UC ADMITS RECORD NUMBER OF CALIFORNIANS FOR 2022
UC San Diego leads campuses in entry for transfer students
In a revised playbook guiding University of California admissions, the system’s nine undergraduate campuses accepted a record number of California firstyear students for fall 2022, while significantly narrowing entry to out-of-state and international applicants amid widespread demands to preserve coveted seats for state residents, according to preliminary data released Wednesday.
The UC system admitted 85,268 California first-year applicants — a 1.2 percent increase of 1,045 students over last year. Offers to out-of-state applicants declined by 19 percent, or 5,359 students, and those to international students decreased by 12.2 percent, or 2,442 students.
Campuses also set records for diversity, as students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups increased to 43.8 percent of the admitted first-year class. For the third straight year, Latinos were the largest ethnic group at 37.3 percent, followed by Asian Americans at 35 percent, Black students at 5.7 percent, and Whites at 18.6 percent. Overall, both applications and admission offers increased for Latino, Asian American, Black and Native American students and declined among Whites and Pacific Islanders.
“The University’s enduring dedication to California’s young people and its partnership with the state continue to attract unprecedented numbers of talented Golden State students,” UC President Michael V. Drake said in a statement. “It is our privilege to be able to offer admission to the state’s largest-ever class of California students.”
UC San Diego led all campuses in admitting transfer students. Systemwide, however, admission offers to California Community College transfer applicants declined to 25,253 this year compared with 28,453 last year — due to fewer applications from fewer students at the system’s 116 campuses. Several admission directors expressed concern about the declining enrollment, which complicates UC’s obligation to enroll one community college student for every two first-year students.
About 47 percent of admitted California first-year students are low-income, and 44 percent would be the first in their families to earn a bachelor’s degree.
The rollback in out-of-state and international students represents a significant policy shift
years in the making. The public research university system began aggressively recruiting and enrolling higher-paying nonresident students as a source of additional tuition revenue after the 2008 recession when the state slashed its UC funding by one-third.
UCLA and UC Berkeley, for instance, increased the share of nonresidents among undergraduates from about 9.5 percent in fall 2008 to about 24 percent in 2021.
The growing number of nonresident students sparked a public outcry and a 2016 state audit, which found that UC admission practices were harming California students. UC sharply disagreed, arguing that the extra nonresident tuition dollars allowed it to pay for more California students and that state budget cuts had forced its hand. Eventually, the state economy recovered, funding for higher education began to rebound, and state elected leaders made clear that UC should boost California student enrollment as their constituents were demanding.
This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature provided $82.5 million to enroll an additional 5,632 California students in 2022 and 2023. That includes $31 million to replace 902 nonresidents with in-state students at UC San Diego, UCLA and UC Berkeley — funding set for annual renewal over at least four more years.
UC admission directors hail the growing access to California students but also note that those from other states and countries greatly enrich the learning and social environment for all.
“It’s important that we do all we can to ensure that California residents have access to a UC campus,” said Youlonda CopelandMorgan, UCLA vice provost for enrollment management. “But having students learn in classrooms that resemble the state, nation and world enhances their educational experience. It’s a tough balancing act.”
Five of the nine UC undergraduate campuses admitted fewer California first-year applicants compared with last year in the first round of offers — mainly cautious about overenrolling. After monitoring the number of acceptances, campus officials then sent out additional offers to students on the waitlist.
UC Santa Barbara, for instance, offered firstround admission to 273 fewer California first-year students than last year — but increased its waitlist offers by nearly 700. Among the 2,792 waitlisted students offered admission, 633 accepted. Overall, the campus plans to enroll about 4,000 California students, an increase of about 350 over last year. UCSB hopes to educate some of them off campus in study abroad or Washington, D.C., programs or enroll more in summer sessions.
“We couldn’t risk overenrolling even a single student,” said Lisa Przekop, the campus admission director. “We’re at capacity and didn’t want to experience any housing issues.”
UC Berkeley faced an unprecedented admissions season marked by a lawsuit and subsequent court ruling that would have forced the campus to slash fall 2022 admission offers by onethird without a state rescue effort. The campus ultimately was able to meet its planned targets, admitting 10,518 California students for fall 2022, about the same as last year, and reducing offers to out-of-state students by about 33 percent and to international students by 26 percent.
Admission rates for California first-year students declined at UC Berkeley to 14.5 percent this year from 16.9 percent last year. Systemwide, admission rates for California students declined to 64.4 percent this year from 65.7 percent last year.
UC San Diego admitted 20,107 California students for the fall, down from 21,740 last year.
UC Davis also admitted fewer students this year, to offset overenrollment last year, according to a campus statement by Robert Penman, executive director of undergraduate admissions. The campus plans to reduce the size of its new fall 2022 class of first-year and transfer students by about 750 but still enrolls the largest number of in-state undergraduates in the UC system.
Davis admitted 21,139 California first-year applicants, an 11 percent decline over last year, while offers to out-of-state students were down 16.4 percent and those to international students fell 29 percent during that same period. The campus increased offers to transfer applicants.
Two campuses with plenty of room for California students are UC Riverside, which admitted 1,600 more applicants, and UC Merced, which increased offers by about 2,000.