[2006alum]

It's worth wondering if they will ever escape the long-term recruiting disadvantages that now seem embedded there -- the highest academic standards in the UC system, a relative dearth of African-Americans in the student body, a campus embedded in an urban community that won't appeal to everyone.

My impression is that cal's biggest disadvantage is facilities broadly, driven by investment and lack of space in their urban environment.
The dearth of African-Americans is likely an issue, and surprises me how low that is - about 1.7% on their latest common data set.

I don't say this to politicize matters, but as a descriptive fact, both UCB and UCLA's rates of AA enrollment dropped off substantially after Prop 209 prohibited any consideration of race in college admissions. It's obscured somewhat because the UC system mostly provides statistics for the system as a whole, and the rates of enrollment at the other UCs didn't drop off as badly, but it's a significant issue at the two flagships. IIRC, about a decade ago it was revealed that UCLA had ~100 AA frosh in a class of ~5,000 students. Berkeley has a similar dynamic.

[2006alum]

It's worth wondering if they will ever escape the long-term recruiting disadvantages that now seem embedded there -- the highest academic standards in the UC system, a relative dearth of African-Americans in the student body, a campus embedded in an urban community that won't appeal to everyone.

My impression is that cal's biggest disadvantage is facilities broadly, driven by investment and lack of space in their urban environment.
The dearth of African-Americans is likely an issue, and surprises me how low that is - about 1.7% on their latest common data set.

I don't say this to politicize matters, but as a descriptive fact, both UCB and UCLA's rates of AA enrollment dropped off substantially after Prop 209 prohibited any consideration of race in college admissions. It's obscured somewhat because the UC system mostly provides statistics for the system as a whole, and the rates of enrollment at the other UCs didn't drop off as badly, but it's a significant issue at the two flagships. IIRC, about a decade ago it was revealed that UCLA had ~100 AA frosh in a class of ~5,000 students. Berkeley has a similar dynamic.