NOT the Majority Opinion

What is the impact of rising University tuition fees on unequal opportunities? This is an interesting statistics, not directly related to the above question.

While the cost of a UC education for out-of-state students has been marked by steady increases, the students themselves don't seem to be budging. Despite rising tuition and fees that some said are making UC Berkeley an unattractive destination for non-residents, the makeup and size of the campus's out-of-state population has remained fairly stable over the last decade, according to campus records. "It is a great school. Even though it is a public university, it does, I feel, give you an equivalent education to pretty much any private school you can go to," said third-year engineering and physics major Nathan Leefer, a Maryland native. The data contradicts fears that rising out-of-state costs are causing qualified students to look to competing institutions-at least for now. Out-of-state students also tend to complete their degrees more quickly as a group. Among students who graduated in six years or less, 87.8 percent of out-of-state students left campus in eight semesters or less. The percentage for in-state students was 74.6. "I'm graduating early, and (fees have) been a factor in my decision to graduate ... in three years," said Connecticut native Michael Liu, a senior studying integrative biology. http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=21191