We are fortunate enough to live in California. The UC’s are of course very good and tremendous value at $13K a year tuition but tough to get into. The local Cal State’s are pretty good as well at cost just $8K a year in tuition and much easier to get into.
So my kid (who is price conscious) has been struggling to understand why we/she should apply for anything beyond a state school? Having not grown up in this country, I can’t really answer this question hence I’m asking the group!
Many of course have those same questions. If she can get a place at a UC or CSU that offers the major she wants to do and she thinks she will be happy there, no real reason to look elsewhere.
By the way - not all CSUs are easy to get into, or not for all majors. She needs to make sure she understands which options are available.
Don’t make the same mistake like many CA students. They only applied top/mid tier UCs and few top CSUs. Especially if you apply for CS or Engineering. We are in Bay Area competitive school district, we know many CS kids end up going to CC because they never anticipate 4.0 GPA is not good enough. Or STEM kids settled for SJSU even they don’t like it there. Some OOS publics and privates cost about the same as UC and CSU, because they offer Merit. By applying to OOS publics and private, you are just like buying insurance for $80/school. You don’t have to use it. You never know. For example, Ohio State would cost about the same as UCR after merit for S24. No other UC accepted him at that time. What would you pick? Good Luck.
Some kids just want to “get out of Dodge” and experience other parts of the country. Other kids may not want a large public college experience and are looking for a small LAC. Still others may be attracted to major programs at specific colleges or may be attracted to colleges in cities where they eventually want to live and work.
None of the above should happen unless affordable for the student & family.
I’m not from CA but I’ve read enough on CC to know that the UC’s are generally a very competitive admit and many students don’t get the acceptances that they expect. I’m guessing that’s the justification in your state specifically for pursuing OOS options.
I can’t speak fo CA but some state schools have secondary admission for certain majors. Some are holistic and very competitive. Not getting your preferred major is a reason.
I would also think cost and availability of housing could be a reason.
CA seems to have many options but is also very competitive, even at lower tier UC’s and CS’s.
Because big state schools are not a good fit for every student.
As a Californian with a kid at a UC and two kids who are about to head off to a much pricier school across the country, I think there’s a certain sense in which you ultimately need to just make peace with the downsides (of whichever decision you make), in the hope that the upsides will be worth it. Every option in front of you will have both pros and cons, and being thoughtful about them at the outset will help you both with the initial decision and with your “blerg, did we make the right decision there?” mental re-visits over the years.
As an example, we just got through the application season for our 2025 twins, and they’ll be heading off to William & Mary — very different from our oldest’s (substantially larger, far more grad-student-focused) UC. The twins’ school is such a good fit for them, I’ve been revisiting our decision for our oldest (a rising senior) and have been lamenting a bit: “Should we have done things differently for her? Should we have pushed more out-of-state options, or looked at more undergrad-focused schools, or upped the budget, or or or …” But then my ever-wise wife points out that, no, our oldest was solving different problems than the younger two, and staying at a UC was the right call for her.
One last thing to note: you probably know this, but there are private schools that use their endowments to draw students to attend, and these can sometimes bring the costs down to be competitive with the in-state publics. St. Olaf is a phenomenal school that — because of merit aid they offered — would have been cheaper than any of the in-state options our twins had.
There is absolutely no reason why your child needs to apply to any school out of state. CA is lucky to have great instate options.
I think a large part of your question is more to do with parents than their children. Many parents put a lot of pressure on their kids to apply to out of state colleges, especially those that rank highly in a certain notorious college rankings list.
A few reasons:
– Price is not a driving factor for some families.
– The UCs and CSUs are very competitive in terms of admissions, particularly in certain majors.
– Some OOS and private colleges may come in at a similar price point after financial/merit aid.
That said, it is perfectly fine to only apply in-state if a student is happy with the options and confident of admissions.
All of this is certainly true, but the reasons others have listed are valid as well. I grew up in California (obviously a different era – back in the dark ages – but the top UCs were still highly competitive), and I didn’t apply anywhere in the state, even safety schools. I wanted a different experience – I wanted a smaller school, to experience living somewhere else (and in fact I never went back to California to live, even for summer breaks), and I wanted to go somewhere that dozens of people in my high school weren’t also going, prestigious or not. So there are some valid reasons to look elsewhere, even if your in-state options are UCs and CSUs (which, admittedly, didn’t have the status in my era as some of them do now).
Yes -you’d think they’d have most options across all those colleges (and they probably do), but In our instance, also instate in CA, the only CA public to offer what my kid wants to do is Berkeley, which is a non-starter. Checking options and ease of admit into those options - also tough for some courses at many CSUs - is the first place to start.
A significant proportion of children from our local high school (which always has a layer of tippy top acceptances) stay with CA publics -they do well with Cal admissions and in line with overall admit rates at other UCs, but also send to all the CSUs.
Our kids both went to private universities. We were fortunate that finances were in place for them to do so.
We felt no need to justify this to anyone. And we have an excellent instate flagship university that would have been less costly.
I have to say, we felt that college was a time to spread your wings geographically, and that’s why we supported our kids applying to colleges that weren’t in our state.
Yes, all true. My point was to emphasize that this parent’s child doesn’t need to apply OOS if she doesn’t want to. And all the other reasons are valid too. Let’s face it though: plenty of parents want to be able to send their kids OOS, regardless of having good state schools.
Like you, I left CA and never returned. I attended a CSU. I now live on the East Coast in a state with great public universities. I work with students professionally and soooo many parents want their kids to apply to OOS colleges. There are many reasons for this, but I can say with certainty that, at least in the suburban metropolitan area where I live, many parents feel that there is a certain amount of “prestige” with being able to afford to send a student to an OOS school, even if the school itself isn’t particularly prestigious. I think this might particularly apply to some of the big sports U’s and colleges with well known Greek Life.
ETA: Both of my kids applied to OOS universities and colleges, as well as some instate. Yes, we were happy to pay for that option. One went instate and saved us a bundle of money. That kid is in my good books 
Exactly. Knowing that DD wanted to be premed we steered away from our state flagship UMD (she was accepted with Presidential scholarship). 400 per class students for Bio or Chem did not look attractive. We were looking for a LAC that could be affordable .
In the end, this goes back to the mantra of every family doing what works for them.
The short answer is “fit”, assuming the family budget can afford the desired option. Large state schools are not for everyone, and they may not offer the specific program your student wants. The student may just want to branch out and go to a different part of the country. The student may want smaller class sizes and a more intimate teaching setting.
Your cost conscious student may be surprised at the available OOS bargains. For example, we live in MI and Purdue was less expensive than UofM when my son was applying. CC parents have mentioned reputable programs that are very generous with aid to attract strong students (I think U of Alabama, and some other southern publics… please chime in if you posted about these). I know that CWRU is generous with aid, giving merit awards equal to 50% of tuition to many CC students the year my son applied. That said, it is tough to beat $13k in-state.
My daughter only applied to California schools - one UC, some CSUs, and two privates. She got a mix of acceptances and rejections and has no regrets about her application strategy. You don’t need to apply OOS. You do need to apply to a variety of schools to ensure that you have at least one true safety school that you’d be happy to go to should that be what it comes down to.
My kid wanted a school with smaller classes that were less lecture-based. It is not always about parent pressure for prestige. He did apply to our state school, but it wasn’t the right place for him. Too big. Too much like high school. I am sure he would have gotten a great education and several of his friends are going there because of the opportunities for their majors. My son just preferred small liberal arts colleges. His favorite classes in high school have been small and discussion based.
It is also not always true that state schools are cheaper. This depends on the state and the aid available. As was mentioned by someone else, there are many private schools that are very generous with merit and/or need aid which makes them similar or less than some state schools. The sticker price of these schools is shocking but doesn’t always reflect what the cost will be for any given kid. We are in the northeast. My kid has high stats, but not tip top. The less selective LACs he applied to gave so much merit that they were barely more expensive than the state school, which gave him some merit but not as generous. The smaller schools were a better fit for him and he is excited about the honors program at the one he chose. Bottom line, everyone has different reasoning for why they choose different schools and it is not automatic that the state option is always the cheapest unless you go the community college route. Also a great option for alot of kids (free for 2 years in our state). We know kids who got better deals at out of state schools than our own.
UC Merced and UC Riverside are not that hard to get into. However, the more popular ones are very competitive for admission, due to the large population in the state of California relative to the sizes of UC campuses.
Most CSUs are non-impacted with few or no impacted majors (other than nursing), so they admit at the CSU baseline (a-g courses completed with 2.5 HS GPA for California residents). But student who apply only to CPSLO and the most popular majors at SJSU and CPP may not notice that.
Regarding LACs, many states (including California) do have public schools that are LACs or LAC-like. Those may be a consideration for students who want a more LAC-like school at an in-state public price.