Though UCLA continues to receive record numbers of freshman applicants, with 55,369 for fall 2008, admissions officials said the applicant pool as a whole remains highly competitive.
The size of the applicant pool increased by 9 percent compared to that of fall 2007, said Vu Tran, director of Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools.
There was also a strong growth in applications from underrepresented minorities, who comprised 25.5 percent, or 13,399, of freshman fall 2008 applicants. This represents a 1.9 percent increase from 2007, when only 11,483 underrepresented minority students applied.
The average weighted grade point average of applicants and the average number of honors and Advanced Placement classes applicants took increased from 2007. Only the average SAT score decreased from 2007 by two points.
“Because so many more students applied to UCLA, it would seem that the applicant pool overall would be less strong, but there was a small increase, which is remarkable. The applicant pool this year was very, very high,” Tran said.
High school students are becoming aware of how increasingly difficult it is becoming to be admitted to UCLA.
“I felt relatively confident I would be accepted to UCLA,” said Tomer Schwartz, a senior at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto. “But as rumors spread around school that it was becoming increasingly harder to get in, I became nervous.”
Schwartz was accepted to UCLA, but said that many other students with high grade point averages and extensive leadership experience who expected to be admitted were denied.
Though the admission rate is usually around 25 percent, this year it was only 22 percent, Tran said.
“UCLA continues to be a top-choice school for top students (at Fallbrook Union High School), but it has become increasingly difficult for students to be admitted as admission becomes more and more competitive,” said Karen Ricci, college and career counselor at Fallbrook Union High School.
Nevertheless, Tran said he believes the growth in applications will soon slow down because of demographic changes in California.
“In the past four years, we have received an increase in 12,000 applications. That’s tremendous growth, which I do not think will continue as rapidly,” Tran said.
In the fall of 2007 the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools implemented a holistic admissions policy in which readers integrate all factors of a student’s application as a whole. One of 159 readers gives the applicant a score encompassing their academic and personal achievement, as well as any life challenges they have faced. This differs from past years when an applicant’s academic and non-academic achievements were reviewed by separate readers.
At press time, specific results of the holistic policy for fall 2008 were not available, though Tran said that generally the outcome of the holistic admissions was consistent with that of last year, with more underrepresented minorities accepted to UCLA, according to Bruin archives.
To maintain the competitive applicant pool, UCLA admissions is expanding its recruitment efforts. In 2006, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools began the Bruin Ambassadors program, which brings UCLA students to high schools in the Los Angeles area to speak about their college experience and the university’s admissions criteria.
Other UCLA recruiters visit schools in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and to a lesser extent, in San Diego. Admissions is also looking to open a small recruitment office in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We try to reach out to as many schools as possible, but we concentrate on the L.A. area,” Tran said.
Ricci said she has contacted UCLA recruiters to come to Fallbrook Union High School, located in San Diego Country, for college fairs, but they have not responded. Still, she said this does not affect the number of students applying to UCLA.
Schwartz said though he was never able to meet with a recruiter, he learned about UCLA when visiting his older brother who is an undergraduate.
“It’s definitely one of my top choices,” Schwartz said. “I’m deciding between UCLA and UC Berkeley.”
Tran stressed that as UCLA admissions becomes more competitive, it is increasingly difficult to turn students away.
“We are very fortunate to be a popular school, but it’s hard when we deny students who would have done well here,” Tran said. “Being denied doesn’t undermine students’ achievement and is not a reflection of the student but a consequence of the high degree of competition.”