What are the reasons for it? Is it because of Californias budget cuts making fewer classes, thus admission rates are lower? Or is it just simply kids getting higher grades and test scores over the years? I want to know what you guys think :).
Population growth faster than capacity growth.
Thousands and thousands of kids from out of state are applying, more now than ever.
And international. It’s harder for California kids to get in because those OOS kids pay much more so financially, they are more desirable. It’s a huge topic of conversation for California high school students and their parents.
There were no AP or IB courses/programs when I went to HS (in the dark ages) so your GPA was based on the 4.0 scale. No extra honors points to bump up that GPA. Also, for the Cal states if you met a certain GPA threshold, SAT scores were not even required along with all the other reasons posted above ^^^^.
Class sizes were also smaller. My Basic Bio class at CPP had 60 students and all my other classes were under 30 students.
Population of CA has increased, and so has the percentage of HS students going to college.
In the 70’s only ~40% of HS grads enrolled in 2 or 4 year colleges. Now that percentage is ~70%. College capacity has not kept pace.
High school grads are better prepared.