<p>In response to others, and some notes mainly about UCLA:</p>
<p>UCLA because of the large increases in college-aged eligibles has over-enrolled and that’s why the undergrad is now > 26K. Enrollment right before the tidal wave of students was around 23-24K. I’ll refer to the increase in students as “The Wave,” no allusions to radio stations or Pepperdine or anything else intended. After The Wave is over, I would guess the university will shrink back enrollment as before. But this doesn’t apply to you since you’ll be attending college during this boom period of students. You’ll find this across the country generally, though: publics generally increased enrollment to meet demand, while privates tended to keep enrollment steady.</p>
<p>As a consequence, lot of privates saw their acceptance rate drop quite a bit: Ivies, and like universites to < 10%, and some other top-notch schools to < 20%. USC took advantage of the large “supply” and saw its acceptance rate drop to as low as I think it was around 21%. Same for UCLA. UCLA”s acceptance rate before the boom was I believe ~ 25%. I don’t know what USC’s was. I’ll explain why I think this might be important, later. For both it’s higher than that now, ~ 23% for UCLA, 24% for USC, if I remember correctly from that NYT link - I just looked at some numbers I had for UC and UCLA’s is actually 22.6%. </p>
<p>The reason why UCLA’s has crept up is because it’s seeking more non-resident enrollment; I’ll refer to them, you, as “NCA’s.” Here’s a table wrt CA and NCA students from a spreadsheet I had:</p>
<p>CA: 47,112 apps; 9,894 acc; 21.0% acc %; 76% of total acc
NCA: 10,539; 3,126; 29.7%; 24.0%
Total: 57,651; 13,020; 22.6%</p>
<p>So the good news for you is there’ll probably be a better chance of a non-resident like yourself being accepted to UCLA than a CA resident. UCLA will enroll ~ 15% NCA’s this fall per LA Times article, a drop from the 24.0% total accepted, because the yield of NCA’s is roughly half of what it is for CA residents. The breakdown of NCA students will be about the same for international and oos students, ~ 350 each of a total class of ~4,800 - I don’t have specific numbers. A lot of what UCLA did in enrolling a lot of people like you was to offset a lot of budgetary concerns becuase you all pay full non-state supported tuition.</p>
<p>For USC, the acceptance rate will probably creep up because of steady enrollment and lesser amount of apps due post-wave effects. I don’t know a lot about USC, but the high amount of apps probably peaked at > 35,000 or so. A mititgating factor for USC”s acceptance rate, ie, its holding steady rather than rising signifantly quickly, would be if factor for reputation gained during the wave > factor for reduction of college-aged eligibles - > fairly steady app numbers.</p>
<p>So what I’m trying to say in of the previous with regard to acc, is, any allusions to USN’s rankings this year might indeed change from the 2010 rankins - it/they always do; rankings below the top are more volatile - and UCLA might be above USC again. A lot of USC people think they have UCLA in its back mirror. But as stupid as USN’s rankings are, UCLA in a world sense surpasses USC by some 80 ranking spots. (With allusions to Einsteinian (macro, world rankings) and quantum (micro, USA rankings) physics, and the mismatch thereof, with only sketchy weird theories to reconcile the two.). But USC’s administration is keen on working USN’s US rankings, and UCLA’s administration is seemingly indifferent, which will work better for USC rankings-wise. </p>
<p>I’d only recommend UCLA to a NCA student if you can afford it. It wouldn’t be worth being in $100K debt, unless you really wanted to experience the CA lifestyle, with all the rest of the sun-loving people. In this way, UCLA is more of a quintiessential CA experience than Cal, and you’ll have to find whether USC would be for you location-wise. UCLA”s closer to the beach ~ seven miles, which is good weather-wise because UCSB, UCSD on the bluffs of the Pacific would have more overcast weather if sun were a factor. </p>
<p>A good factor to apply to the adjustment of undergrad students at the schools would be about 1.5-1.6 or a ratio of 1:1.5-1.6. </p>
<p>Apply this to the following professions in case you want to pursue things outside of the business realm:</p>
<p>Attorneys:</p>
<p>UCLA, 20+k CA certified; USC, 7+K</p>
<p>Med School Apps, 2009:</p>
<p>UCLA, 737 apps; USC 224 (This despite USC stating 10% major in “pre-med”</p>
<p>Wrt your probable field:</p>
<p>Business, MBA’s:</p>
<p>This is harder to figure. But USC is definitely more undergrad vocations; UCLA is more grad-prep oriented. So if you just want an undergrad Bus/Int degree, USC would be better. UCLA doesn’t have pure undergrad bus degree - it’s interdisciplinary Econ and Bus. But you can take classes through Anderson, which offers classes to undergrads.</p>
<p>Best of Luck…</p>