UCLA is now the most selective school in the UC system

Corbett
Sun, 06 Aug 2017 21:13:09 +0000

If you were to look at historical trends, a couple of other developments that could plausibly affect Berkeley in the future are as follows:

(1) Davis could conceivably pass Berkeley as the largest UC campus in Northern California. For Fall 2016, Berkeley had a total enrollment of 40,173, while Davis had 37,397. That gap will narrow in Fall 2017. And in the long run, the Davis campus has literally thousands of acres to build on – plus the UC administration wants a Davis satellite campus in downtown Sacramento (probably to ensure that there is a visible UC presence under the noses of state legislators). It’s not hard to see how Davis could expand to accommodate several thousand additional students.

But it’s much harder to see that at Berkeley, which is already overcrowded, out of space, and heavily in debt for the stadium renovation. The only feasible option for significant growth might involve a satellite campus at the Richmond Field Station, a 170-acre parcel that Berkeley owns in Richmond, about 6 miles northwest of the campus.

(2) USC could conceivably catch up with, and then surpass, Berkeley in the USN&WR rankings. In 1997, USC was ranked behind Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Davis, and Irvine. Today, USC’s overall score puts it two points ahead of UCLA and just one point behind Berkeley. They could catch up to Berkeley as soon as this fall.

Berkeley (like other UCs) is capping the enrollment of out-of-state and international students, charging them higher tuition, and denying them financial aid. USC (like Stanford) is doing the exact opposite of these things. Historically, the UCs were more attractive to top students because of the low in-state tuition. USC realized that this advantage is completely negated out of state, and that’s where they recruit most of their students now (58% for Fall 2016). Berkeley and UCLA may still have a significant advantage over USC in the statewide market for top students, but they are politically handicapped in the increasingly important national and global markets.