University of California Now Accepting More Out-of-State Applicants

If you want to go to any of the UC (University of California) campuses and you are not a California resident, the scale has begun to tip in your favor. According to Bloomberg news, UC has now begun to admit more out-of-state students (and allocating less spots for in-state students.)

The reason behind this is purely financial. UC in recent years can no longer depend on funding from the state. Since out-of-state students pay almost twice as much as in-state students, UC is now beginning to admit more out-of-state students to make up for the decreased funding from the state.

Now, this is a complete change from their previous long standing tendency of favoring the admission of in-state applicants. I of all people know this first hand. As an out-of-state student (from New York), I attended UC in the 1990’s, and I had worked after graduation at three different UC’s working closely with a variety of students.

I now work in CUNY (City University of New York) and have come across a few students trying to get admitted to UC. Of all the people I know from New York applying to UC (as out-of-state students), only two (including myself) have been admitted. Three years ago, I was tutoring a student in CUNY who applied to several UC campuses and to Columbia University. He was rejected by all the UC campuses to which he applied, but he was admitted to Columbia (which should be more difficult to get into). This really shows UC’s long standing policy of admitting a smaller percentage of out-of-state students. However, this has now begun to change completely as UC needs the extra money from out-of-state students.

For potential out-of-state applicants, I want to clarify that this change in UC policy by no means indicate that it’s easy to get into UC. Students and parents residing in California have known that UC is the best state university system in America and it is not easy to get in, even when they previously favored in-state residents. So, I want clarify that I am not saying it is easy, but it is now a bit easier if you are applying from out-of-state.