I do not know, but I strongly suspect that it is due to an extremely vexing issue that we have here at University of California. Specifically, a US citizen who spends 1 year in California becomes a California resident. At this time their graduate tuition and fees become very inexpensive. However, students from other countries cannot become CA citizens (at least not in a short period of time), which makes them *much* more expensive to have as part of the graduate program. Currently UC is in a terrible budget crisis, and costs are being contained everywhere they can be. I would actually be surprised if *any* foreign students were admitted. I (and many of my colleagues) think this is a terrible system that causes us to miss out on some of the best students simply because they are not US citizens. There is an effort to change it, but for now it remains and is likely to do so until the University's finances improve. So, please do not be dejected or take this personally, and I do wish you the best in your other applications and graduate possibilities.
is this the standard generic reply?
this really stinks..

sooo irritating..
