University of California System
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Anonymous
| Hi all, I am helping a family friend on his college applications (the duties of a first-gen immigrant college grad lol). I was researching rankings and was shocked to see that 6 of the top 10 public universities are UCs. When I was applying to college (in 2016) in VA, it was normal for kids to apply to Cal, UCLA, Michigan, Wisconsin, UIUC, but never heard of anyone applying going to UC Davis or Irvine. Is it common for kids from out of state to attend UCs? Obviously, everyone knows Berkeley and LA, but are UCSD/UCI, etc underrated? |
Anonymous
They’re expensive for out-of-state students and all extremely selective, and getting into the classes needed to graduate takes five years. For a typical DMV kid thinking hazily about the UC schools, the University of Arizona, Arizona State and the University of Washington would probably be better options. For a broke DMV kid who’s dying to go to school in California, look at the California state schools, or maybe at private schools other than USC. |
Anonymous
| Yes they are great schools but very hard to get into for out of state students. If your friend’s child is a top student it’s worth a try. |
Anonymous
| UCSD is greatly underrated. |
Anonymous
| The come-lately UC schools are highly overrated. Several years ago, they got a ranking boost when USNWR started tracking social mobility. Translation: schools that accept a lot of poor students and graduate them to professional jobs are going to look good. That, however doesn’t say so much about the quality of education as it does about the ongoing prestige of a four-year college degree. For OOS students, UC schools are hard to get into because CA overwhelmingly reserves seats for in-state students. Again, a low OOS admit rate doesn’t necessarily mean a quality education. |
Anonymous
| I grew up in California and went to UC Davis in the early 90s. In my freshman year dorm of roughly 60 people, only 2 were not from CA. One was an international student from the UK, and the other was from the east coast (New Jersey, I think?) |
Anonymous
| They are very expensive from OOS and overcrowded so it's extremely common to take 5 years to graduate so you have to factor that into the cost too. I'm from CA and don't understand why someone would want to go there from OOS. Grad school at Cal or UCLA, sure. But waste of money for undergrad IMO. |
Anonymous
Also from CA and generally agree with this. I think UCSC and Cal Poly SLO (not UC, but a state school) offer unique experiences that could make OOS worth it for certain kids. Maybe also UCSD for a kid dead set on a biotech career. But a kid who can get into Berkeley OOS and wants to study econ or whatever surely also would be admitted to strong privates offering a much better undergraduate experience for around the same $$. And UCLA, UCSB, or the rest? C'mon. |
Anonymous
As a native Californian and UCLA grad I also agree. Not worth the money for undergrad OOS, as the PP's have said classes are impacted and graduating in 4 years is almost impossible to do. Both of my nieces are minimum 5 years, one at UCLA the other at Cal...they simply don't have the capacity to meet all of the specific needs. |
Anonymous
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I graduated UC Davis and I agree with most of the PPs. I loved it there, but it's not a good value for out of state. I did know some students from Hawaii, but most students were from CA.
Most of the lower division required classes are in huge lecture halls and you don't get much personal attention. |
Anonymous
| UCs and CSUs do not require test scores anymore and CSUs don’t even require an essay as a part of the application process. They are turning into a community college system for students of poorly run school system and Covid is accelerating their downward trajectory. Definitely not worth the money. |
Anonymous
A bit dramatic. The reality is CA is a highly populated state and they are trying to serve all of their citizens. The UC/CS system is actually a model for the rest of the country and even as a CA native I don't usually compliment CA in anyway shape or form, it's a mess but they have created a good model for higher education. It's great for CA residents but has been said, if you're out of state not so much for the price. All of the schools are impacted and the expectation of graduating in 4 years should be limited. |
Anonymous
Eh, I think they're overrated as far as value for out of state students. But, if the family can afford the out of state cost, and prefers the overcrowded UCs to privates, it's their money. OP, please make it clear to the friend that they cannot expect any financial aid from the UCs. They'll cost $65k at least. First gen kids might not know this and make the mistake of wasting app fees on unaffordable schools. Point them toward the Net Price Calculators that each college has to estimate aid. |
Anonymous
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I’m going to take the other side as a number of PPs. If DC wants to go to a strong research university (that is, a university with highly ranked graduate study programs) it is really hard to beat the UC system.
In addition to Cal and UCLA, UCSD and UCI are very strong in life sciences, math, CS. I would rank almost all programs from there above the same programs from UIUC, UMich, and UVa. (CS at UIUC an exception to that). |
Anonymous
Nobody's saying the UC options are bad for grad school. Everybody (from CA) is saying they make sense for OOS undergrad only in the rarest of circumstances. |