@CU123 Well, some get merit scholarships based on grades, so then the tuition is reduced but yes, the school will still get some more from those students than they would from their in-state students
My hope is that Merced eventually becomes a great college town and experience. But that is likely decades away. Davis was able to do it and that’s not a prized location. Davis’s academic reputation brings kids in. For a medium to high stat kid UO, OSU, UA, ASU and CU Boulder may all be better options right now than Merced. Especially since merit is offered at the Arizona and Oregon schools.
My hope is that UC Merced gets enough funding to run the full slate of courses that a typical research university offers. Looking at their spring course offerings, the pickings look pretty slim. Only a couple of French courses. The English literature offerings are worse than at a good CA community college. Many disciplines are barely represented. It’s not just about the vibe of the town or the climate. They need to offer a wider range of courses, or decide to just make it a CS and engineering vocational school.
“For a medium to high stat kid UO, OSU, UA, ASU and CU Boulder may all be better options…especially since merit is offered at the Arizona and Oregon schools”.
Interesting choice of PAC-12 schools to list (as we discussed many, many pages ago)! Those can really only be classed as “better options” from a social (rather than cost) perspective since it’s pretty hard to get the out of state cost at any of the above colleges much below the UC cost.
OTOH the first thing they tell you in the University of Utah’s prospective student presentation is that the 4 year cost of Utah is less than a UC if you stay for the (first) summer and get residency for your second year. And Utah has great merit aid including full ride scholarships for top students. But I guess the perceived “fit” (i.e. dislike for all those Utahn conservative/religious types) trumps money for a lot of California parents.
Based on https://mystudentrecord.ucmerced.edu/pls/PROD/xhwschedule.p_selectsubject , it looks like UCM does not have that extensive offerings in humanities (English has 3 lower division and 6 upper division offerings this semester, and the only foreign language with offerings beyond the first year level is Spanish). However, some social studies (cognitive science, economics, psychology, and sociology) do seem to have more extensive offerings (looks like psychology is the second largest major at UCM, after biology).
But then humanities are not the most impacted majors at other UCs and CSUs, so it may be that capacity expansion in more impacted majors was the priority.
Still, most impacted majors will still have requirements in English.
The Pac-12 schools have better academic options than Merced. I don’t think it is just social. As long as merit comes in to bring the cost close to a UC, I think many would make the OOS choice. Clearly, many are making the full pay choice now.
Perhaps not lower, but close. For example, U-Arizona offers a Cal kid a $14k discount for a 3.8/1200.
From what is being said about UCM offerings you can bet that all those Universities will be a better choice, at least until UCM gets on firmer footing.
Required writing courses are under a separate heading at UCM. General education requirements may not specifically require English literature courses (as opposed to other humanities).
Agree with the sentiment about UofC Boulder (and IU Bloomington). I was surprised how many seniors last year at D20 CA HS choose these colleges.
BTW @ucbalumnus I think there is someone that needs your advice on an UCLA or UCB thread.
“I don’t think it is just social. As long as merit comes in to bring the cost close to a UC, I think many would make the OOS choice. Clearly, many are making the full pay choice now.”
It’s a social rather than financial decision in the sense that the parents aren’t looking for the cheapest school and these aren’t the only schools their kids could get into. As you say many are making the full pay choice. And admission standards at these schools are in many cases higher than UCR/UCM. Certainly kids getting decent merit would get into UCR/UCM.
So remind me again why kids “are shut out of the UC system”? In reality those kids are generally only shut out of the desirable (socially prestigious) UC schools.
Honestly I think that is what most of them mean…IOW are shut out of the top 5 UC’s.
Really, if your from the coast, and a top 10% student, can you imagine the embarrassment of having to say your going to UCM. Can’t get much farther from the ocean than that and still be in CA. 
Top 5? Plenty of people are happy with the top 6 (not sure whether you were leaving Davis or Irvine out?) and quite a lot with Santa Cruz (because it has a beach). It’s really only UCR/UCM that aren’t desirable.
And that the grass is greener elsewhere because it’s a higher status choice to go OOS (for a start it usually is taken to imply you are better off because you can afford it).
Another ugly stat about UCB, let say you win the lottery and all your hard work pays off…you’re accepted to UCB, but you want to major in business, you have a 34% chance of getting into Haas after two years of again busting your butt, not enough seats for too many applicants.
My kids went to a fairly affluent Southern California Catholic school (Orange County). I remember reading the graduation program and where everyone was headed. There were 3 for UCLA and 3 for Cal. That was it, just 6 total. There were 6 going to CU Boulder and another 5-6 going to Colorado Mesa, mostly for sports. Lots going to private schools in California and OOS - BC, Brown, ND, TCU, Santa Clara, USD, and many going to OOS publics like Oregon and Washington. Fifty out of 235 were going to community colleges right there in Orange county. Another couple dozen were going to CSU Fulerton or San Diego.
I don’t think they felt shut out of California schools and could have gone to CSUs if they wanted, but I don’t think there was a lot of interest in going to Berkeley or of going all the way to LA for UCLA. I don’t think any went to Merced or Riverside because they wanted more country club type schools
“So if I’m a high achieving student, which there are an abundance of in CA; with a family income of $150 -250K in a very expensive state to live in, what choices do I have, top privates - nope, not enough FA”
It depends on your definition of high achieving, many of them get FA at the top privates and OOS publics end up attending there. The latest info I had on the 20 most popular colleges that bay area high schools send their students are the 8 UCs (all but UCM), USC, Cal Poly SLO, SJSU, Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Santa Clara, Cornell, CMU, Penn, Purdue. These are all students, the high achieving ones also went to Stanford, the other ivies, Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, Cal Tech, Claremont Consortium, JHU, Rice. Most of these families are in the $150-250K income range, some are full pay, and would be above $250K.
Yes there are always some that are well prepared to send their kids to college, but if you read anything from CC here, most are not willing to sacrifice that much when they have a possibility to get into a UC at half the cost. My point is that there are far more high achievers in CA then those that get merit OOS, which is as competitive or even more then getting into UCB or UCLA. Also I would really like to know where you get this stat from: “Most of these families are in the $150-250K income range, some are full pay, and would be above $250K.” @theloniusmonk you have been around here long enough to know you should back up these statements with some kind of source.
Oh PLEASE. The conservative ranters come to Boulder and no one says BOO. If I was a California parent, I would choose U of Utah every time. Boulder is not liberal and never was, and never will be the way Berkeley is liberal.
U of Utah has better programs in many areas than CU Boulder. The ranks are simply wrong about Boulder, IMO.
If California families are fooled by “sunshine and liberal” thats OK with me though. My taxes are very low because
Californians are fooled. They really need to look at U of Nevada Reno, Arizona State and U of Utah. Arizona State offers the Barrett Honors college. They will save money at Arizona State and possibly a somewhat better education to be had there.
Boulder is not at all similar to Berkeley. I have lived in both, no overlap. Boulder is a small town, with a lot of conservative lurking on all sides. Bruce Benson heads up the CU System, a staunch Republican. Denver man,
who sells beef, oil and gas, etcetera. the U of Colorado system is the only public education system headed up
by a non PhD business man with an oil and gas background I bet! He sits in a high rise in Denver. He actually does
a good job though with budgets and some decisions. He is well liked, but very conservative.