UC Admits Record Numbers Of Freshmen, Californians

CALIFORNIA — The University of California said Monday that it has offered an all-time record number of incoming students a spot on at least one of its nine undergraduate campuses for the 2019-20 academic year. The university said it admitted 108,178 freshmen out of a pool of 176,695 students, including 71,655 Californians, which it said also is a record number.

UC said it also accepted 28,752 transfers from a pool of 41,282 students, including the largest-ever class from the California Community Colleges (26,700).

The university said the freshman admission rate for California residents jumped 3 percentage points to 62 percent while the admission rate for California community college transfers remained at 76 percent.

"Yet another year of record-setting admissions underscores the tremendous interest in the world-class education at UC," university President Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

"The best and the brightest young minds continue to make UC their university of choice and I am pleased to welcome all of these remarkable students this year," she said.

UC said the number of admission offers to students from under-represented groups increased by 991, increasing that proportion to 40 percent of all admitted California freshmen from 38 percent last year.

The university said first-generation students comprise 44 percent of all resident freshmen accepted, and low-income students comprise 40 percent.

UC said the composition of the freshman class is similar to that of last year, with the percentage of Chicano/Latino students increasing slightly from 33 percent to 34 percent, and Asian American students remaining the largest ethnic group of admitted students at 35 percent.

The proportion of white students stayed flat at 22 percent, the percentage of black students stayed flat at 5 percent and the proportion of American Indian students remained at 0.5 percent.

The university said admission of California community college transfer students grew slightly to 26,700 students from 26,582 last year, in keeping with its goal of enrolling one new California transfer student for every two new California freshmen.

UC Davis said it offered freshman and transfer admission for fall 2019 to 40,350 applicants — including 299 more California residents than last year.

"The increase in state residents came even while the total number of students admitted for undergraduate study decreased by 3.8 percent, according to statistics released July 22 by the university system," according to a statement issued Monday by UC Davis.

Overall, according to the statement, UC Davis admitted 30,508 freshman applicants, a decrease of 5.2 percent from last year, and 9,842 transfer applicants, a 0.8-percent increase.

"We are pleased to be able to extend the opportunity for more California residents to join the Aggie family and study at UC Davis," said Ebony Lewis, executive director of Undergraduate Admissions at UC Davis.

University of California at Berkeley officials said in a similar news release that a total of 14,668 high school students were offered freshman admission to their campus for the 2019-20 academic year, which they said is 8 percent more than the 13,561 admitted last year.

In addition, 4,882 transfer students were admitted for the coming school year, up from 4,504 last year.

UC Berkeley said this year's freshman admitted class benefited from a slightly reduced applicant pool, as the 87,394 applications that it received represents a 2.5 percent drop from the previous year.

In addition, there was a 75-seat increase in the number of freshman enrollment seats available.

UC Berkeley officials said this year's freshman admitted class is academically strong, with an average unweighted grade point average of 3.92 and an SAT score of 1427.

The university said those numbers are comparable to those of last year's admitted class but slightly higher.

UC Berkeley said 9,637 Californians were offered admission this year, which is 728 more residents than a year ago. The admitted Californians represent 50 of the state's 58 counties.

The university said its admitted pool includes students from 52 U.S. states and territories and 74 countries.

—Bay City News Service; Patch local editor Maggie Avants contributed to this report.