Well, that seems like a good reason. And it seems likely that the shortage of housing in the Berkeley area could have consequences beyond just student application volumes – like increased homelessness, for example.
Note that Berkeley isn’t actually getting “fewer applications” – on the contrary, freshman applications are still rising every year, and reached a record high for Fall 2018. But freshman applications have been rising even faster at several other UC campuses, so they have now passed Berkeley in terms of total volume.
i don’t know where you folks get this housing stuff in SF. Unless you are talking about FPF.
UCB built a new dorm right across the street from the campus starting this year which accommodates 1500 people. And they are all doubles. So there is no housing issues for this year’s incoming class.
Schools often have classes in office buildings. It’s called Extensions. Carnegie Mellon has one over here. Pepperdine also. Is this what you are talking about?
Sorry about that, I thought I read 770 rooms not students. My kid snagged one of them so I guess he was pretty lucky.
There’s not really a shortage of places, just a shortage that one might characterize as affordable housing. This is not just at UCB, it’s at a lot of places where demand is high. Irvine for example is going to be way short this year also until their new dorm is built.
Lots of universities have Extension programs. They typically cater to working adults, and therefore tend to be located in areas where adults work (i.e. areas with office buildings). Nothing unusual about that.
Now I actually think this is a pretty creative approach on Berkeley’s part, and they aren’t forcing anyone to participate in FPF. It’s clear that the demand for a UC education has soared over the past 10 years, and it’s clear that all of the campuses are under intense pressure to squeeze in more and more students.
The problem is that Berkeley is not as well positioned as other UC campuses to handle that pressure. The Berkeley campus is old and pretty much built out, and it’s surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate in the country. It’s hard to see how they can keep adding students, yet they are being told to do so anyway, and they are finding creative ways to make it happen. But realistically, the current situation may be making Berkeley less attractive relative to other UC campuses that can grow more gracefully.
To clear up some stuff:
There’s no FPF in San Francisco, at least this next year, so no long commutes.
FPF is offered to some people on the school’s waitlist.
Housing this next year on campus raised about 1,000$ but they did improve the meal plan at least and so far, everyone who has wanted housing on campus has got it. It seems like they have more housing than usual since a lot of us sophomores are getting a second year of housing, and I, at least, got my first choice.
That living in the lounges thing: One of my roommates moved out so the roommate that moved in had been in temporary housing in one of the Unit’s lounges. She was in a quad, but it was a giant room and they got a balcony. Sounded pretty cool. Because it was temporary housing, they all got housing offers sometime throughout the year and had to take them, and the room was turned back into a lounge.
Yeah housing is expensive in Berkeley, but you just accept that you’re going to have a few roommates throughout college. And compared to all of the other schools that are academically on par (private schools) with Berkeley, Berkeley is super cheap even with expensive housing.
Do you know how many girls carry pepper spray? Basically every girl. There’s this thing in economics called positive externality, and the main example is if some cars have hidden trackers, then even more cars are safe from thieves who don’t want to get caught, but don’t know which cars are safe to steal. So I can feel pretty safe even though I don’t carry pepper spray. And that’s why I get more alerts about guys than girls on Nexus which is the Berkeley thing where they email us every bad thing that ever happens on campus and that I will never show my mom who worries a lot. If anyone actually reads any of these posts and asks, I will summarize last years notable Nexus reports, but I otherwise won’t because I generally try not to scare all of you guys off. (Note. Walter’s my dog.)
I think it’s interesting because I learned a few weeks ago that overall college attendance (not applications. Those are going up.) are actually falling, so there’s a college bubble and smaller colleges should close or get smaller but they’re coming up with unproductive ways to keep the college bubble inflated. That doesn’t actually apply. I just thought it was interesting. Maybe it’s a result of our approach to zero population growth. I was going to google that sometime.
I have to be totally honest. I was never so happy as when my S started to receive acceptances from universities that were above Cal on his list. The education is great, but the environment, not so much (IMO).
There is rent control in Berkeley, but you cannot in general compare housing costs to those in less-expensive areas. My D and 3 others are sharing a 2-bedroom off-campus apartment next year. Nice, clean, cool old building, residential neighborhood within a mile of campus. $800.00 + internet/water. This is not the most expensive place by a long shot, but way cheaper than on-campus.