[Farm93]

There is a lot going on with the UC system to read a lot into different acceptance rate numbers.  My guess is the truth includes several elements.  UC's desire for full freight applicants, marginal student motivations, California HS advisers and staffers encouraging EVERY student to at least apply to a UC, etc.

FWIW - If you dig into the numbers you can also see that in-state students get accepted to more UC schools per applicant than the out of staters and the internationals.  When I looked last week I think it was something like 2+ schools per in-state applicant vs 1.6 for the out-of-staters.  My assumption was that the in-state kids that see UC Davis or UC Merced as aspirational still pay the extra few dollars to get considered by UCB and UCLA.  Then, many of them get accepted to UCM, UCD & UCR, but not UCB and UCLA.  Meanwhile, many of the out-of-state and international applicants see UCB and UCLA as safety schools and only apply to one or both.  Thanks to the formula many in this group KNOW they will be accepted by their favorite UC school.  For out-of-staters that see that UCM or UCR as semi-aspirational likely prefer their own state schools for several reasons and therefore don't apply to any of the UC schools.

[Farm93]

There is a lot going on with the UC system to read a lot into different acceptance rate numbers.  My guess is the truth includes several elements.  UC's desire for full freight applicants, marginal student motivations, California HS advisers and staffers encouraging EVERY student to at least apply to a UC, etc.

FWIW - If you dig into the numbers you can also see that in-state students get accepted to more UC schools per applicant than the out of staters and the internationals.  When I looked last week I think it was something like 2+ schools per in-state applicant vs 1.6 for the out-of-staters.  My assumption was that the in-state kids that see UC Davis or UC Merced as aspirational still pay the extra few dollars to get considered by UCB and UCLA.  Then, many of them get accepted to UCM, UCD & UCR, but not UCB and UCLA.  Meanwhile, many of the out-of-state and international applicants see UCB and UCLA as safety schools and only apply to one or both.  Thanks to the formula many in this group KNOW they will be accepted by their favorite UC school.  For out-of-staters that see that UCM or UCR as semi-aspirational likely prefer their own state schools for several reasons and therefore don't apply to any of the UC schools.