Following a projected decrease in future freshman enrollment figures due to lasting budgetary constraints, the University of California received a record number of applications for the 2009-10 academic year.
The approximately 127,000 applicants seeking admission to the 10-campus sytem for the 2009-10 academic year constitute a 5 percent larger applicant pool than that observed for the 2008-09 academic year, which totaled 121,005. Current state funding for the university, however, does not account for this increase. As a result, the university will only be able to enroll 26,300 of this year’s applicants.
This will likely create an unprecedented number of rejection letters, according to UC spokesman Brad Hayward. If the UC Board of Regents approves a plan to curtail freshman enrollment at its special meeting this week, acceptance rates at many campuses, including UCSD, will drop.
‘We received 47,000 freshman applications,’ said Mae W. Brown, assistant vice chancellor of admissions and enrollment services at UCSD. ‘At this point we have no enrollment target. The one thing that we know is that our freshman enrollment target will decrease from 2008.’
While the number of freshman applications to UCSD has remained relatively stagnant compared to last year’s figures, the number of transfer applications continues to climb. University officials reported a 7 percent increase in the number of transfer applicants for the 2008-09 academic year and a 13 percent jump for the 2009-10 academic year.
‘Clearly, the campus is going to continue to attract excellent students,’ Brown said, citing the university’s status in both the Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report. ‘With regards to rankings, we are very popular. The demand is going to be there, it is whether or not we will be able to accommodate them.’
Brown also noted that the 2009-10 applicant pool is particularly strong.
University officials remain hopeful that the change in economic climate and expected low acceptance rates will not alter the makeup of the student body with regard to race, ethnicity and family income.
‘We have very strong financial-aid programs,’ UC spokesman Ricardo Vasquez said. ‘If there is some impact, it would be very slight.’
UC President Mark G. Yudof said the university hopes to maintain its goal of granting a spot at the university to every student who has met the university’s admission requirements.
‘As much as possible, I want to limit the disruption for students who have worked hard to make themselves UC-eligible,’ he said.
The regents will meet Jan. 14 to discuss a plan to reduce freshman enrollment at six of the UC campuses. At UCSD, the plan includes decreasing freshman enrollment from 37,600 in 2008-09 to 35,300 in 2009-10 and increasing transfer enrollment from 15,800 to 16,300. The number of graduate students would not change.
‘I have always been reluctant to constrain freshman access to the university, but the absence of state funding for enrollment growth and continuing budget cuts have left us no choice if we are to protect the quality of the instructional program we offer,’ Yudof said.
Brown added that the 2009-10 applicant pool reflects a change in the socioeconomic level of admits that can be attributed to the souring state economy.
He said there was an increase in high-income applicants, no change in low-income applicants and a decrease in middle-income applicants.
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