(07-25-2019 06:15 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(07-23-2019 02:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(07-23-2019 11:57 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  I love the way they talk about spikes in applicants. UC system has been encouraging HS students to apply to multiple campus and more students to apply. . . . But every application brings another $60 to the UC system.

C'mon, it's nothing new. They've been encouraging students to apply to multiple UC campuses since at least the 1980s. The application fee hasn't even gone up that much -- it's $70 now, I think it was $60 back then. And if the UC system actually calculated how much employee time it takes from receiving each application, to processing it, to notifying each applicant of the decision, to sending out materials to admitted applicants, to sending out more stuff to applicants who accept and then processing what they send back, it would be far more than $70 per application. But students and families would be outraged if universities set application fees high enough to match the average cost of processing an application.

You know everything is subsidized in California. They'll never do costs.

What I was trying to explain is the total number of applicants to the UC system is not much changed, but the number of applicants per school has gone up as a result of the duplicates. It's a game going on, where the extra money is pocketed.

Actually most of the application process is automated, by zip code, GPA and SAT. Do not think for a minute each of those is actually read in depth, only those that need be, near the cut lines for programs or schools. That number is not increasing. So there is really very little cost increase, but there is a huge revenue increase.

It would be far easier and cheaper for applicants if the form allowed them to select four campuses, ranking them 1 to 4, and then do a single processing letting them know the majors/schools they would be accepted to. That is a simple form change and you could drop the extra processing fee in half easily, and simplify it with a single application.

You are still underestimating the cost of processing applications. The Cal State system recently proposed increasing its application cost to the same $70, and said that they will still be losing money at that rate, just losing less money than they are losing now. The extra money will "help offset" the cost of processing applications, it won't cover it completely.

Quote:A $70 per campus application fee would match that of the 10-campus University of California system and many other universities, public and private, around the country, officials said. The $15 increase in each application fee is estimated to produce about $7 million in additional revenue to run the application portal and help offset admissions review costs. Officials said that those programs are operating at a loss since revenue has not gone up in three decades and that other university funds are subsidizing them.

https://edsource.org/2019/cal-state-appl...rns/612775