LOS ANGELES (AP) — This fall more than a fifth of all University of California freshmen will come from out of state, providing the system with an estimated $400 million in extra revenue.
Each student from outside California and the United States will pay $23,000 more in tuition than those from in-state, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday (http://lat.ms/1n0ehpo ). That extra revenue helps support the education of Californians, according to officials.
Among the freshman classes at the system’s nine undergraduate campuses, UCLA has the highest percentage of students from out of state, with 30.1 percent. At UC Berkeley, 29.8 percent of freshmen are not from California. UC San Diego has 28.4 percent.
UC began aggressively increasing the numbers of non-California undergraduates five years ago to offset reductions in state support and a freeze on in-state tuition, the Times said.
Although critics contend it hurts Californians and reduces political support for the campuses, UC officials insist no state residents are being pushed out to make room for these students. The $23,000 non-Californians pay on top of the regular $12,192 tuition will provide about 6 percent of UC’s core educational budget and help maintain classes and financial aid for Californians, administrators said.
Until 1993, it was easy to establish California residency within a year or so and then pay the lower tuition. But UC rules were tightened so that current students must prove financial independence for at least two prior years, among other things, to gain resident status.
Incoming UCLA freshman Bridget Bruggeman told the newspaper she passed over her home state school, Indiana University, and other colleges that accepted her.
“Being from the Midwest, there is definitely an idea of California as a place where you can dream as big as you want to. That’s something I was very drawn to,” she said. “It definitely would have been less expensive to go to I.U., but I don’t think I would have been as happy.”
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com
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