<p>The UC used to accept the "top 1/8th" of high school grads in California. At least twice on this forum I've seen references to "the top 4%." I'm not in California any longer, although I lived there for 42 years and went to a UC, so I can only share a couple of partially-uninformed opinions. First, the population of California has grown faster than the capacity of the UCs to deal with it. Merced is the first new campus since 1966 (or thereabouts). The population of the state has tripled in that time. While populations at campuses like Irvine, San Diego and Davis have increased greatly, the capacity increase just hasn't kept up. Second, the system needs money. If the UC needs to go to the heavily-endowed system of setting higher tuitions and then offering generous need-based aid, they should consider it. The UC is still taxpayer supported so I would think that a base tuition of $22,000 is outrageous, but I can see it going to $12-14, with generous in-state need-based aid. Third, as long as the avoid things like the UW "everyone is a victim" essay topic, making the admissions criteria broader doesn't seem all that bad to me. There are so many things that go into adolescence that using a single morning-long test and grades -- I'll do my rant on high school grades some time -- as the only measures is sadly lacking.</p>