Everyone has asked or been asked the question, “So, where are you from?” either as an ice breaker or from someone’s pure interest.
If the responder does not say a place in the greater Portland area or a town in Oregon, most of us expect the person to say something like the Bay Area, Southern California, around Los Angeles, Northern California or somewhere in between.
Not every out-of-state student is from California, yet there is a justifiable reason for people to assume anyone who isn’t from Oregon is probably from California.
Many wonder why California residents would travel north when the Golden State is flooded with public, private and community colleges.
Because Oregon’s acceptance rate is higher and the tuition is moderate compared to what a California resident student would have to pay to attend college in their home state anyway, many students migrate from California to attend college in Oregon.
Californian students add diversity to the University campus. I say if California schools are too blind to see the potential they are turning away, Oregon should be more than happy to take them.
Approximately 34 percent of Oregon’s student body is out-of-state students, and a large of percentage of that is from the influx of California residents. To give you a better picture, approximately 900 of the anticipated 3,800 2011-12 freshmen are California residents. People often think Californian students who attend the University weren’t smart enough to get into a University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU). Unfortunately, that usually isn’t the case.
The UC and CSU websites both claim California residents must have a 3.0 grade point average to apply. Yet anyone who knows about the prestigious schools in the UC and CSU systems, a 3.0 GPA will definitely not cut it. The University of California, Berkeley, requires prospective students to have at least a 3.93 unweighted GPA, but having or exceeding that minimum does not guarantee anything.
The massive number of applications UC and CSU schools receive requires them to weed out students who may not look promising on paper. Because of California’s financial crisis, the UCs and CSUs have had to cap enrollments, raise admission standards and raise tuition to help ease their financial burdens. This doesn’t help the California high school graduates who, even with the best grades and extracurricular activities, may not get into a state school of choice. California is a prime example of how difficult it can be to obtain higher education in America.
In turn, there is an exodus of students who travel to the University or other public out-of-state schools like the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado, where the tuition isn’t cheap by any means but is almost equivalent to what any UC and CSU might cost. The average in-state tuition for UCs, according to the UC website, is $27,000 to $29,000 depending on whether the student plans to live on or off-campus. Here at the University, the average nonresident tuition is $38,000. This price isn’t desirable, but applicants with a 3.4 GPA are automatically admitted.
And unlike the UCs and CSUs, applicants don’t have to fear being wait-listed because too many students applied to their preferred major or their qualifications don’t “exceed” expectations. In the CSU system, there is a term coined “campus-wide impaction,” meaning CSUs can no longer offer admission to all eligible California residents. If a prospective freshman applies to an “impacted” major, meaning the major has full capacity, he or she is sent to a “pre-major” status and only allowed to take lower division courses until the major has room. CSU encourage students to keep their GPAs high in hopes of getting into the “impacted” major of choice.
A new trend in California high school graduates is to attend a community college for the first two years, boost their grades and then apply for a UC or CSU school. It is saddening to see residents having to make planned detours in their education just to attend a public university in the Golden State. Maybe California should consider changing its slogan to “California: The Golden State for those who are eligible for our education.”
With the spike of tuition cascading throughout America, students can only be optimistic that they won’t have to empty their piggy banks to pay for a college education. Although the downpour of Californians is giving the University the name “UC Eugene,” let’s just hope Eugene won’t ever live up to those standards.
Although California continues to limit the number of residents it admits, Oregon schools gladly accepts anyone who meets the admissions criteria and can pay the financial costs. With more and more Californian students heading north, Oregon universities begin to look more appealing. Students of the University don’t need to be wait-listed for their majors, and most residents certainly don’t have to fear their high GPAs hindering their admittance. There is such a thing as being too selective, and I’m sure one day California may kick itself for letting so much potential leak out of the state.
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