Call Arnold and ask him to restore the state subsidies to UC.

UC needs to:
1) make faculty contribute to their retirement funds. Did you know that until a few years ago faculty did not contrubute anything into their retirement fund, and now contribute only very little
2) raise tuition by another 20-50%, but at the same time create more scholarships for those who can not afford it. Thus you create differentiated pricing - charging those who can afford it higher than those who can not.

I guess what's bugging me is why can't they tell the kids yes or no? They are raising false hopes just because they can't figure out the budget. I realize that California being in a major financial crisis is going to present them with a problem.

"I guess what's bugging me is why can't they tell the kids yes or no? They are raising false hopes just because they can't figure out the budget. "

This is a consequence of kids now applying to 10+ schools as schools have a difficult time knowing exactly what their enrollment yield of accepted students will actually be.

This is not new. Wait lists at UCs have been around for years.

@Not New is right: wait lists at UCs have been around for years. However, the college advisors at Paly say more kids are being waitlisted this year, partly as a way to cope with funding uncertainties.

More applicants, fewer available slots and more waitlisting combined to make it considerably harder than average to get into UCs this years. If your kids applied to UCs, make sure they know this so they won't be overly disappointed by any rejection letters. Though odds are they are better informed on this topic than parents.

I think it would be fair to admit California residents first, and only accept admission of out of state students (second), and foreign countries (last), provided there is space available. From a family that has paid taxes to this state for nearly 100 years, we have an obligation to educate the children from California tax paying California residents first.

It's quite possible that the number of out of state and foreign students admitted may RISE, as they pay a much higher tuition rate and generate more funds for the UCs than resident students.

Per the mercury news yesterday, there are tentative plans to "increase in the number of out-of-state undergraduate students, perhaps doubling the number to 15,200 from 7,600. Each nonresident student contributes about $12,900 in resources above educational costs. They would be accommodated through a reduction in the size of the current student body." In addition, the UC school currently spend $155 million on students who are not funded by the state. They may start accepting only as many students as they receive funding for.

If being on a UC wait list is tortuous, then why are you agreeing to be on it? You don't have to be on it, you can decide to move on in your own life and take whatever other options you have.

I've never understood parents and students whining about being waitlisted. If you don't want or like it, then don't agree to be on it. Reject them and go on with your life. If you decide you don't want to reject them, then be quiet and accept the agreement you have made.

Oh and one other thing: you have put yourself in your own situation when you are waitlisted. YOU control your grades. If you have decided to perform poorly enough to be borderline for admission in the first place, whose fault is that?

This is why our son is going out of state for college AND if all goes well he'll finish in 4 years! If he decideds to change his major, he'll actually be able to and stay at the same school! The money saved from getting the classes he needs and finishing in 4 years will be worth the out of state tuition.

They giv'em to fureigners. They tak'en our jerbs!

All I can do is laugh.

We pay taxes for 30 years from the time we start working until, for many of us, the first born is ready to go to college..

and the kids of us, the taxpayers, get coopted by those who have never paid a tax in their lives.

And therein lies the problem with public option education. When the money dries up, the ones who paid are screwed...

live and learn. This is why a young conservative is seen as "no heart", but an old liberal is soon as no brain.

We get mugged by reality when we hit our 40s and 50s, and realize we would have been a heck of a lot better off simply saving our own money for our own future and our own kids.

Next on our list..Medicare and Social Security that "ain't there" for all of us who paid into it all our lives. SS hit "in the red" officially this year. Medicare is next.

lmao at my own foolish votes in my youth, before I woke up.

We are going to have to age out of our political system, but our kids will be a lot wiser.

I am stunned about the post that being waitlisted equals "poor performance" - really, that is inaccurate.
There are record numbers of college applicants now!
Also, in some cases, FYI, being waitlisted means being waitlisted to a highly competitive specific program (acceptance rate lower than to Harvard). I have a student currently in that very position. (No, nothing to do with the UC's.) It's at a major university outside of California and a specific program.

As an FYI - UCLA and Berkley admitted onlly 22% of their applicants last year, comparable to many of the toughest schools in the country. Kids admitted to those schools have above a 4.0, great test scores and fabulous extracurriculars, not the "poor performance" described by John the Man.

Not news. Wait lists have been around forever. This is a concocted "controversy."

Can Palo Alto Online come up with anything a little more meaningful. Seems like the only stories that the journalists are able to come up with are not news....just meant to foment nasty responses. Makes Palo Alto look really bad.

How about real issues for online discussion?

This thread was not started by a "journalist". Sounds like it was started by some kid who couldn't get into UC outright.

Uh Neighbor,

This was posted by a Town Square reader, not by the Palo Alto Online people.

Well, I started it. Our child and others from her class have been accepted at all the out of state schools they applied to, some UCs and waitlisted by other UCs. I understand UC Irvine tried a waitlist last year and liked it so the other UCs are following suit. The application process has morphed so much and so miserably since any of us went to college. I was hoping it would be over with by April 1. Since we believe waitlisting is a waste of time, she will just go to one of the other schools I'm sure. I saw in the paper that all the schools in CA have cut back on spots for the freshmen this year. The kids are just caught in the middle of that.