The admissions outcomes reported in the summary below and the accompanying tables are preliminary and focus entirely on admission of freshman applicants. Transfer admissions data will be available mid-May. These data reflect admissions offers as of March 26, 2009, and except as noted, are for California resident students only. Some campuses will continue to admit small numbers of freshman applicants.

Unless otherwise noted, the universitywide totals in this summary and the tables are "unduplicated," meaning that each student is counted only once. Data provided for individual campuses typically reflect multiple admissions offers; on average, fall 2009 freshman applicants applied to 3.5 UC campuses.

Summary

The fall 2009 University of California freshman admissions cycle took place in a challenging context that included the largest number of applicants in the university's history, budgetary constraints, and unfunded over-enrollments on most campuses. Even under these difficult circumstances, the university remained steadfast in its commitment to access and has offered, or will offer, a place to every UC-eligible freshman applicant. However, some campuses reduced their number of freshman admissions offers and many applicants received fewer offers of admission than previous years. This action is intended to result in a modest reduction in freshman enrollments for the fall term.

While this was a particularly competitive year for freshman admission, the preliminary outcomes show that the university has been able to preserve and expand access for all student groups, including students who come from low-income families and those who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Despite decreases in admissions offers on some campuses, the university was able to maintain or enhance proportional representation in admissions offers to African American, American Indian and Latino students on all campuses. Serving all of California's communities is a very high priority for the university. While this report focuses exclusively on the preliminary freshman admissions outcomes, the university also plans to expand opportunity for California community college transfer students and is committed to increasing the enrollment of transfer students on all campuses for the fall 2009 term.

The University of California has offered admission to 66,265 applicants for the fall 2009 term, including 58,631 California resident freshman applicants. The number of admissions offers represents a decrease of 1,477 admissions offers compared to the fall 2008 outcomes at the same date. Just over 72 percent of fall 2009 California freshman applicants have been offered admission to the university, compared to 75.4 percent for fall 2008.

The university will offer a space to every UC-eligible California resident applicant. Several campuses, including Berkeley, Merced and Riverside, were able to offer admission to a greater number of applicants. The remaining campuses, including Davis, Irvine, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz , reduced their number of admissions offers for the fall 2009 term due to the enrollment of a larger than expected freshman class in previous terms. The fall admissions numbers include 3,162 applicants who have been offered admission to the spring term at Berkeley and/or winter term at San Diego. In addition to the numbers reported here, another 10,000 UC-eligible applicants who were not offered admission to a campus to which they originally applied will be offered admission to Merced and/or Riverside through a process known as referral.

A brief summary of the admissions data follows:

• The University of California awards highest priority in freshman admissions to California resident applicants. Nearly 9 out of 10 students offered admission to the fall term are California residents. Admissions offers to out-of-state and international students numbered 7,634, a figure nearly identical to fall 2008 (7,638).

• Universitywide, the rate of admission (admits/applicants), declined slightly for the fall 2009 term, and many campuses also experienced a drop in their admissions rate. The overall admission rate for Berkeley is 29.5 percent and includes 2,445 students who were offered admission to the spring term. The fall-only admission rate for Berkeley is 23 percent. San Diego also offered a small number of applicants (717) the opportunity to enroll in the winter quarter, thus increasing their admission rate from 37.8 percent for fall only admits to 38 percent for all admits.

• As reported in January, led by a strong increase in applications, the admission of American Indian students increased by 21 percent, or 71 admitted students compared to fall 2008. The university also is experiencing a 4 percent increase in the admission of Chicano/Latino applicants and a 2 percent increase in admissions offers to African American students. Admissions offers for Asian students remained relatively unchanged, while offers to white students decreased by 6 percent, mirroring their decline in both number and proportion of projected California public high graduates and in UC's applicant pool. The percentage of students admitted who declined to state their ethnicity decreased by 3 percent compared to the previous year.

• Underrepresented students -- African Americans, American Indians and Chicano/Latinos - comprise 26.9 percent of the university's admits, up from 25.1 percent for fall 2008 and 22.9 percent for fall 2007. Despite the reductions in admissions offers -- which affected all groups -- most campuses registered gains in the proportion of underrepresented students in their admitted class.

• Representation by gender. The admitted class is 57 percent female and 43 percent male. The relative proportion of admitted students by gender has remained stable over the decade.

• Geographic representation through California continues to improve. The University of California is committed to attracting, admitting and enrolling students from throughout all of California. The majority of admitted students call Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange and San Diego/Imperial counties home, but the Riverside/San Bernardino region made strong gains this year, in part as the result of a 7 percent growth in applicants from this region -- an increase proportionally greater than any other region in the state.

• Universitywide, UC continues to excel at offering opportunity and access to students from families that have traditionally not enjoyed the benefits of higher education. Thirty-eight percent of freshman admits come from families where neither parent has a 4-year degree, 37.3 percent come from low-income families, and one out of five admitted students is enrolled in a high school that is in the lower 40 percent of California high schools, as ranked by the Academic Performance Index (API) score.

• Applicants offered admission have exceptionally strong academic records. UC admits complete on average 23 year-long college preparatory courses, earn a high school grade point average of 3.82, and on average score 1790 on the SAT or 26 on the ACT.

A complete set of tables is available at www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2009adm.html.

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