housing at UCLA, with more dorms opening regularly. They are using the Hill as Athlete’s Village for the 2028 Olympics, so lots of construction and upgrading going on. Nice bonus is that the cost of dorming at UCLA is significantly less than at Cal or even UCSC or some others.
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Housing has been great at UCLA for my daughter this year as well. We have a high school senior too who is interested in Berkeley but can’t imagine dealing with that housing nightmare.
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Informative ABC7 news interview with UCB rep about the mitigation measures to ensure maximum freshman enrollment (College Confidential is mentioned in the interview at the 6:00 minute).
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Great find. Around the 3:40 mark, there was a comment about In-state accounting for 90% of incoming students. Does he mean 90% of the affected pool (or) overall?
Are you kidding me?
Given that he did not answer the question about comparisons with numbers from last year, I think it is overall.
If that truly turns out to be the case, that’s a big drop for the OOS + International pool. Normally, they represent 30% (corrected) of the incoming class but I think he probably means 90% within the impacted cohort. The financial impact is huge otherwise. The legislature allocated funds to bring down OOS to 18%, and bringing it down to 10% will require significantly greater funds.
Perhaps they mean 90% of the in-person population will be in-state and the remote/deferred population will be OOS and International heavy.