<p>Not only is it the UC system's obligation to educate CA residents, it is the reason why any public school is created.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Write your legislator. [You are literally the first person I have ever met that actually cares about this issue.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh, believe me, a lot of people care about this issue. Even here on CC, there are (or at least there were) people who wondered why UC was spending so much money on OOS grad students who would then leave the state upon graduation. </p>
<p>Besides, writing to current legislators isn't going to do anything, as this particular public policy was set many years ago. It would be like asking the current President exactly why the Constitution was written the way that it was. He's not going to know. After all, it wasn't his job to write it. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Not only is it the UC system's obligation to educate CA residents, it is the reason why any public school is created.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I said it before, and I'll say it again, Berkeley seems to have absolutely no reluctance to educating plenty of OOS graduate students. </p>
<p>I am simply making the point that nobody seems to have a logically consistent answer as to why public schools are so obligated to serve its own state residents for undergrad, but not for grad.</p>
<p>Most of the graduate students in sciences, and related fields, are paid for by the Federal government, private companies, or university foundations. They also help to keep costs down for the taxpayer by serving as research assistants for professors who pay for them out of their grants, not allocated state taxpayer monies. The exception would be mostly in the agriculture area where graduate research provides direct benefits to the state. Graduate students are cheap labor, very cheap labor, for the university serving as graders or teaching assistants at minimal wages. Graduate students are the university's cannon fodder. Some graduate programs, like law schools, actually turn a profit.</p>
<p>Without its graduate programs UCB would be a CSU.</p>
<p>And btw, many OOS students do pay full price, especially those just going for a masters, (a big money maker for a university), and those in the humanities/social sciences/teaching areas. Other OOS students receive in-state tuition for performing services that would otherwise require a full time individual at a much higher salary and benefits.</p>
<p>A major research university could not exist without its graduate students.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I said it before, and I'll say it again, Berkeley seems to have absolutely no reluctance to educating plenty of OOS graduate students.
[/quote]
Why is it so hard to understand? Because Berkeley graduate is very small compare to the undergraduate. They can only afford to take a small number of students and they need to pick the best. Besides, the funding for graduate students come from NSF, etc... which has no mandate on enrolling Californians.</p>