Maybe it’s cause I’m from the east coast but after the first few responses with all the UCLA, UC’s, UCMerced, etc., I was totally lost. :-S
That’s OK… us west coasters get lost in all of your east coast LACs 
@Tperry1982
The University of California (“UC”) has 9 campuses, not perceived to be equal in quality & admission difficulty:
UC Berkeley (UCB)
Los Angeles (LA)
San Diego (UCSD)
Davis (UCD)
Irvine (UCI)
Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Riverside (UCR)
Merced (UCM)
There is a uniformity of process for admission, called Comprehensive Review, which takes into consideration a number of categories of accomplishment, but quantitative factors (grades, scores) are the first level of eligibility, across the board.
Secondarily, some campuses, like LA and B, particularly consider the student’s personal challenges relative to that student’s level of accomplishment. Also, the Personal Statement (2 essays) factor in more strongly for Berkeley than for some other campuses. So, for B, for example, both challenges and essays can override the sheer quantitative factors, at least to some extent.
One such “challenge” is considered to be a bilingual household where technically the student’s “first language” is not English. (There are many other listed challenges.) However, in the case of a state like CA, heavy with immigrants both legal and illegal, this factor can be significant in admissions outcomes. Another such pertinent challenge is First Generation. (Parents not college graduates.)
I know. I think its quite funny and lends credence to what we always say about what is important about a school or what is your “top list” depends a lot on your perspective and locale.
@epiphany - thanks. Wow, navigating applying to the UC schools seems more complicated than anything we have here in the NE with the Ivies and the LACs.
Nah. UC application is so much easier than the Common App. Also, admission to UCLA and UCB is more predictable than admission to Ivies/S/M etc.
To paraphrase the master of this sentence, let me correct that for you, Bluebayou.
hey xig, maybe those **that amount to about a HANDFUL ** recognize the value of a major, urban research university as opposed to a Junior University on a Farm…
To be clear, the issue is not about why someone would pick Cal over Stanford. It is solely about the number reported by Parchment, which is as real as three dollar bill. The 16 percent is pure fantasy!
And here is why. You can assume there “might” be 400 cross-admitted students. For the 16 percent to be correct, you’d need Stanford to lose 64 in a cross-admit battle, or about 10 percent of its entire yield losses. The real figure is between 8 to 13 students. Berkeley is not a school Stanford loses many students to. It is not in their top 20 lost battles. Simply is not.
Does Stanford publish a list of achools and cross admit numbers?
Where does Cal rank on the list?
How much does early admissions play a part in this?
I do think most students who get into Stanford choose Stanford. I am wondering if there is published info.
Cal isn’t in the top 20? That I find surprising. Xiggi, you are talking percentages of cross admits?
Berkeley was #20 in 2014’s USNWR.
@dstark, not surprising. Kids who have Stanford as their dream school may have Cal as their backup.
Kids who have Cal as their dream (or forced-dream-because-of-affordability) school don’t have Stanford as their backup.
@epiphany, there’s always UMich (and UW-Madison and UIUC)
PurpleTitan,
Because of geography, size of schools, costs, whatever I am missing, I find it hard to believe there are 20 schools that win more cross admit battles than Cal. Maybe percentage wise.
I’m shocked, shocked…the august denizens on cc, the top college site in the world, believe parchment (and pay scale) to be gospel.
Gospel, I tell ya’.
There isn’t a research paper printed on this, but the information is available by following Richard Shaw’s annual presentation to the Stanford Senate. In the past, I have presented an analysis of how the data can be interpreted by following the graphs and data. The old posts should still be available here. Ewho reproduced some it as well.
What Shaw said is that among the “losses” of Stanford, Berkeley did not figure among the top 20. I assume that means that there are twenty schools to which Stanford loses admitted students. That list is mostly composed of the Ivy League, LACs, and schools that offer merit financial aid.
I believe that the superior financial aid offered by Stanford undercuts many of the packages that can be offered by Cal, even if including Regents. That grabs many people who need need based aid. For the people who do not need aid, it becomes an issue of having to pay full tuition at a public school.
Fwiw, I would not be surprised that the 16 vs 84 percent quoted by Parchment represents a preference among applicants, and it makes sense. The difference is that it does not work for admitted students because … well, you have to be admitted to be able to make such a choice.
PS I went and looked at one presentation that reports the above verbatim:
https://stanford.app.box.com/s/jkwh18y9s8ba2u8hqsx3
You have to go Page 20:
My further analysis compared the number of cross-admits (27 percent which is close to 600 students) to the potential losses that are mathematically possible and those are confined to … below 2 percent. At best, the extrapolation would work out as 6 to 12 students – since there are about 600 yield casualties. Simply stated, 2 percent of 600 cannot exceed … 12!
Note that the 4 schools represent 75 percent of the losses. This means that you’d have to distribute the remaining 150-160 students among 16 schools. The 21st ranked could not claim more than 10. Either way, one should be able to count ALL the students admitted to Stanford who enrolled at Cal on two hands. Probably one suffices!
xiggi, ok thanks. I am surprised at the numbers.
Your source and explanation are great.
The numbers suck. 
Whats even worse, IMO, is that UC is giving need-based aid to OOS students. Thus, the net economic gain is not what UC administrators spin it to be.
I was surprised also to know that UC are offering needbased aid to OOS. I found out last year. What the heck why UC is doing that?
Yes, blue. That ^ and the compromise to U.C.'s admission regarding priority for UC residents. With the population in-state what it is, there is really no justification, ethically, to reaching out to OOS-ers at the moment. The state is swamped with capable students, many of whom are needing aid.
@bluebayou, is that true? I could see Pell and loans (i.e. Federal support), but to distribute California taxes in the form of out-of-state Blue & Gold scholarships, DREAM act, and other need-based scholarships is very generous. I know there is no aid for the OOS surcharge (above the in-state cost). And I can see a “fairness” argument for not giving (and, actually, a counter-argument for giving) OOS students aid funded by California taxpayer dollars unless it is achieving a specific California goal (e.g. merit scholarships to attract the best students).
Do other state flagships give state-taxpayer-funded need-based aid to OOS students?
^^yes it is definitely true, and has been from Day 1. UC will give need-based aid up to the cost of what an in-stater would receive; UC will not waive the OOS portion of the tuition/fee.
UVA offers full need-based aid to OOS’ers. That is the only public of which I am aware that offers full need, but they were looking to change that policy (and may have by now).
Many publics offer merit scholarships to attract top students, but not need-based aid.
Daughters excellent directional U, had 9,800 applications for 2,800 spots, up 500 from last year.