UC Berkeley will enroll more out-of-state students than ever before in an effort to boost revenue, according to a report from the San Francisco Business Times.
In a controversial move, the school will raise its target for out-of-state enrollment to 23 percent, up from 20 percent in previous years. Obviously, more out-of-state students means there will be fewer spots at the school available to California residents.
School Chancellor Nicholas Dirks defended the decision in an e-mail to the UC Berkeley community: “In the wake of the state’s disinvestment in higher education, UC Berkeley’s financial model is more dependent on tuition than it has been in the past.” Dirks added that the decision was “the best available option to help minimize the campus’ ongoing operating deficits.”
In the wake of the decision, UC Berkeley’s freshman acceptance rate fell 3.5 percentage points to just 17.3 percent, according to Sacramento Bee blog Capitol Alert.Despite a record 73,771 applications this year, about 1,300 fewer students will be admitted to the school
The UCLA campus, the most selective campus in the UC system, also saw a decline in its admission rate, falling 2 percentage points to 18.2 percent. This year will mark the first time ever that the acceptance rates for both UC Berkeley and UCLA have fallen below 20 percent, according to Capitol Alert.
The decision to enroll more out-of-state students makes sense for Berkeley, as non-residents pay about $23,000 more in tuition than California residents. Still, at least one group of students has made gains in admissions; as reported yesterday on Breitbart California, the percentage of Latino students admitted to UC climbed to 28.8%, making Latinos the second-most represented ethnicity at the school behind Asian Americans
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