UC admissions at all-time high. But ...
Number of in-state, incoming freshmen at Berkeley, UCLA continues to decline
The University of California admitted more undergraduate students than ever for the upcoming academic year, according to figures released Wednesday, yet the number of California freshmen admitted to some of the system’s most elite and selective schools, including UCLA and UC Berkeley, continued to drop.
But the biggest beneficiary of UC’s closely watched admissions balancing act were students transferring from community colleges — a major push as the state struggles to make its vaunted university system more accessible and com-
ply with a demand from Gov. Jerry Brown that the system boost transfer enrollment.
Admissions jumped 8 percent over last year for transfer students from California’s community colleges and reached record levels, with major increases at several schools, including Santa Cruz. The school accepted nearly 8,000 transfer students in 2018, or around 70 percent of the applicants, up from around 60 percent of applicants last year.
”Our district is definitely excited about this development,” said Byron Clift Breland, the interim chancellor of the San Jose Evergreen Community College District. “In our case, we’ve noticed an increase actually over the last three years in a row.”
Skyline Community College transfer student Noah James Geertsema applied
to all the UCs. He was accepted to all but UCLA and is headed to Berkeley.
“Applying was really stressful but having my boyfriend and friends go through the transfer process the previous years made it easier,” said Geertsema, who will study sociology and has plans for graduate school. He said more than six of his classmates at his community college in San Bruno also got into UCs this year.
The news wasn’t all good. Some of the most selective schools, including Berkeley, actually accepted fewer transfer students despite receiving more applications. And the gradual shift in admission strategy has done little to raise the hopes of high school graduates seeking a spot in UC’s most coveted schools.
According to the new admissions data, Cal admitted 8,905 freshmen from the Golden State, a drop from the 9,715 it admitted the year before. Likewise, UCLA admitted 8,730 freshmen
compared with 9,292 in 2017. Berkeley also admitted fewer out-of-state students than in 2017, but UCLA admitted slightly more — 5,043, up from 4,871 the previous year.
“My own cousin goes to UC Berkeley. I had better test scores, results, and I didn’t get in,” said Dominic Scattini, who recently graduated from Palma High School in Salinas. “It makes no sense.”
Scattini got into Davis and Santa Barbara, but was waitlisted at UCLA and rejected outright from Berkeley. This fall, he’ll enroll at Santa Barbara.
In total, UC offered 137,000 students admission to at least one of its nine campuses, including 71,086 California freshmen, up 1,114 from 2017, and 24,568 California transfer students, up 1,851 from last year.
The modest increase in admissions, though, hasn’t kept pace with the growing number of applicants bidding for space in UC
schools.
The overall admission rate for 2018 was around 62 percent, but it was just 59 percent for in-state freshmen, down from 63 percent in 2017. Just 12 percent of in-state applicants to UCLA gained admission in 2018, and just 17 percent of would-be Cal students were offered a spot, a decline from last year in both cases. UC Davis offered admission to slightly more than a third of California freshmen who applied, and Santa Cruz granted admission to 41 percent of California freshmen applicants.
Those numbers didn’t show up in the figures released Wednesday: UC no longer calculates its admission rates — a growing trend among elite universities under pressure to make their campuses more accessible and affordable to a more diverse pool of applicants.
As part of a push to expand access to students from all backgrounds, many of the campuses,
Berkeley included, offered admission to a higher percentage of first-generation college students than ever before. At Cal, 36 percent of those admitted — both freshmen and transfers — would be the first in their family to go to college, compared with 34 percent the year before. In total, 46 percent of students admitted in 2018 would be first-generation college students.
While Asian-Americans make up the largest ethnic group of admitted freshmen students, 36 percent, Latinos make up 33 percent, whites 22 percent and African-Americans 5 percent. Among transfer students, Latinos make up the largest ethnic group at 32 percent, followed by whites at 31 percent, Asian-Americans at 27 percent and African-Americans at 6 percent.
“After reviewing yet another record-breaking number of applications, our campuses have offered admission to an exceptionally talented group of students for the upcoming academic year,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
Exactly how many students ultimately will attend UC next year won’t be clear until UC releases official figures in December, but California residents are generally more likely to accept admission than out-ofstate students.
Still, many high schools aren’t getting their first — or even second or third — pick of UC schools.
“It’s an eye-opener for a lot of kids who do a lot of work, play sports, do extracurriculars, and end up empty-handed,” said Kate Riordan, who attended Notre Dame High School in Salinas, applied to five UCs and got into Davis, but will head to Cal Poly in the fall.
“I found it surprising how competitive it is,” Riordan said. “I know so many people that went to UCs, I got lots of encouragement from my school, from parents, saying ‘You’ll be fine,’ but then the letters come and you’re disappointed.”