New UC Location

NEU offers the Mills campus to students who get a spring start offer, kind of like their freshman fall semester abroad program. Not sure how admitted students feel about the option - I only know local (SF area) kids who got that offer and they were not excited by it for obvious reasons.

Re. CSU - just thinking, between CSUMB, CSU Maritime and CSU Channel Islands, some sort of joint marine science program utilizing all the different campus resources might be atttactive to students.

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CSUMB is also not popular with local kids, at least on the peninsula. Most would rather go to the community college and transfer. I don’t know why locally CSUMB reputation has been very poor. Unless kids want teaching credentials, most don’t want to attend there. I also have no idea if their reputation is undeserved.
It seems to me overall CSU system isn’t doing as well with certain exceptions.

Don’t Maritime got folded into Cal Poly?

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I believe there are also a few majors you can complete at the Oakland campus. Undergraduate Education - Northeastern University Oakland

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Yes, though I assume it will maintain its campus on Mare Island? It’s a really unique program. Wasn’t a fit for my daughter but it was interesting to learn about.

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I also wonder what is happening at Humboldt now that it’s a Cal Poly. Hopefully they are getting more students.

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Apparently, applications went up 86%.

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That’s really interesting. I think Humboldt’s location must be a real ding for its attractiveness to many. While I do know a couple of kids who want to go there because of its location, it’s pretty hard to get to unless you’re flying in (I assume it’s a fairly small airport with limited flights).

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CA’s problem is not because of not enough UC locations. We have UCM, UCR and plenty of CSUs which HS students have no interest to go to.

S24 attended one of the competitive public HS. Based on exit survey, 200 students attending UCs, only 130 attending CSU, 160 attending private and OOS. But there are 200 attending CC!

Most students who got rejected to top UCs and cannot afford private nor OOS, would rather go to CC and TAG then going to CSU! Due to grade inflation and test blind, more and more students are meeting the minimum requirement of UCs. Too many qualify students applying to UCs freshman/transfer due to holistic review.

By making below changes, more people will be interest to go to CSUs. And better distribution HS students to all 3 CA college systems. Good Luck.

  • UC minimum GPA raise to 3.5
  • CSU minimum GPA raise to 3.0
  • Only CSU accept TAG, no longer UC

I don’t understand why you think they should raise the GPA for CSUs. Their point is to make higher education accessible to CA residents, not to artificially make it more difficult. Not sure where you are but I very much doubt your competitive high school is representative of public high schools across the entire state.

I would not be averse to bringing standardized testing back though it seems that’s not going to happen.

Edit: I just had a look at our last year outcomes (also a fairly competitive public school). 96% into post secondary education, of that the breakdown is 16% UCs, 11% CSUs, 11% CA privates, 46% out of state, 11% in CC. Seems very different to yours, and highlights that drawing conclusions based on any one school is dodgy. I assume somewhere there are stats on total CA public school outcomes.

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Because many HS families see non-impacted CSUs have very low admission standard, they would rather pay more to go OOS or just do TAG if their kid got rejected by top UCs. HS kids getting 3.5 to 4.0 WGPA avoid non-impact CSUs because they think almost anybody can go there.

It does, although only at the introductory level, presumably as service courses for other majors: Course Descriptions - California State University Monterey Bay - Modern Campus Catalog™

It does not have a physics major: Programs and Degrees - California State University Monterey Bay - Modern Campus Catalog™

Otherwise known as those trying to protect the property and rental values of the property that they currently own in the area? “Property values are the only values” in much of local politics.

That’s right. Algebra based physics to support bio majors. Even the local CC has better physics program.

Freshman admission by discipline | University of California indicates that all UCs except Merced had 25th percentile admit and enroll HS GPAs significantly higher than 3.5 already. So the effect of raising the UC minimum HS GPA from 3.0 to 3.5 would mostly affect Merced.

Raising the CSU minimum HS GPA from 2.5 to 3.0 would likely reduce enrollment at the majority of CSU campuses that are non-impacted for most majors. Even at impacted campuses like SJSU, some less popular majors would have more empty space with that increases minimum HS GPA requirement.

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According to https://www.ppic.org/publication/college-access-in-california , 62% of California public high school graduates go to college within 12 months of high school graduation (which includes GED). The breakdown:

  • 33% to California community colleges
  • 12% to CSUs
  • 8% to UCs
  • 3% to in-state private
  • 7% to out of state

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Clearly that’s a very small subset of families given the actual outcomes ucbalumnus posted. You can’t expect a statewide system to cater to a small subset of families who look down on certain colleges because they don’t think they’re good enough for their kids. Part of the CSU mission statement is “ To encourage and provide access to an excellent education to all who are prepared for and wish to participate in collegiate study.” You can’t do that by artificially raising entry standards above what is needed to successfully complete a degree.

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Based on the actual outcomes ucbalumnus posted, clearly CSUs are under enrolled. While 9 UCs cover 8% CA students, 23 CSUs only cover 12% students. My idea is just to redistribute CA students better to fit the 3 college systems. Top students go to UCs, average students go to CSUs, below average students go to CC to better prepare themselves before transfer to 4-year colleges. This way, we can avoid CA families to take on unnecessary student loan to attend uDub, ASU, UofOregon, UofNevada, UofHawaii …

Your idea from post #48 would likely reduce the student population at Merced and the non-impacted CSUs. But it will not change the perception by students who see those campuses as “beneath” them, so they will still be prone to going out of state if they do not get into their reach UCs.

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Hopefully by raising the admission standard of CSUs and UCM, more CA families will change their perception of them. They will see Cal State Chico and East Bay are better choices than ASU and UofOregon. Also, by limiting TAG to CSUs, more top students will attend CSUs.

Based on your chart among Asian, 27% go to 9 UCs. Only 16% go to 23 CSUs while 28% go to CC. This shows many Asian students currently avoiding CSUs by going to CC to transfer to top UCs later.

It is not like Arizona and Oregon publics are highly selective. Their attractiveness over CSUEB and many other CSUs is the residential college experience (compared to the commuter-heavy experience at most CSUs, although CSUC is somewhat more residential).

“Asian” in California is heavily loaded with “kids of parents with master’s or doctoral degrees working in computing, engineering, health care, and other high education fields”. So no surprise that (whether you see nature or nurture is the main reason) they are more likely to be high achievers aiming for UCs over CSUs.

I would prefer if the chart included breakdowns by parent educational attainment (>BA/BS, BA/BS, AA/AS, some college, high school, <high school) rather than emphasizing race/ethnicity.

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