The University of California Office of the President recently released a report detailing the number of incoming freshmen and California community college transfer students who accepted their admission offers to UC campuses.
From the 66,265 admission offers made to incoming freshmen for the upcoming fall 2009 term, 58,631 of which were for California resident applicants, 34,296 California resident students indicated their intent to enroll at a UC campus, according to the UCOP Web site.
This number signifies a decrease of 1,477 admission offers made to high school applicants since the fall 2008 admission cycle, which had a total of 67,742 admission offers.
Along with the decrease in admission offers was a 6.5 percent decrease in the number of incoming California resident students who declared their intent to enroll at a UC school since last fall, which had totaled 36,683 students.
While this outcome is not yet final, it indicates that the UC will be successful in reducing the fall 2009 freshman class by 2,300 students, a goal that was proposed by President Mark Yudof and approved by the UC Board of Regents during the board’s meeting in January.
“While it is never pleasant to deny well-qualified students the opportunity to enroll at the university, given the status of state funding and the fact that all campuses are currently over-enrolled, the university needed to make this decision,” said Susan Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions for the UC system.
Even as the total number of students representing ethnic groups decreased, the proportion of underrepresented students within the entering class has increased slightly to 24.9 percent. Black, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino students represent these underrepresented groups.
The UC also decreased the number of admission offers for white students, accepting 21,891 applicants ““ both California residents and out-of-state applicants ““ compared to the 23,256 white students accepted last year.
The number of admission offers made to transfer applicants for fall 2009 was also released, totaling 19,607 students, a record for the UC system. This outcome represents a 12 percent increase in transfer student admissions since fall 2008, with the most significant increase occurring at UC Merced, UC Irvine and UC Riverside.
This increase indicates it will be very likely that the UC will meet its goal of extending more admission offers to California community college transfer students by 500, as recommended by Yudof and approved by the Board of Regents in the same meeting in January.
The UC wanted to raise the number of admitted transfer applicants for fall 2009 because it had a very strong transfer applicant pool this year, with an increase of 13 percent in the number of applicants, Wilbur said.
She added that the UC wants to encourage students who attain higher levels of education and facilitate the opportunity of transfer students to earn a bachelor’s degree.
The proportion of admitted transfer students from underrepresented groups also increased, from 19.8 percent in fall 2008 to 21.2 percent for fall 2009, which represents an increase of 684 offers.