UC admits more students for 98-99 year: 5-11-98

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May 11, 1998

UC admits more students for 1998-99 academic year

An additional 3,179 California high school seniors have been admitted to the University of California for the 1998-99 academic year, fulfilling UC's long-standing commitment to provide a place at one of its campuses to all eligible California applicants.

The students--19.6 percent of them underrepresented minorities--were admitted during the second stage of UC's admission process, which began after campuses first notified applicants last March whether they would be admitted next year. The second stage of the process seeks to place all UC-eligible California applicants who were not admitted in the first stage by any of the campuses to which they applied.

"All of these students are eminently well-qualified to attend the University of California. They will enrich the UC community by their presence," said C. Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

"We are pleased to offer these young men and women a place at UC and we look forward to welcoming them to our campuses, all of which will provide them with an excellent education," he added.

Admitted students had until May 1 to notify campuses of their intention to enroll for the fall. Results of student responses will be compiled on a systemwide basis and be made available later this month.

King said the completed admission process, in addition to providing a place at UC for all eligible California applicants, brought these other notable results:

A record 60,936 freshman applicants applied to multiple UC campuses this year, an average of three campuses per applicant.

Campuses maximized enrollment opportunities for eligible applicants by offering some of them admission to the winter and spring terms instead of the fall, allowing more students to attend highly competitive campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA.

The admission of underrepresented minority students--African Americans, American Indians, and Chicanos and Latinos--was spread more evenly throughout the UC system than in past years, even though fewer of them were admitted this year because of changes in UC policy and state law.

Of the 3,179 newly admitted students, 1,571 have been offered admission for the fall. The rest were admitted for the winter and spring terms.

Seven of UC's general campuses--Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz--offered places to these students. In addition, as part of the first stage of the admission process, the Berkeley campus admitted 2,476 more students for the spring term and UCLA admitted 681 more students for the winter term.

The second-stage admissions bring the total of freshmen admitted to UC for the fall term alone to 45,933, representing the largest admitted class in UC history and increasing the rate of admission for the university as a whole from 72.8 percent to 75.4 percent. A total of 7,147 underrepresented minority students were admitted for the fall, compared with 7,843 last year.

They account for 15.6 percent of this year's total admissions, ranging from a high of 21.2 percent at the Riverside campus to about 10 percent each at Berkeley and San Diego. Universitywide, underrepresented students accounted for 17.5 percent of admitted students last year. "Compared with fall 1997, to a significant extent, there has been a redistribution of admissions of underrepresented minority students among UC campuses," King said.

Of the 3,179 California students admitted as freshmen for next fall, winter, and spring, 1,414 (44.5 percent) are white or other ethnicities and 708 (22.2 percent) are Asian American. Among underrepresented students, 24 (0.8 percent) are American Indian; 139 (4.4 percent) are African American; 325 (10.2 percent) are Chicano; and 135 (4.2 percent) are Latino. Students admitted during the second stage of the admission process who declined to state an ethnic identity totaled 434 (13.7 percent).

Of the 45,933 students admitted for fall, 18,490 (40.2 percent) were white and other ethnicities, compared with 21,104 (47.2 percent) last year, and 13,014 (28.3 percent) were Asian American, compared with 13,360 (29.9 percent) last year. African Americans totaled 1,339 (2.9 percent) this year and 1,633 (3.6 percent) last year; American Indians 324 (.7 percent) this year and 334 (.7 percent) last year; Chicanos 4,107 (8.9 percent) this year and 4,306 (9.6 percent) last year; Latinos 1,377 (3 percent) this year and 1,570 (3.5 percent) last year.

Admitted students for fall who declined to state an ethnicity increased this year to 6,446 (14 percent) from 1,630 (3.6 percent) last year.

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