I consider the following to be state flagship-caliber universities:
Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
UCSB
Irvine
Davis
I suppose it makes sense to have six flag-level public universities (seven, if you consider Cal Poly), given California’s population of about 40 million – about six times the average state population of 6.6 million.
UCSC, Riverside, and Merced are also solid public schools for California students interested in a quality affordable education. (one could argue that UCSC is also flag-level…)
That being said, they are expensive for OOS families, and they give out little in the way of merit or need-based aid… so usually, it makes more sense for non-California kids to go to the flagship (or other good public) university in their own state, or to a different state flagship that offers strong merit aid or reciprocity/in-state rates.
There is no pat answer. A UC may be “creme of the crop” for some, but not for others. It depends on your family, finances, your daughter’s comfort level with different academic environments (class size, academic requirements, diversity, weather, dorm life, rigor, etc.) Is the other school significantly different than the UC? What are her reasons for preferring the other school?
It’s the University of Oregon. She got the early admission into their Business school and a decent scholarship that will barely make a dent.
She wants the “big college” experience- all the sports, gorgeous campus, even the climate.
She got waitlisted as UW which she wanted even more.
But the cost……it’s literally double vs staying in-state.
So far, she’s only been accepted to UCR and UCSC, waitlisted at CSULB. Rejected at UCLA and UCI. No news from SDSU, Cal poly or UCSB.
She didn’t apply to Davis? I find it’s quite similar in many respects to U Oregon, it gives the college town experience with D1 sports, although without dominating the scene.
Are you taking into account that Berkeley is on the semester system and most of the others are on the quarter system? Berkeley requires 120 semester units to graduate. UCSD requires 180 quarter units.
Yes. For each university and major, we calculated the number of units that would be required for the major and GE requirements, deducting units already covered by APs and transfer units. Then we looked at how much of the total 120 or 180 units remained as “free” units, on a percentage basis. Of the universities that we compared for S23’s major, UCB had the highest percentage of free units (almost 30% of the total 4-year degree), while UCLA had the lowest (only 5% of the total 4-year degree).
Depends on which California family you talk to, but the UC’s are also quite expensive for full-pay families like ourselves.
Just looked at the financial aid breakdown for my daughter for UCSC. Over 40K for in-state. I already have two at Davis also full-pay. And pay California level state taxes.
A very similar degree that my daughter is considering at CSU Chico will be around 25K. I don’t know that gaining a degree with a perceived ‘brand name’ is worth an extra 15K a year.
Returning to the OP’s question . . . the title has been edited to say “[as an OOS student]” but I believe @Stoomasson indicated their daughter is an state student.
Edit: This thread was created by a mod who spun it off from a long thread regarding UC decision vents. I’m struggling because the title as it stands, is not descriptive enough. I also feel that this thread belongs in the UC General forum not in Applying to College.
I don’t know enough about the undergrad business programs at these schools to offer anything useful to differentiate them academically. I do know kids who have been in Oregon’s Honors program and got a lot out of it, but I don’t know if that applies here. If SDSU or UCSB comes through will they offer enough of what your daughter is looking for regarding the college experience?
UCs are fascinating. If you don’t get computer science at any others, you can get that major at UCM or just admittance?
UT-Austin guarantees admission to top 6%, but not to major, and all other Texas state schools guarantee major for top 10%. UT-Austin has 90% in state vs 82% at top UCs.
For engineering and CS, Texas A&M admits to first year general undeclared engineering, from which students need a 3.75 college GPA to get automatic admission to their desired major. Otherwise, admission is competitive, and some of the most overloaded majors (like CS) have little or no space for students below 3.75 college GPA.
For the 2023-2024 school year, California’s Middle Class Scholarship will be available to UC, CSU and CCC students with household income and non-retirement assets under $217k. For the current school year the cut offs are $201k. I believe anything above that is full pay.
My D22’s tuition, room and board came in under $30k this year at UCLA.
The breakdown:
$14,500 tuition
$14,500 room and board for a classic triple and a 19p meal plan (basically the cheapest housing and the priciest meal plan)
We have our own insurance. So she doesn’t pay that. Books have been minimal, maybe $500 or so. We have flown her home 3 times (thanksgiving, Christmas, and later this week for spring break). That’s pro ably been around $1k
Some other small incidentals but nothing huge. She earned her own spending money.
All in all, this is amazing for us. As far S in state value, absolutely worth it. My D26 doesn’t want to stay in state but I’ve got a few years to evolve his thinking on the matter.
My kid is in university apartments (no meal plan) and it’s around 25K total for us. You have to add the Trader Joe’s bills to that, but she covers those. My daughter did not fully take advantage of the meal plan last year so she decided to drop it. I’m thinking that her situation is the cheapest you can get (full pay prices) at UCLA. It’s pretty decent. Good luck convincing your youngest!
