California Colleges Remain Top Choice of the Class of ’87

Orange County high school seniors this spring are choosing a wide range of colleges and universities, but California institutions overwhelmingly remain their choice.

Steep tuition at out-of-state universities and the equal prestige of some campuses closer to home are leading the large majority of students to California colleges.

A random sampling of high schools in Orange County also showed that another factor in the choice this year is overcrowding at the UC system, which is sending more high school graduates to community colleges.

At Foothill High School in North Tustin, the senior class has no lack of college options this year. Foothill High is in an affluent residential area, and its senior class this year has 20 National Merit Scholarship finalists and “a very high percentage of students with perfect 4.0 standings,” said Barbara Schultz, career guidance technician at the school.

“Many of the students could have gone to Harvard or Princeton, but when it came down to making a decision, quite a few of the seniors became concerned about the cost,” Schultz said. “And therefore many Foothill students this year chose UC Berkeley instead of the Eastern universities they also were accepted to. The reason is that the cost is less at UC Berkeley, and it’s also a very prestigious university. I’ve told my students, ‘Aren’t you lucky that you have the option of UC, which has such a good national reputation?’ ”

Orange County students consider the University of California prestigious, said high school counselors. By state law, in fact, UC campuses may admit only the top 12 1/2% of California’s high school graduates.

California State University’s 19 campuses are open to a broader pool of high school graduates, but the entrance requirement is not easy. To be admitted, a student must be among the top 33% of California’s high school graduates.

Under state law, community colleges are open to high school graduates and non-graduates. That openness has repelled some high school students from community colleges, but counselors say the attitude may be changing. For one thing, many bright students are finding that they have a better chance of getting into a UC campus if they go to a community college for a year or two.

Alternative College

“UC is so crammed this year that community colleges for a year or so are an alternative,” said Diane Leavey, a career resources technician at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. Some UC campuses, including UC Irvine, are guaranteeing admission to high school graduates who first attend community college for a year and meet all other UC admission requirements. Leavey said Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa is an extremely popular destination for Edison High graduates. “We provide more students to Orange Coast than any other high school,” she said.

But in some areas of Orange County, a larger number of students applied this year for out-of-state universities. For instance, counselors at Fullerton’s Sunny Hills High School and San Clemente High School both reported increases this year in students applying for Eastern universities.

“Many of our students have parents who are transported Californians--they went to college back in the Midwest or the East, and so the children are looking at those colleges,” said Don Joynt, counselor at Sunny Hills High.

“But we also have a lot of students looking at the UC system, especially since it has advantages cost-wise and is academically excellent. Two popular destinations for our students are UCLA and UC Berkeley. Many of our students go to Cal State Fullerton because of its proximity.”

Eastern Trend

Carol Gish, guidance technician at San Clemente High, said: “While the overall tendency is for our graduates to stay in California, I see more of a trend for going to schools back East. But the UC campuses are also big attractions. Popular ones for our students are UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and UC San Diego.”

But as UC has become more crowded, it has become harder for even very bright high school graduates to be admitted.

“There are some 4.0 perfect students who didn’t get admitted to UC this year,” said Ken Fox, head counselor at John F. Kennedy High in La Palma.

Fox said that Cypress Community College is a big draw in his area of the county, with UC Irvine, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach being other major attractions. “About 40% of our graduates, the largest percentage, go to community college,” he said.

Fox said that although the cost of college, especially at four-year universities, is escalating, “we tell our students that ways can be found--scholarships, student loans and so forth. We’d hate to see anyone who wants to go to college not go because of financial reasons, and we think ways can be found.”

Less Affluent

In some less affluent areas, community colleges are the predominant attraction. At Santa Ana High School, where 75% of the college-bound students are the first in their families to attend college, Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana and Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa are the major destinations, said Will Koehn, guidance counselor.

But Koehn said Santa Ana High counselors, too, encourage all students to apply for scholarships and grants, “and we’ve got quite a few going to four-year universities. We have students who are going directly to UCLA and UC Santa Barbara--our top students tend to want to enter the UC system.”