UC Financial Aid to Out-of-State Students – Good or Bad?

Two days ago, when I posted that the University of California Regents approved a plan to terminate financial aid to out-of-state students starting in 2016, in order to increase in-state California student enrollment by 10,000 over the next three years, I admit to being a bit flummoxed. I thought the UCs never gave financial aid to out-of-staters.  So I did a bit of digging and found this Sacramento Bee article from May 2015: UC financial aid for out-of-state students a surprise to many:

Noted in the article:

An Assembly budget subcommittee recently uncovered $32 million that UC spent on institutional aid for nonresidents in 2013-14, leading to a blistering hearing at the Capitol…

It seems the UCs were often giving away upwards of $23,000 to out-of-state students in the form of aid. To me, this seems slightly illogical, since the whole purpose of increasing out-of-state enrollment over these last several years was ostensibly to fill up the coffers decimated by the California budget shortfall. The Supplemental Tuition for out of state and non-resident students is $24,024. Add to that the regular tuition, plus room and board (especially if on-campus) and you’re talking about an additional $30,000 a year. That’s a whopping $54,000 yearly expenditure. Of this total, out-of-state students supposedly only had federal aid and outside scholarships to come to their rescue.

Now we’ve seen otherwise, although it appears to be short-lived.

So what do you think of the UC’s decision to provide financial aid to out-of-state students?
Was it a smart move to bring great talent on board? Or should the money have been earmarked for California residents?