Students who have worked for years to fulfill the A-G requirements with dreams of being admitted into the world-renowned UC system might feel that they are having obstacle after obstacle thrown in their way. If it isn’t the daunting “recommended” GPA and SAT scores, it’s the frighteningly low chance of admittance. If not admittance, it’s the ever-increasing price tag.

The UC Board of Regents recently voted on a plan to increase tuitions for UC schools 5 percent annually for the next five years.

This means that in 2019, tuition alone could be over $15,000 per year, with out-of-state students paying over $44,000. This does not account for housing, food, books, and other personal expenses.

Policies like this make it hard to remember that the original goal of the UC system was to make a college education attainable for California students.

UC schools are supposed to open doors for California students to attend a four-year university without piling on unmanageable debt. But drastic tuition increases, such as the one voted on by the UC regents, are keeping California students from being able to attend the colleges they thought they had a chance at. Decisions like these close the doors and padlock the handles shut.

The UC system began as a way to help people who have lived and grown up in California to get an affordable education, so that they could live happy, content lives, free of overwhelming financial burdens. Instead of making college more affordable for California students, the tuition change is taking away the opportunity for a college degree, an irrevocable asset in Silicon Valley.

As the UC application deadline looms, students are left to wonder if it’s even worth applying. With such low chances of admittance and such a great cost, the $70 application fee seems more like paying for disappointment rather than a gateway to more possibilities.