California Students Face Competition for College Options

Her mother's eight years at a California State University in the 1980s spurred 19-year-old Svea Andersson to look out of state for college.

"She wound up leaving school to pursue full-time work. When I think about California State Universities, the first words that come to mind are 'over impacted,'" says Andersson, who is now in her sophomore year at Clark University, a National Liberal Arts College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The Southern California native says it wasn't just the CSU system she found discouraging, but the whole application and enrollment process to attend a University of California school.

"I knew the UCs were a lot harder to get in to," says Andersson. "I felt that they would only know me as a number,"

Experts say California's growing population has outpaced the design of its public higher education system.

[Learn how out-of-state enrollment is rising at state flagship universities.]

"You basically have this three-tier system, where you have the UCs, the CSUs and then the California community colleges. But as California has grown really aggressively in population, the system has been unable to meet the needs," says Ian Fisher, a West Coast-based college adviser at College Coach.

The Golden State has the highest number of high schoolers in the country. Nearly 1.8 million students are enrolled at a public high school, according to the California Department of Education's statistics for the 2015-2016 school year.

But the University of California system enrolls only around 210,000 undergraduates across its nine undergraduate campuses, and the California State University systems supports roughly 425,000 bachelor's-degree- seeking students at its 23 institutions.

Many students find it difficult to register for a required class at some of these schools, which can decrease the graduation rate and, experts say, compounds the problem since it limits space for incoming students.

While UC schools perform better than the average five-year graduation rate for first-time, bachelor's degree-seeking students among all U.S. four-year public institutions -- 55 percent -- all but three CSU schools performed under that threshold. These data on incoming freshmen who completed their degree by 2014 is based on information submitted by 469 four-year public institutions to U.S. News in an annual survey.

In fact, CSU schools had an average five-year graduation rate of 46 percent, U.S. News data show. California State University--Dominguez Hills had the lowest rate among CSU schools: 22 percent.

"CSU has been actively trying to improve its completion rates since 2009," Toni Molle, a CSU system spokesperson, told U.S. News in an email.

The university has set a goal to bolster its four-year graduation rate for first-time degree-seeking students from 19 percent in 2015 to 40 percent in 2025, according to its Graduation Initiative 2015.

For high school students in California navigating college admissions, here are a few options to consider.

-- Consider mid- or lower-tier UC schools. "All you need to do to apply to all the UCs is to check a box. So just about every student who is applying to Berkeley and UCLA is also applying to Irvine and Davis," says Fisher from College Coach.

[Read four need-to-know facts about state aid for college.]

Fisher says the UC application process inflates the admissions statistics for mid- and lower-tier UC schools.

"Among all students who were accepted at Davis, only maybe one out of five is actually taking them up on that offer," Fisher says. "If you look at the bottom fifth of students admitted to Davis, you might have a much different view of what their admissions stats look like."

U.S. News data show around 22 percent of students admitted at UC--Davis for fall 2014 enrolled at that campus.

To increase enrollment across its undergraduate campuses, UC plans to increase the number of bachelor's-degree-seeking-students by more than 10,000 students by fall 2018, according to Ricardo Vazquez, a spokesperson for the system.

-- Apply to a local CSU school if you have a lower GPA. College advisers say students can still reap the benefits of a higher education at CSU, but they need to focus on their major from the beginning to graduate within five years.

Students on the cusp of 3.0 or less should apply to a local CSU school, says Joni Bissell, Bay Area director of college access for Summer Search, a nonprofit that bridges higher education gaps for low-income students.

CSU's Molle also encourages students to apply to a campus nearby. "The majority of CSU campuses receive many more applications from qualified students than they can admit, so as a consequence, priority is given to the students from their local areas."

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-- Look at out-of-state private liberal arts colleges. Experts say these schools can often offer better financial aid packages.

Bissell says she encourages her students, who are mainly from low-income households, to apply to liberal arts colleges out of state since financial aid awards are often more generous and include more grants than loans.

In high school, Andersson -- without help from guidance counselors -- says she read online that her chances for institutional grants would be greater at a liberal arts college with a large endowment.

"With the financial aid, grants and scholarships, it's definitely a lot less than I would be paying at a UC school," says the psychology major at Clark, who hopes to pursue an MBA after graduating. "I wish more students understood the real cost of attending a state college."

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Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.