To steal a line from that great philosopher, Yogi Berra: Nobody goes there [to California] anymore, it’s too crowded.
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Same theme: No body applies to ____ The admit rate is too low.
It looks that there are way too many parents that want their kids to go to colleges, where the vast majority of the students are from the same state. I find this incomprehensible. Are the US states turning into small countries?
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Is it incomprehensible that many parents have limited money and can only afford to send their kids to in-state public universities (possibly at the lower cost of commuting from home), especially if the kids do not have the high end academic credentials to get the best scholarships elsewhere or get into the best financial aid colleges elsewhere?
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Philosopher John Rawls, were he alive today, would have a field day with this discussion. (Philosophy majors know what I’m talking about 
).
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Yet we’ve heard for years how awful it and people are leaving in droves
Has anybody talked about WHY they decided to admit more California students in the wake of this decision? I have feeling that the Berkeley residents who are fighting the school’s expansion might now have high school seniors (or high school senior grandchildren). I think they said, “Oh, dang, what if limiting the class size means my own kid can’t get in now?!” By increasing in state students, they don’t shoot themselves in the foot. 
The UC’s and CSU’s are in part vehicles to give bright CA students who otherwise might not be able to afford a college education an education. Their end goal is educating the states residents and yes people who will continue to live and work in the state. I am so proud of our state legislature for stepping up to this.
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They do. And if they are successful, then they transfer to Berkeley and the other UCs. About 30% of UC graduates transferred from a CA community college.
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I care about money. It made no sense to have to borrow to send my student to sn OOS university for twice the cost when our in-state flagship was a great option. We had enough saved that we could afford that option. We didn’t take advantage of the cheaper CC option as for their major it would have delayed their graduation since many of the lower level courses aren’t available at CC and the courses build upon one another.
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I just think we need to remember that there are some circumstances for OOS students where Cal becomes affordable. For example, if they are using the post 9-11 GI bill. These are kids that have moved around constantly for their parent’s military career, which can complicate the IS/OOS picture. We were in state in CA for years, now we’re not. I am not at all complaining. I get this is how life goes. I am not expecting any special circumstances for me or my family, just please keep in mind that everyone has their reasons for applying to certain schools.
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Well said. I now live on the east coast but am a native Californian who paid California taxes for decades without every benefiting from the UC system, I have all kinds of feelings about people posting that OOS students should be limiited. It’s killing me that after having lived in California for 30 years, I have to pay out of state tuition but I am willing to do so if it’s the right school for my kid. If Cal becomes a state school rather than a school that attracts people from around the world and around the country, I think it will become less prestigious and less interesting.
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Regardless of who applies, Berkeley has always been, and will remain, a state school.
If you haven’t already, look beyond the name, location, rankings or prestige and into what your student’s experience will be like at Berkeley. As was mentioned up thread, it is a very bureaucratic, anonymous and competitive environment. It is not a good fit for many high achieving students.
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That’s great, but nearly everyone who gets into Cal can get into an excellent private for a few dollars more, or a private with merit money. (privates have better counseling, smaller classes, housing, food…)
IMO, Cal’s College of Chemistry is worth paying OOS fees and perhaps EECS in Engineering. But CS itself is in such worldwide demand, FAANG hire from thousands of colleges, including the Cal States, particularly San Jose State, so not sure the Berkeley pedigree is worth that much more in CS.
To me, its all about value of the college dollars.
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You are truly “on your own at Cal”. My son is a 2021 math grad and he would firmly agree that if you are OOS and can afford to attend a comparable private college for a little more $, the difference in resources, access to faculty/counselors, ability to actually get your classes, etc. is well worth it. Cal’s STEM, in particular, has great worldwide prestige but the actual day to day experience can be very challenging. He reported not being able to get seats at the library (homeless people in the libraries … not kidding), lines literally out the door to get into the gym almost like a night club with “one in, one out” (so i got him a membership at a local private gym), very limited campus police presence to deal with a ton of (fairly serious) crime on the campus periphery. He is 6’2" and felt unsafe walking alone at night. It’s definitely a resilience building experience for sure, but its not for everyone. Also you typically only get campus housing for 1 year and off campus housing is crazy expensive (other than at the frat/sorority houses) which offsets some of the relatively cheap tuition. That said, it has nationwide prestige basically on par with the bottom half of the Ivy League schools, which is definitely worth a lot in the job market and for grad school.
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It has for a long time been both a state school and a school that attracts people from around the world and around the country.
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And I hope it continues to be that way
As a California resident/parent who attended UCB back in the day, I voted to send my kids to smaller private liberal arts colleges for exactly the reasons mentioned above by many posters, mainly the small class sizes and amount of resources and attention available as I did not want them to have the same experience that I had. UCB/UCLA/UCSB/UCSD etc are a great deal for in-state residents, but sitting in a large lecture hall with hundreds of other students was not the type of education I wanted for them. My eldest had the stats to get into UCB and UCLA but chose not to apply to a single UC. To be honest, even though that kid had very high stats, it would still have been a crap shoot for them and for any other high stat CA kid to get into one of the top UCs, which is why most CA parents are not happy with the situation. There are many CA kids who are rejected from Cal and UCLA who end up going to schools like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Duke, Michigan, etc. I also would not have been willing to pay OOS prices for them to attend another public school like UofWash or Michigan, as in my opinion, it would not have been worth it to pay OOS prices for a public university. I also want to reiterate that the California public school system (UCs, Cal States, and community colleges) were set up with a charter to educate all California residents, so I am not sure I understand the anger from some non-CA parents expressed here. However, I also agree having OOS and international students as part of the student body is definitely an asset to any school and would be detrimental for the UCs if only CA students were allowed in, but I don’t think that is likely to happen anytime as they need the higher tuition dollars.
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The New York Times has continued to cover this story. This article appeared yesterday: