Applicants faced most competitive year in UC history

By Victoria Irwin

Freshman applicants to the University of California faced a challenging landscape this year: the largest applicant pool in the university's history, budget cuts and unfunded over-enrollments on most campuses. But every California-resident applicant who met UC eligibility requirements has been offered admission to at least one campus.

"This was the most competitive year in UC history," said Susan Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions for the university system. "But we were able to remain steadfast in our commitment to access."

Eligible students who were not admitted to a campus they applied to have been or will be offered admission to UC Merced and/or UC Riverside.

The university offered admission to 68,329 applicants for the fall 2010 term, 86 percent of them California residents.

The university saw a 5.3 percent increase in the admission of Chicano/Latino students and a 3.5 percent increase in offers to African American applicants. The number of admitted American Indian students increased by nearly 20 percent, or 80 admitted students compared to fall 2009.

Admissions offers for Asian American students remained relatively unchanged, while offers to white students decreased by 7.2 percent, mirroring their decline in number and proportion of California public high school graduates.

Offers of admission to out-of-state and international students number 9,559, a 25 percent increase over fall 2009. Nonresident students do not take space away from California students. The university admits as many California students as it receives funding for. Once campuses have reached their California-resident enrollment targets, if they still have capacity, they admit non-residents, who pay the full cost of their education, about $22,700 more than California residents. UC has about 15,000 students for whom it receives no state funding.

This year UC implemented a waitlist process. Campus admissions numbers may change if they admit students off their waitlists in May.

UC is expanding access for California transfer students, planning to admit 500 more than last year for a two-year increase of 1,000 students. The transfer admission report will be released in early June.

The detailed freshman admission report is available at http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2010adm.html.

Victoria Irwin is the student affairs communications coordinator with the UC Office of the President Integrated Communications.