More than 10,700 California high school students will be disappointed this year after being waitlisted by University of California schools that have decided to cut freshmen enrollment for California students.

The UC system plans to rely heavily on waiting lists this year to meet target enrollment with the exception of UCLA and UC Merced, both of which did not offer waiting lists.

The UCs are not alone. Many Cal State universities also are placing about 8,000 students on waiting lists for their schools, as well.  

Thursday is the final deadline for students to determine whether or not they want to stay on the wait lists provided, and the final acceptance decision process will occur in May. 

Many of those students have been accepted or wait listed at other UC schools, and are being encouraged to send deposits to any other schools they have been accepted to, as the chance of being admitted from the waitlist is very small.

The number of UC applicants has increased in recent years, with 82,056 California applicants to the UC system. 

Of the nine schools within the system, 71.6 percent of the applicants were offered places at one of the schools, as opposed to 72.5 percent in 2009 and 75.4 percent in 2008. 

The move to waitlists is largely motivated by the state's budget crisis. 

 

The state of California provides funding for the public universities, but only provides for a certain amount of students.

In previous years, the universities have exceeded this funding limit given by the state, resulting in extraneous expenses for the institutions; by providing waiting lists, the schools can limit exactly how many students are admitted, thereby reducing costs. 

Enrollment for California students has been steadily decreased by 10 percent over the last two years. 

While California student enrollment has decreased, UC admissions have been soaring for out-of-state and international students in an attempt to increase revenue from students who receive no subsidy from the state and pay the full expenses.

UC Berkeley alone doubled its out-of-state student acceptance rate last year, and UCLA doubled the rate of its international students quota. 

Both schools are known for their stringent admittance process. UCLA accepted only 21 percent of in-state applicants, compared to Berkeley's 24.5 percent of in-state applicants allowed entrance. 

"These students do not take up space from a California student," said Susan Wilbur, UC's director of admissions.

"By enrolling students who are fully subsidizing the cost of their education they are bringing more money to the university, which enables us to teach at the same high quality that our students are used to. It's a strategy that we are using at this time," she added.