As a two-time Old Blue, I have long had an enduring sense of pride and ownership of UC Berkeley, which is forever receiving accolades as arguably the finest public university on the planet.
Growing up in the East Bay, I knew I wanted to go to Cal my whole life. I loved everything about it from its history of counterculture and protest to its numerous Nobel Prizes (51) to its embrace of diversity and tie-dye. Alas, in recent years, my college crush has started to dim, replaced by a dawning fear that my own daughter may have only the slimmest shot of going to Berkeley or indeed any UC campus.
Part of the problem is simple overpopulation. Far too many students are competing for far too few schools, and only been one new UC campus (Merced) has been launched in recent years.
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