04-29-2014, 01:39 PM
Yep!
I didn't apply to UCLA because I knew I had the numbers to get to UCB. At the time the marginal fee had nothing to do with it.
As a practical matter a lot of HS students want to visit a campus before they apply. An HS student could conceivably fly to SFO and visit Stanford and UCB, and then not apply to the other UC schools because they never visited those campuses. For an in-state applicant visiting all 9 campuses is just a matter of a few road trips, for the out of state applicant that might require multiple flights. Not really a hypothetical in my world, since that essentially is what happened.
FWIW - I would bet good money that most public schools have stronger average out of state applicants than in-state applicants. This would have nothing to do with the quality of HS education in each state, rather it would be a function of how the best students in each state apply to schools vs how the average students in each state go through the application process. Essentially there is a significant selection bias, if you will.
The best students from around the country might apply to UCLA and UCB as they learn through the process that the very best schools in the USA are not going to be less than an hour from their parents house. The average students from other states likely don't apply to the UCs, for several reasons, including the idea that there are several decent schools with a few hours of home that are the equal of UCR or UCM.
A quick example. In my PA HS, back in the day, two people applied to UCB. Just two. Not coincidentally, we also both applied to Stanford and both were accepted to Stanford. The average students at my school would never have thought to apply to UCB, but in a class of ~250 easily 200 of that class applied to Penn State.
So the UCB average applicant from my school was likely far, far, about the average in-state UCB applicant even if the average in-state applicant was better than the average student from my HS. Conversely, I would suspect that the CA students with the courage to apply to Michigan or Virginia, were likely far above the "hey just fill out the application in state crowd." from those states.
There is a selection issue here that essentially overwhelms the quality or depth of the overall state HS education system.
I didn't apply to UCLA because I knew I had the numbers to get to UCB. At the time the marginal fee had nothing to do with it.
As a practical matter a lot of HS students want to visit a campus before they apply. An HS student could conceivably fly to SFO and visit Stanford and UCB, and then not apply to the other UC schools because they never visited those campuses. For an in-state applicant visiting all 9 campuses is just a matter of a few road trips, for the out of state applicant that might require multiple flights. Not really a hypothetical in my world, since that essentially is what happened.
FWIW - I would bet good money that most public schools have stronger average out of state applicants than in-state applicants. This would have nothing to do with the quality of HS education in each state, rather it would be a function of how the best students in each state apply to schools vs how the average students in each state go through the application process. Essentially there is a significant selection bias, if you will.
The best students from around the country might apply to UCLA and UCB as they learn through the process that the very best schools in the USA are not going to be less than an hour from their parents house. The average students from other states likely don't apply to the UCs, for several reasons, including the idea that there are several decent schools with a few hours of home that are the equal of UCR or UCM.
A quick example. In my PA HS, back in the day, two people applied to UCB. Just two. Not coincidentally, we also both applied to Stanford and both were accepted to Stanford. The average students at my school would never have thought to apply to UCB, but in a class of ~250 easily 200 of that class applied to Penn State.
So the UCB average applicant from my school was likely far, far, about the average in-state UCB applicant even if the average in-state applicant was better than the average student from my HS. Conversely, I would suspect that the CA students with the courage to apply to Michigan or Virginia, were likely far above the "hey just fill out the application in state crowd." from those states.
There is a selection issue here that essentially overwhelms the quality or depth of the overall state HS education system.