<p>The steep growth in UC applications for 2012 has been attributed to changes in the admissions process meant to increase diversity, such as not requiring subject SATs. However, I suspect that a bigger factor is more campuses applied to per student, due to concerns about falling acceptance rates for in-state students. Are there any stats available on number of campuses per UC applicant over time? </p>
<p>Since each UC is making their decisions independently, it seems to me this could result in drastic drop-offs on yield for the UC campuses, with each UC drawing from the same pool of overqualified applicants. Meanwhile the normally well-qualified applicants could get shut out of even the less-desirable campuses.</p>
<p>There’s always out-of-state options. Out of curiosity, I looked at the out-of-state costs of the University of Oregon, Oregon State, and the University of Nevada. The UC in-state tuition is catching up quickly with the out-of-state tuitions of said schools. These schools may not carry the UC label, but I’m sure they still provide a high-quality education.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s why University of Oregon is informally known here as the University of California at Eugene. But for my son’s specific major, the most equivalent to a UC in nearby states is CU Boulder. The out-of-state COE there is currently about $50K, about $20K more than a UC. He’s already been accepted there, but I will feel very hard done by if we have to go that route.</p>
<p>I’d be careful about going that route, as well. If CU gives him a good scholarship to offset the enormous out-of-state cost, it might be worth it. Just make sure the scholarship is renewable from year to year. Otherwise, in your case, I would stick to in-state schools (and even community colleges) and not worry too much about rankings.</p>