Besides the obvious cost advantage for Native Californians from the research I’ve been doing it seems to me to be a sad state of affairs. 3 and 4 to a room 300+ for ge classes if you can get them 5 years to graduate. My question is why? My daughter asked why would anyone want to go to a UC?
Given all of that, and despite the weaknesses, these schools still turn out really great students with competitive stats, internships and grad school opportunities. There are good lab experiences and professors that share top of the line research opportunities in the tech, engineering, and biotech fields. The preparation for careers is strong. And, these are not the only areas that are strong.
You and your daughter should know that these are not mandatory educational experiences; you have a choice, all across the country, to apply and visit the more than 3000 colleges and universities in the US.
Why would you live in say crowded high traffic Silicon Valley when you can live in a small city like Eureka? To each his own.
You’ll find that all popular flagship state universities throughout the country have “300+ ge and 3-4 to a room”. Once again, there are many schools throughout the country where the largest class size is 50 people and/or one can commute to school from the comforts of home or some other more comfortable housing arrangement. On second thought there is one UC where 80% of the classes are under 50 people - UC Merced.
I guess the root of my question is the overall experience for my d. By that I mean an LAC then grad school or UC then Grad. She has lots of friends that I’m sure are UC bound and she could go as well but I see a lot of miserable fried kids who are there for one thing only. Then I contrast that with a visit to Santa Clara and I feel like those kids are happy and have it figured out. Thanks for the help I’m just trying to make the right choice. Sticky Wicket.
Santa Clara is a good school. I have my MBA from there. The school has really transformed itself from 30 years ago, it’s a beautiful school now (which may account for some of the happiness?) Their yield is a bit on the low side, it’s under 20% though which means it’s still a backup school for many. It is comparing apples to oranges since they are a midsize (6,000 undergrads) private school compared to the 25K-35K of the better UCs.
You answered your own question in your OP: in-state cost would be the main driver. Or more precisely, cost/benefit. From the OOS perspective where UC costs are closer to privates, in most cases (outside of some program unique to a particular UC), privates will typically make more sense.
@ProfessorPlum168 It will be interesting to see the enrolled data for this fall’s freshmen. Apparently the undergrad business school acceptance rate this year was around 27%.
Doesn’t sound like it’s for you. Why worry about why some other people choose it? Or is this just a post to slam the UC system?
ETA – my D didn’t want a small school, which tosses out a lot of the private schools in CA. And other than a few top privates which she didn’t have the stats for I don’t see the value in spending 20K more a year for a private school like Santa Clara. Different strokes and all that.
SCU may not be a great example to compare, since (based on NPC and College Navigator information) it appears to be unaffordable for students from a majority of families in California and the US.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=122931#netprc
Compare to (for example) UC Riverside:
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=110671#netprc
Of course, for those whose families can afford SCU, it may provide a less “economy class” experience than a UC, CSU, or other public school.
No hate here. This all started wit a d who wants to do biotech so we started a serious look at UCSD which has a great rep in the field. I went to Academy of Art my wife went to cc so this is our first experience with choosing a college. It was an honest question.
I’ll bite. First, a lot of CA kids do go to neighboring state publics, just FYI. You should look at those, particularly WUE schools. Arizona schools seem to be a perpetual favorite. As for reasons that so many end up at UCs: Many kids actually don’t want to (or aren’t allowed) to go too far from home. Many kids don’t want a religiously-affiliated school, which rules out the vast majority of private institutions in CA. (USC and Stanford, the big secular privates, are often aspirations of CA kids, and some do in fact get into those schools.) Many CA kids are from large cities, and when push comes to shove, they believe that they will just feel too out of place in some small, green New England or midwestern LAC town. (I am surprised by this, but hear it often from my students when I suggest those schools.) Many CA teachers, parents and administrators continually emphasize that the UCs are “top tier” and the CalStates are “lesser,” (which I personally do not believe to be true), but the kids internalize that thinking. UCs use FAFSA, which doesn’t count home equity. Home equity for homeowners in CA usually is substantial, and when private schools count it, it can make those schools much less affordable. Finally, there’s the “it’s what you know” phenomenon: If you read CC forum enough, you’ll come to believe that 17 year olds are all super savvy, but that is a tiny, tiny subset of the overall population. Most kids go to the schools they have heard of growing up, and that means the UCs or the Cal States.
Although my older son graduated last year from UC Davis, he was able to get a double room both Freshman and Sophomore year. He also graduated a quarter early but stayed on campus to finish up a research internship. He did one summer session at our local CC for 2 GE courses, just to get them out of the way. He chose UCD for his major, the small town feel and costs since we were full pay at most of the colleges he applied. The 3 private schools he did apply to and got accepted gave him some merit/scholarship money but it still did not bring the costs down to the level of the UC’s. Most of his friends were able to graduate within 4 years and ones that did not were heavily involved in research so they extended their time to complete their projects.
UC’s are not for everyone, but my son had a good experience but as stated in several of the posts, they may not be for every student. The Pros and Cons have been pretty much stated especially in the above post by @ccprofandmomof2. Selecting a college is a very personal decision so what is good for your son or daughter, may not be right for another. UC’s are a good choice for California students and offer many great opportunities.
I also have another son that just graduated from a Cal State and again a personal decision but his experience was comparable to this brothers and the best choice for him.
FWIW they are just completing building a new dorm at UC-Berkeley and my kid snagged a double at the shiny new dorm. Being in triples seems to be an issue at even schools that are smaller, like Tulane.
Ever taken a commercial airplane flight? Where do you get more comfort and better service – in First Class, or Coach? The answer is obvious as soon as you board the plane: First Class is noticeably better in every respect. So – why would anyone want to fly Coach?
Again, the answer is obvious: it’s much less expensive in Coach. So the airplane has far more passengers in Coach than in First Class, Sure, First Class has clear benefits in terms of comfort and service – but if you can put up with the suboptimal conditions in Coach, you will eventually get to the same destination at significantly lower cost. For Californians, state universities are much more popular than privates for exactly the same reasons.
The puzzling thing is why anyone from out-of-state would want to go to a UC. For out-of-staters, UC tuition is high, the housing costs are typically high, and the financial aid is nonexistent. In effect, the out-of-staters at UCs are paying First Class rates for a seat in Coach. Yet the UCs have no trouble attracting out-of-state applicants.
@Corbett Agree with that. Though if you live in some states where the state uni. isn’t on par with the UC system, maybe it makes as much sense as finding a private out of state. It seems to me there’s a higher percentage of international students in the UC system, rather than OOS students (excepting Cal and ucla).
A private university in California can offer a better deal to an out-of-stater: First Class rate for a First Class seat. In fact, the privates (unlike the UCs) can offer financial aid to out-of-staters, so there may even be a discount on that First Class rate.
This is why certain California privates, notably USC and Santa Clara, are increasingly shifting their recruitment efforts out-of-state. USC is already majority OOS, and Santa Clara is about to tip that way. These schools are pulling in growing numbers of highly qualified OOS students, at the same time that the UCs are capping such enrollment.
There are few schools nationally that can beat the value of the UC system. There are arguably no public schools nationally ranked above UCB and UCLA. There are some better private schools that are hard to get into and very expensive. Pretty much all mid-tier and above UCs are ranked in the top 50 nationally. This is coming from an Aggie, a son who’s a Bruin, and another kid who will be UC bound.
That’s arguably true – if you are a California resident, and qualify for the in-state tuition rate.
On the other hand, UC Davis currently estimates the out-of-state cost of attendance at $64,506 – with no possibility of financial aid. Is that still an unbeatable value?
University of California System is one of the best public college systems in the world where you well receive a top quality education at a great price! Only had doubles back in my day in the UC Riverside Dorms (West Lothian Represent). I hear some of the newer dorms now (East Lothian & Pentland Hills) have triples which I would not like! Do any of the other UC’s really have 4 students per each dorm room? That would be like horrible…like sardines in a tin can!
If you can still get some doubles in the dorms at Berkeley per that above post, then it should be possible at the other UC’s as well. I’m sure would vary per UC campus though and probably hard to do! Well worth looking in to however!
The new dorms (Mesa Towers) at UCI are purpose-built quads. I don’t think there are many doubles that have been converted to quads, but there are certainly a lot of triples.
I just saw on another thread that Tulane is forcing triples due to overenrollment last year and this, so it’s hardly unique to the CA state schools.