The lowest percentage of freshmen in nearly decade received acceptance letters from the University of California this year. UCSD admission rates fell almost 4 percent from last fall.
According to data released by the university on Tuesday, of the 41,411 UCSD applicants, only 15,718 were offered admission ‘mdash; 2,000 fewer than were accepted last year. Systemwide, UCSD received the second most freshmen applications this year. UCLA received the most at 46,104, and UC Irvine received the third most at 40,733.
Although a record 80,820 students applied to at least one of the nine undergraduate UC campuses, the percentage of in-state admits dropped from 75.4 percent to 72.5 percent.
Admissions increased at three UC campuses, with Berkeley admitting 526 more students than last year, Riverside adding 2,558 and Merced rising by 193.
Nearly all racial groups ‘mdash; including blacks, Latinos, Asians and whites ‘mdash; saw a decline in UCSD admissions, with the exception of American Indians, whose numbers rose from 63 students last year to 65 this year. The number of white admits took the biggest dive, down by 777 students.
The medium weighted high-school GPA for UCSD admits was 4.09, up from 4.06 last year, and the average SAT score increased from 1,931 to 1,955.
About 10,000 UC-eligible students rejected by all campuses to which they applied will be offered admission to UC Merced or UC Riverside this month, UC director of undergraduate admissions Susan Wilbur said in a statement.
Wilbur said the economic recession this year could result in more students attending the University of California instead of a higher-cost private school. However, it could also result in more students opting for the California State University or community colleges ‘mdash; rather than attending an out-of-town UC campus.
The biggest plunges in acceptance rates occurred at UC Santa Cruz, where admission fell from 74.3 percent to 63.7 percent; UC Davis, where it decreased from 52.4 percent to 46.2 percent; and UC Irvine, which dropped to 42.8 percent from 49 percent.
UCLA showed the lowest overall admission rate at 21.4 percent, followed by UC Berkeley at 29.5 percent and UCSD at 38 percent.
In January, the UC Board of Regents announced its intention to cut to freshmen enrollment by 2,300 students for fall 2009 due to insufficient state funding and previous overenrollment. University officials are hoping to enroll about 33,000 California freshmen this year and boost community college transfer admits by 500.
Readers can contact Kimberly Cheng at [email protected].