January 13, 1997

Applications received during November filing period jump 6 percent

During the November filing period, UCSC attracted 14,591 applications from prospective undergraduate students for fall 1997, an increase of 6.1 percent over applications received during the same month a year earlier. The total was the most ever received by UCSC during the open filing period, according to the Office of Admissions.

"We believe the upturn in interest in UCSC is a direct result of the concerted effort made by people across the campus to get information out about the quality of UCSC's people and programs," says J. Michael Thompson, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management and director of admissions.

In addition to the overall gain, Thompson says applications received from underrepresented minority students jumped 4.1 percent, including a 7.2 percent gain from Latino students. In addition, applications received from Asian Americans increased by 9.2 percent, he says.

The announcement this past fall of a major expansion of UCSC's engineering programs also appeared to spur interest among prospective students planning to major in computer science and computer engineering. The number of applications from students interested in CS increased by 150 over last year, or 37 percent; in CE, the increase was 50 students, or nearly 17 percent.

Now the challenge is to enroll, or "yield," at least 3,125 of the students who applied to UCSC. "That is the number of new students that we need to enroll next fall," Thompson says. UC campuses receive block-grant funding for each new student they enroll, meaning the health of UCSC's budget is dependent on reaching annual enrollment targets.

The Office of Admissions will coordinate many of the same "yield" efforts that were successful last year, Thompson says. As part of the campaign last winter, members of the campus community wrote to, called, and met more students. Prospective students also received a copy of the campus magazine, the UCSC Review, and a number of top applicants were invited to the first-ever UCSC Scholars Day.

Attendance at this fall's Preview Day, approaching 2,000 for the first time, and the volume of requests for information processed by the Admissions Office in the second half of 1996 foreshadowed the increase in applications, Thompson says. "From July through December in 1995, staff in the Cook House processed 18,000 pieces of mail; during the same six-month period this past year, we responded to 49,000 inquiries."

Thompson said that UC's Office of the President is reporting that UCSC experienced a 3.8 percent increase in applications. "But they had not processed all of the on-time applications for the campuses by the date (December 20) that they compiled their systemwide report," he says.

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