California students drive increase in applications to UC system

Applications for the fall term at the University of California system rose 1.5% compared with last year, with more than 250,000 students vying for places in the nine-campus system, including first-year students and transfers.

The increase comes after a dip in applications across the UC system for fall 2023, when numbers fell by 2% after hitting record highs in 2022. Officials attribute this year’s uptick to a rise in applications from California residents, students from historically underrepresented groups, and transfer students from community, state and private colleges nationally and internationally.

Michael V. Drake, UC system president, said in a statement he was pleased that students with a “wide range of backgrounds and life experiences” were applying to the prestigious public universities.

“The increase in applications underscores the quality of the educational experience and the long-term social mobility a UC education can provide underrepresented students,” Drake said.

While systemwide applications were up slightly, the number of first-year applications for fall 2024 remained relatively unchanged, hovering just under 207,000. That’s slightly down from a record-setting 211,000 in 2022, which followed a boom in first-year applications starting in 2021, the year standardized testing requirements were dropped.

But the number of first-year applications from California residents, which has been steadily rising for four years, went up by 1.2% for the upcoming fall term, accounting for 65% of all firstyear applications.

Of those California applicants, 47% were from groups historically underrepresented in higher education, which the UC system defines as students from Black, Hispanic/Latino American Indian and Pacific Islander racial backgrounds — a slight rise from last year’s 46.4%. System-wide, applications from these groups increased by 2.7%, according to UC.

UC officials said that the numbers are the result of UC’s “intentional efforts to ensure that each class of undergraduates is reflective of the state it serves.”

“These application numbers confirm we are headed in the right direction,” Han Mi YoonWu, associate vice provost for undergraduate admissions at UC, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the number of first-year applications from outof-state students decreased for the second year in a row, dropping 3.7% between fall 2023 and fall 2024. The number of international first-year applicants stayed steady. As part of a 2021 budget deal, Gov. Gavin Newsom and UC signed a four-year compact to cap the enrollment of outof-state and international students at UC campuses to make more room for California residents.

The UC system saw its largest bump this year in the number of transfer applicants, which rose by 9% between 2023 and 2024 after two consecutive years of decreases. Transfer applicants from California community colleges, which make up 80% of transfer applications, increased by 8%. Officials said the numbers show a rebound in interest from community college students after pandemic enrollment declines there across the country.

Admissions decisions for the fall term at all UC campuses will be sent to applicants through the end of March.