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The newest University of California campus here has tried attracting students based on its own merits. Now it is using other schools' merits as well.</p>
<p>UC Merced will allow about 1,000 students who narrowly missed admission to a more established UC campus to attend the Central Valley school for two years and then transfer to the university they originally chose. Four UC campuses ? Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego ? issued the "Shared Experience" offers last week.</p>
<p>Administrators at the sparsely attended Merced campus, which will welcome its third freshman class in September, hope most of the diverted students will stay after the first two years.</p>
<p>"This program takes advantage of enrollment capacity at UC Merced," said university spokeswoman Patti Waid Istas. "We'll have quite a few (students) who decide to stay."</p>
<p>Growth has been slower than expected since the 100-acre university opened in September 2005. Planners had hoped for 2,600 students by the third year, but administrators now are aiming for 2,000 in the fall term.</p>
<p>Freshmen enrollment dropped 38 percent last fall. Ongoing construction and a shortage of nearby amenities have made the school a hard sell for students outside the Central Valley.</p>
<p>Along with several other strategies, the Shared Experience program is part of a renewed push for higher enrollment. The same program boosted attendance at UC Santa Cruz in the 1980s, when some students were guaranteed
subsequent entry to UC Berkeley, and the University of Texas system has a similar strategy...
<p>Great news for the students. Now, they may even have an opportunity to discover the rare event of a full professor actually teaching a class. :D</p>
<p>xiggi, i went to berkeley, and after my freshman year, most of my instructors were in fact professors. whether they were full professors, assistant or associate professor i can't tell you. but i can tell you one of them was a Nobel prize winner -- as was another whose class i sat in on. if you know how, even schools the size of berkeley or ucla can offer unparallel access to world-class talent.</p>
<p>Hey, you gotta start somewhere. If you are a brand new UC located in a sparsely-populated part of the state, linking yourself to the UC mother ship is probably not a bad way to start generating some interest.</p>
<p>It seems that UC Merced (UCM?) will always have an uphill battle due to its location in the central valley away from the coast and away from cities yet close enough to UCB, UCD, and UCSC to have geographical competition from those. On the plus side, it's close to the mountains, Yosemite, Sequoia. The location of UC Riverside has always been a challenge to attracting students and it seems that Merced is in roughly the same boat although its proximity to the mountains may edge out UCR. Location and atmosphere matter a lot to prospective students.</p>
<p>xiggi - oh, we were having FUN? Well then, to quote Gilda Radner's Rosannadannna-whatever-- "Never mind." (insert big smile and high squeeky voice here.) </p>
<p>barrons -- wrong coast. Cookies & dinner I believe are strictly Ivy League & only the select Seven Sisters...</p>
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<p>seems that UC Merced (UCM?) will always have an uphill battle due to its location in the central valley away from the coast and away from cities yet close enough to UCB, UCD, and UCSC to have geographical competition from those.<<</p>
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<p>I'll say. The need to establish UCM was never educational; it was purely political -- a bone thown to state legislators from the central valley who griped and lobbied for years because they didn't have a UC. Unfortunately, there never was a need for a UC in the central valley. There wasn't a need for another UC anywhere. UCSC and UCR have struggled for years to fill up their freshman classes. Now UCM can join that dubious club.</p>