My mistake. My number is per class. Texas is a lot larger than any single UC but not by what I said above.
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Wow! Are you suggesting that top UCâs should admit out-of-state students above the top performing California students?
Again weâre back to people who are obsessed with Ucla and Berkeley as if its the only schools in the University of California system.
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I went to school in TX (not at a UT) and have a kid at a scoffed upon UC, which btw apparently is no slacker either. From what I can see, UT Austin would have to be considered as UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB⊠COMBINED.
UT Arlington, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio would be like all the other UCs combined (and my baseline is Merced, not Davis or Irvine). UT Permian Basin (think Friday Night Lights), Rio Grande and Tyler is like California community college and then you have the other communities colleges in Texas. Plus, half the state of Texas is desolate and unpopulated. There really isnât any comparable public university system in the US to the UCs.
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And as if UC is the only excellent university system supported by tax-payer money in CaliforniaâŠ
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No. Given that UCLA and Berkeley enroll close to 80% in-state students, that is obviously not what I am suggesting. I donât see entrance into one particular UC over another to be a matter of desert.
If these two were the only options, Iâd be more sympathetic to your point, but given all the great UCâs and all the ways to automatically gain entrance (including through the CC program) I donât have sympathy for the claim that a qualified student âdeservedâ UCLA over Riverside.
As for out of state students, I think they add a lot to the mix, and also I believe that Ca is lucky to have them. A lot of successful and productive Californians first came to the state for college.
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You missed a bunch + A&M isnât even in that system. It would be like mixing Cal Poly SLO with Cal and UCLA. Different systems. California has multiple systems too, and they all serve CA students well. And yes, the âtopâ (9%) kids are guaranteed to attend a UC if they so choose. There are other schools than the two with which you seem obsessed.
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Simple questions:
- Are you all satisfied with the admissions process at Cal and UCLA? And are there no improvement opportunities with UCâs admission process?
- Are the top UCâs (Cal, UCLA, UCSD) doing fiduciary duty to California residents?
- Are there anything that Cal and UCLA could do differently in their admissions process for California students?
- Are there any lessons UCâs can take from UT Austin?
But again there is this obsession with Cal and UCLA. We have so many excellent universities - UCs and CSUs - that are serving many, many of our state students and doing so extremely well. Every California student has an opportunity for a California education: it may be through a UC (with the (9% ELC guarantee) or a CSU or starting out at a CCC with guaranteed transfer to a UC through TAG. Every single California student can choose to stay in state and get an excellent tax-payer subsidized education. You donât need to go to Cal or UCLA. Those are just two campuses and not even the best by the every measure and certainly not the best for every student - not even the 4.0s.
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To answer to your questions with regard to in-state vs. out-of-state admissions, I like the current balance. California benefits. I donât see UT Austin as any sort of pinnacle to emulate in this regard. Itâd be nice of the UC had its oil money, but beyond that, no thanks.
From top to bottom, the UCâs are outstanding. It would help if a lot if prospective families were willing to look beyond UCLA and UCB, because in total the two 9% routes and the CC route provide terrific opportunities.
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But taxpayer funding is only a small percentage of UC revenue. Thatâs part of the problem that the UC system âsolvedâ by increasing OOS/international enrollment until recent efforts to reverse that trend.
I posted this about 3 weeks ago on this thread: For 2020, the share of UCBâs annual operating budget that came from the State of CA was 14%. See: Budget 101 | Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Full list:
- Tuition and fees: 34%
- State funding: 14%
- Federal contacts and grants: 14%
- Educational activities and auxiliaries: 13%
- Other contracts and grants: 10%
- Private gifts: 10%
- Other: 4%
- Investment income: 1%
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If all UCâs are âperfectâ and they are making âperfect admission decisionsâ, whyâs there this thread âVent about UC decisionsâ?
There must be something thatâs not perfect - we need to be open and receptive to peopleâs feedback without feeling defensive, in order for UCâs to continue to grow & improve.
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I do not think that UCs are perfect⊠I doubt anyone on this thread thinks that. There are a lot of great things that the UCs could do with a bigger budget. Maybe they should admit more of those full-pay OOS tuition students 
Iâm sure there are some ways that the UC admission process could be improved as well, but I wouldnât want to see it replaced with a non-holistic âtop X%â guarantee to âtop UCs.â
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The problem is everybodyâs trying to force themselves to Ucla and Berkeley when thereâs CalState and community College too.
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I donât think anyone has used the term âperfectâ to describe UC admissions. Of course there are things they can improve, but what many of us are saying is that if you look at the system holistically â and stop focusing on just 2 of the 9 campuses â then yes, the UCs are doing a pretty good job of offering opportunities to the âtopâ CA students. And much of the venting about the admissions process on this thread seem connected to people not liking or appreciating holistic admissions. Which okay, fine, thatâs a valid perspective. But the UCs are really pretty clear about how it works, and if one pays attention to that, they increase their chances of submitting an application that will be successful and result in admission at one or more campuses.
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I didnât write that the UCâs were perfect. My comments were limited to the in-state out of state balance. Iâd really appreciate if you didnât attribute things to me that didnât write. Thanks.
But to answer your question honestly as to why we have this thread, it seems like a lot sour grapes to me. But venting helps, perhaps.
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lol no - first admit more in-state students so at least the 4.0 GPA students can have their choice of UC and they donât have to go to out of state!
Please understand that the students with 10+ APs and 4.0 GPA would like to go to top universities and not to Merced or Riverside. So if Cal/UCLA/UCSD doesnât admit them, theyâd take Michigan or Austin or whichever top college admits them, ahead of Merced & Riverside.
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If you ask parents in Texas if their system is perfect, most would say ânoâ. There are positives and negatives to the UT top 6% rule. Itâs not a blanket top 6% of the kids in the stateâs public schools get in. Itâs the top 6% at each individual high school. This gives the benefit of representing the entire state, not just the high performing schools. This also means many high achieving kids do not get auto-admit. There is a huge amount of competition and planning, starting in junior high, to select the right classes to achieve the highest possible weighted gpa. Also, for any schools with a magnet program most of the top 6% goes to those students. Countless talented kids in Texas donât get auto-admit to UT. IMO, California offers a great variety of options between the UCs, CSUs and CCâŠplus the 9% rule. There are kids in several states that are disappointed they didnât get into their state flagship, such as Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin etc and a lot of spots went to OOS students.
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Nobody âdeservesâ anything. At the end of the day, the university has to decide who to admit. Every single student at UCLA and UCB and UCSD and UCSB and⊠are top students. I have yet to meet a student who wasnât a 3.9x student and president of club Y and on varsity team Z. The schools have absolute freedom to choose as they wish, as far more top students apply than there are spots available. No number of APs or GPA or whatnot guarantees you a coveted spot at Berkeley.
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Itâs too bad that these fictional students donât know about the 4 other UCs⊠3 of them ranked higher or equal to Austin.
But really, if they get into an OOS school that they like better than the UCs where they were admitted, and they can afford to go there, what is wrong with that? Fortunately, there are lots of wonderful state flagships all over the country that admit more than 10% of OOS students, so our CA students have lots of OOS options out there.
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