Future Admission Prospects for UC Schools!

We will discuss the future admission prospects for various UC universities and share our personal insights from A-One Institute based on various analyses.

2023 could be called the “Year of Strikes.” Starting with Ford, there was the UAW strike, and the Hollywood Strike began with AI-generated works. Gucci also went on strike for the first time in 102 years in 2023. These situations indicate that the current economic situation is not very good.

Additionally, in 2023, graduate students and staff at UC universities also went on strike due to the lack of wage increases compared to the skyrocketing cost of living in California.

Besides UC universities, there was also a strike by staff at California State universities. Following the UC schools, Cal State schools also went on strike.

We analyzed the financial status reports of UC schools. We found that the format of the profit and loss statements for 2022-23 and 2023-24 has changed significantly.

This could be interpreted as a change in accounting standards or some hidden intention.

·         Revenue

·         Expenditure Total

Looking at the total income, it fluctuated every year. Unlike companies, schools can have fluctuating income. Unlike total income, efforts to balance the net to zero can be seen in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years. However, in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, the net shows a negative value.

A significant portion of the university’s income comes from tuition fees. A certain portion of the expenditures is faculty salaries. Interestingly, since the strike in 2023, the format of the profit and loss statement has changed, revealing a negative net. It seems that UC schools want to show their losses.

As a result, UC universities will need to collect more tuition to cover the deficit, and one way to do this is to accept more out-of-state or international students.

For example, the tuition for in-state students at UCLA is $38,517, while for out-of-state and international students, it is $71,091. Therefore, universities will select students who pay higher tuition fees to some extent.

The number of international students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at UC Berkeley has been increasing. However, there was an incident where the total enrollment increased along with the number of international students. As UC schools continued to increase student enrollment, local residents suffered from rising rents, noise issues, and traffic problems, leading to a lawsuit by a civic group. In 2023, the court sided with the civic group and ordered UC Berkeley to maintain its enrollment at around 42,000, down from 45,000.

After such a ruling, UC schools faced difficulties in covering financial aspects solely through tuition fees. Additionally, as public schools, UC universities must meet government requirements. With the presidential election in 2024, they need to be more cautious of the government’s stance. Therefore, it is difficult to indiscriminately accept many international students.

The above chart shows the number of undergraduate students at UC Berkeley. You can see that the number has slightly decreased after hitting a peak. When you look at the ratio of UC residents (blue) and non-residents (yellow), you can see that the UC resident ratio remains consistently at 77%. As a public school, UC Berkeley is making efforts to maintain the ratio of in-state undergraduate students due to court rulings and government considerations.

Based on the data released by UC Berkeley, we created the following chart by inputting the data into Excel. Analyzing both undergraduate and graduate students, we found that the ratio of in-state students is gradually decreasing, while the ratio of out-of-state students is increasing.

As mentioned above, despite maintaining the ratio of in-state students, the ratio has decreased, indicating an increase in the proportion of international students. In other words, they have admitted more international students who pay higher tuition fees at the graduate level.

Please note that the following is a personal prediction for your reference only.

In the 2024-25 academic year, due to the U.S. presidential election, the number of in-state undergraduate students is expected to be maintained more consistently than in other periods to show political considerations to the government. Therefore, UC might be slightly advantageous for students entering in 2024.

In the 2025-26 academic year, after the presidential election, there is a possibility of increasing the proportion of international or out-of-state students among undergraduate students due to the fear of strikes.

UC universities are currently implementing a test-blind policy, not considering standardized test scores. UC universities are preparing their own exams. If the UC exam is not created for the 2025 admissions year, the test-blind policy will continue. As of now, it seems likely that the UC exam will be introduced for students entering in the 2026-27 academic year.

Considering various variables of UC universities according to your situation, we hope you can develop a successful admission strategy. This concludes today’s posting.

If you would like to know more about the future admission prospects of UC schools according to your child’s admission year, please contact A-One Institute.