This column is the latest in a series on parenting in the final years of high school, “Emptying the Nest.” Read the previous installment, about crying on the last day of school, here.
My children are here in part because of the University of California program.
It was Gov. Pat Brown's Master Plan for Higher Education, designed to ensure every high school graduate in the state the opportunity to go to college, that helped my father-in-law convince his wife that they should move from their small town in Indiana to college. planned community of Lakewood.
Yes, there were a million factors that led me to meet my husband of 26 years. But one thing's for sure: He couldn't have lived in Indiana.
So I have many reasons to thank the UC program. Reasons I try to remember as our family faces, for the third and final time, the painful experience of trying to be accepted.
As millions of parents and students know, the college admissions process is getting worse and worse. Gone are the days of my youth, when, after a proper assessment of one's budget and ability as a student, you could apply to a few schools in and out of state – including mandatory “access” and “safety” – and expect to be accepted in most places.
Now that research is a process that takes years, requiring spreadsheets of tuition and potential aid, acceptance rates (generally and your student's preferred study area) and housing availability and costs.
According to US News & World Report, over the past 20 years, national university tuition and fees have averaged, without adjusting for inflation, more than 100% – tuition and fees at public universities are about 133%.
And forget a few college applications. Now many counselors advise students to apply to at least 10, to be safe. As for those colleges that “reach”, well, even for California graduates, that now includes most of the UCs.
I know many people who have children who attended even the most famous members of the program — UCLA (acceptance rate: 9%), UC Berkeley (11.6%), UC San Diego (26.8%), UC Irvine (28.8%), UC Santa Barbara (32.9%).
But I know many more who, years later, are left baffled that their 4.0-plus kid, former volleyball team captain/student council president/founder of a thriving nonprofit, wasn't even waitlisted.
Reddit is a cacophony of misery when it comes to how-to questions, I mean ifone can enter multiple UCs. Most experienced high school counselors and private college counselors advise high-achieving California students not to count on getting into their favorite UCs, unless those choices include Riverside (76%) or Merced (91%).
Both are good schools, if they have strong programs in your child's area of interest. Which, in the case of my third child, they don't.
After watching his high-achieving older siblings receive multiple UC rejection letters when they were accepted, on scholarships, to out-of-state universities – my son was accepted to UC Davis but chose the University of Missouri – my youngest child initially vowed to pass. all painful experiences. But then he realized that most of the top schools he chose for majors were UCs. So he applied to five of them, along with two California State schools, one of which only accepted 34% of applicants.
The time he's spent putting together his pitch to each of them — writing essays, putting together portfolios and getting letters of recommendation — has become, in effect, a part-time job. They already have it, along with all the academic credentials needed to prove that they will be valuable to any university willing to accept tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, housing and fees.
He also applied to many out-of-state and private universities, none of which we could afford without significant help. When did $70,000 a year become normal?
But all his top picks are UCs, so I'm optimistic. She has a high GPA, good AP scores and a genuine passion for her desired area of study. More importantly, growing anger over the high rejection rate among California applicants forced UC to include its out-of-state students at 18% on most of its campuses and try to expand its student pool.
This year, as the Times' Teresa Watanabe reported, UC admitted its largest and most diverse class ever, including a 4.3% increase in first-year California students. UC officials hope to add another 3,600 next year, although proposed tuition increases, a budget shortfall, may make that impossible.
However, the fact remains that within a generation, the light bulb system that drew my husband's family and thousands of other families like them to California is a dream for many.
UCs were originally intended to be research institutions that offered higher education to the top 12.5 percent of adults graduating from the state; CSUs were supposed to offer extensive learning to a maximum of 33.3%. The state's population growth, which has more than doubled since 1960, and the ever-increasing disparity in high school education, make this kind of simple math impossible.
But for families who have invested their tax dollars in the state, sending a child who meets UC's historic standards to a campus that best meets academic priorities shouldn't require the kind of multi-year planning and hand-wringing to get into MIT. or getting into the Ivy League.
Increasing student enrollment should be a priority for a province that has experienced the largest population decline in decades. UCs should develop more three-year programs, like those in UK universities, and offer off-campus semesters, either abroad or at home, and work to ensure that they graduate in four years.
And if building new or expanding old campuses remains too expensive, perhaps the state should focus on building the programs and reputation of Cal State universities. Under the Master Plan, only UCs were allowed to award doctoral degrees, a mark of research focus and prestige. But in 2005, CSUs started offering them in some programs; two years ago that number was increased.
Cal Poly, San Diego State and Long Beach State are already on many “Best of” lists, but with 20 other campuses in the system, maybe it's time for California to take a closer look at its Master Plan in rankings and more to make sure it's fewer. ambitious and qualified high school graduates are forced to leave the country to find a college of their choice that will accept them.
Importantly, our collective perceptions of college need to change. As I keep scanning them, all those “best of” lists do a lot of damage, citing the idea that the lower the acceptance rate and the higher the price, the better the school. Which is not always the case.
After my father-in-law used the California college system to lure his family to the Golden State, all three of their children took full advantage, attending, over the years, Long Beach State, San Francisco State, UC Irvine and UCLA. My husband was accepted to Berkeley but ultimately chose San Francisco State because of its undergraduate program – the program was underclass at the time, and moving between campuses was common.
At home, the final round of applications has been submitted. Now comes the painful wait (just in time for Christmas!) And, I've told my kid that if a college doesn't want him, it's their loss, not theirs. But since he is the first of my children who really wants to live in California, I hope California will let him.
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