The University of California offered freshman admissions to almost 20,000 Asian students, marking the first time in the university system’s history that whites do not make up the largest ethnic group of admits, according to numbers released by the university.
Out of 55,242 freshman admits this year, Asians made up a record 36 percent systemwide, according to the data. The number of white admits was slightly lower at 35.6 percent. At many UC campuses, including UCSD, Asians have long been a visible presence.
The admission numbers showed that an Asian high school senior was more likely to apply to a UC campus than their white classmates.
Almost 47 percent of Asian high school graduates applied to a UC school this year, a 4-percent jump from last year. Meanwhile, white high school graduates ranked second in the same category at 14 percent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
This year’s admission numbers, which have doubled in the last decade, continue an accelerating Asian presence at UCSD. In fall 2006, the campus offered admission to more than 8,000 Asians, almost 1,500 more than in 2005. Meanwhile, the number of white UCSD admits has remained relatively steady for the past five years, although the figures dipped in 2004. This year, UCSD admission offers to whites increased by only 500 since the year before.
The number of admissions offered to other ethnic minorities also jumped more than 1 percent from last year, with blacks, American Indians and Chicano/Latinos comprising less than 22 percent of the new freshman admits statewide.
