I wasn’t sure if I should have put this thread in College Search and Selection, so sorry if it’s in the wrong forum
So I specifically like UCLA, but I guess this goes for any college and maybe even depends. If I’m applying out of state, as a pretty good student, 3.7/4 gpa, 1300/1600 on psat (I know there are other factors, but just some basics), is it harder for me to get into UCLA since I’m out of state or is it a little bit easier since there aren’t as many students from CT applying to a CA school?
Maybe UCLA is different circumstances since it’s a very competitive school, but what do you think about UCLA? Also for other out of states, which is easier? Or does it just depend on the school?
It is more difficult for someone out of state to get into UCLA but definitely not impossible, including because it uses, to some extent, admitting out of state applicants who can pay full costs to overcome funding shortages of the state.
Chances of getting in out of state at other public colleges can depend on the state and the college, or both. For example, California and a number of other states have laws that mandate favoritism to in-state residents but the degree of such favoritism can vary even among the colleges in the state. Other states have rules that essentially assure that most admitted will be in-state such as Texas where resident students in the top 10% of their class will be admitted to the Texas colleges even if test scores are poor (except UTexas Austin has a varying annual percentage usually about 8%). On the other hand, UIUC in Illinois admits in-state and out-of-state on the same basis.
To determine whether a state college makes it real hard or easy for OOS to apply and be admitted requires you to do research on both the state and university. Far too many just look at figures of the percent of OOS freshman enrolled at the college and see a figure like 8% and believe it is real hard to get in, when further research would show that only 8% of the applicants were OOS, meaning they were likely admitted at the same rate as in state.
Just an FYI as @Erin’s dad stated you will be paying a lot more as in $55K/year with no financial aid to attend UCLA. Check with your parents about your college budget. Also you need to bump up your GPA and test scores a bit.
The UC’s have their own GPA calculation and since you are OOS, only AP/IB or DE courses in 10-11th grade qualify for the extra honors points: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Instate acceptance rate is 16% and out of state acceptance rate is 23%. This means you’re a full 50% more likely to get accepted to UCLA as an out of state applicant. They really want your money.
Kids really love to reinforce the prestige of their school by jumping at the first occasion to tell someone how hard their school is to get into. Remember that UCLA is a huge school and accepts as many Freshmen each year as the size of Stanford’s entire undergraduate body.
Truthfully, if you have your stats within the range, are paying out of state tuition, and are NOT applying to engineering, you can be pretty confident on your chances. The last point is especially important. The Letters and Sciences school has a 22% admittance rate, considerably higher than the “average” admit rate across the school. If you’re applying to a L&S major AND are an OOS tuition paying student, you can imagine how much more optimistic your chances are compared to what people with a vested interest in promoting their school’s prestige want to tell you.
Given the political pressure for California residents to get into their own schools, OOS students are not given priority over instate residents.
The large numbers of instate residents applying, gives a false 16% stat out of the thousands of applicants. The OOS applicant statistics are a lower number, overall, but gives a false larger percentage of applicants.
My dd attends Davis; lots of her classmates are local residents from the Bay Area and Sacramento. She’s met very few OOS students. She obviously doesn’t know everyone but she indicated that most of the international students appear to be grad students.
for the Fall 2015 class, there were 57,922 In-State Freshman Applicants, of which 9,371 were admitted. That’s a 16.17% admissions rate.
There were 18,381 Out-of-State Freshman Applicants, of which 4,280 were admitted. That’s a 23.33% admissions rate.
So, unless you’re suggesting that OOS UCLA applicants are 50% more qualified than IS applicants, there is certainly a bias towards OOS as part of the ‘holistic’ admissions process.
The reason your daughter sees few OOS students at UC Davis is due to that campus’ low yield rate; while 3,045 OOS freshman were admitted to Davis in 2015, only 346 of them enrolled, compared to 4,071 IS freshman.
The UC Regents love out of state students since they pay considerably more tuition,… er,… ‘student fees.’
@“aunt bea” Just a follow-up stat for UC Davis:
For Fall 2015, there were 48,364 IS Freshman Applicants with 15,807 admits. That’s a 32.68% IS admissions rate.
There were 4,998 OOS Freshman Applicants with 3,045 admits. That’s a 60.92% OOS admissions rate.
So, last year at Davis, Out of State Applicants were admitted at nearly TWICE the rate of California Residents.
However, 4,071 IS Freshman were enrolled vs. 346 OOS Freshman enrollees. So while they were admitted at nearly double the rate of residents, OOS applicants have a vastly lower Yield rate. No wonder your daughter doesn’t see many OOS students; they are outnumbered nearly 12 to 1 by residents.
Another interesting trend concerns the substantial drop in California Residents vs. OOS and International Students at the UC’s. The charts in the link I provided above show that in just the last 10 years, California Freshman admits at UCLA have gone from 95% to just 59%! of the total.
Meanwhile, **International Freshman admits have gone from just 2% in 2005 to 15% in 2015
This is one of the main reasons why California Taxpayers are upset with UC admissions policies…