The state budget, which should be signed soon since the fiscal year starts July 1, allows for an additional 4800 slots in the UC system and an additional 10000 slots in the CSUs, while freezing tuition. I believe there is still a freeze on increasing OOS students too, correct?
What does everyone think this will do to admissions at schools like UCSB, Cal POly SLO, SDSU, and UC Davis?
The increase is a pretty small percentage, and a good portion of the will be transfers. I wouldn’t expect any of those schools to to be markedly easier admits next year.
Does it also increase the state’s financial support to higher ed?
Yes, I believe it does increase the financial support to higher ed. That’s part of the compromise.
NCalRent, what makes you believe that this is going mostly to transfer and not admitting freshmen? It’s about a 2.5% growth in enrollment system wide.
@sbdad12 I haven’t seen a precise division of of the transfer vs freshman slots the money will provide. That’s why I said ‘a good portion’. In my mind, that’s 20% or more - though I don’t know. . My expectation is that that it will vary a lot by campus - and lots of the UC adds will be to Merced. Many of the campuses don’t have much idle housing - which they must offer new freshmen.
I’d expect all of the schools you list to require similar GPA/SAT between this year and next.
Thanks NCalRent. But why would they be added to Merced? They only had a yield of 1.1% of the kids promised a UC that weren’t admitted to their UCs of their choice. Doesn’t Merced already have a hard time filling their spots?
Building new academic or dorm buildings in Merced is likely much less expensive than in places where most other UC campuses are. So, for the same money, more capacity can be added at Merced than elsewhere in the UC system.
The same money can also increase transfer capacity by more than frosh capacity, offloading the lower level course work to community colleges, which cost less for both the state and the students.
You can’t just add students without infrastructure and facilities to support them. Merced has an intentionally overbuilt core for its current size. The campus is also surrounded by vacant land and a very welcoming local government - making adding students - and the infrastructure they require - faster and cheaper. Housing and space near all of the other UC campuses has grown scarce.
Here’s an article about how UCSD is dealing with a their rapid growth.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-ucsd-enrollmentgrowth-20181030-story.html
UCSD
It’s definitely cheaper for the state for students to go to community college first, but it is not entirely correct that it is cheaper for low income students. Here’s one study that suggests it’s better for low income students to go directly to four year colleges. https://ticas.org/sites/default/files/pub_files/what_college_costs_for_low-income_californians_0.pdf
Note that https://ticas.org/sites/default/files/pub_files/what_college_costs_for_low-income_californians_0.pdf bases costs on living near campus not with parents. This is obviously more disadvantageous from a financial aid standpoint at CSUs and community colleges, whose financial aid is based on the assumption that the student continues to live where s/he lived before attending college (for traditional age college students, this is usually with parents).