The bar has been raised even higher to get accepted into a University of California school. There has been a recent spike in the number of out-of-state students getting accepted into the UC system.
Because of the struggling economy, the UC system has been facing budget cuts. It is speculated that one of the solutions to make up for the deficit is admitting more out-of-state students.
Indeed, out-of-state students do pay more to attend UC schools. College and career advisor Laura Tezak notes that, “Students who are not California residents pay much higher tuition and fees than a California resident. Out-of–state students [pay] $36,078 per year. This is not including books, health fees, room, and board. It could add up to over $54,000 per year. California residents pay $13,200 tuition and fees per year. Add in the other costs it could total $31,200. The UC makes $22,000 more per non California resident admitted.”
“Just [from] looking at the tuition cost of an in-state and then out-of state student, one would believe there definitely that money is a factor,” finished Tezak.
“With all the recent budget cuts, an extra $20,000 dollars from thousands of students is a sizable amount of money,” agreed senior Alyssa Block, who was recently accepted into UC Berkeley.
Block explained, “Before I began applying this past fall, I had heard that the UC was extremely impacted, and that the chances of admission, especially at UCLA and Berkeley, were even slimmer because of out of state competition. But, that did not prevent me from applying to the ones I did (UCSB, UCLA, Berkeley, and UCI) because LA and Berkeley were two of my top choices.”
Not only are UCLA and UC Berkeley the two UCs that receive the most applications each year, the most applications each year, but they are also the UCs with the lowest in state acceptance rates. According to an article published in the April 18 edition of the Los Angeles Times, 17.7 percent of California resident applicants were admitted into UCLA last year and 22.7 percent of in-state applicants were admitted into UC Berkeley. “UC admits more foreign, out-of-state students,” the article adds.
Incoming freshmen are not the only ones concerned with the UCs low in state applicant rates, parents are as well. Sophi Beutens, whose son, senior Quin Rogers, was accepted into UCSB, commented on the change. “My initial reaction [was] that the UC is looking for more money from out of state students rather than figuring out how to solve its financial problems here at home. The UC would argue that without the extra money from out-of-state student fees for everyone would go up even more but, look at it this way. Our families here in California pay taxes that support the UC. Those of out-of-state students don’t. It is a bad thing to turn away students from tax-paying California residents. We need to be letting in more California residents than ever to gain their support of the UC and work together to solve to budget crisis.”
Although many public schools are increasing their out of state acceptance rates, some stick to a certain percentage of out of state students admitted into their schools each year. UNC-Chapel Hill in North Carolina, for example, reserves 85 percent of spots to in-state students only, in comparison to the University of California schools, where this year the percentage of in-state students accepted dropped from 69.7 percent to 65.8 percent of all the students accepted.
These out of state students are not just from the United States but from other countries as well, which means Californians are literally competing with students from all over the world for a spot in UC system. Some could argue that this would bring diversity to the UC campuses. Beutens, however, thinks differently, “California is one of the most diverse states in the country. It does not need to go out of state to find diversity.”
Block also commented, “When colleges have thousands upon thousands of qualified applicants, they might look to increase diversity by admitting out-of-state applicants, but this is obviously just me speculating. I do agree that diversity is key, so for the most part, I do not have a problem with this.”
