UC Posts Record Number of Applicants Just as it is Cutting Enrollment

Parents Forum
1

<p>98,002 aspiring freshman and 28,699 transfers have applied:</p>

<p>[UC</a> applicants increase despite plans to cut enrollment - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucapply24-2009jan24,0,4232213.story]UC”>UC applications hit record highs)</p>

<p>Excerpt:</p>

<p>"In addition, application patterns suggest that more applicants may be considering living at home and commuting to a UC to save money, she said. That may be one reason the Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses, which are not in large metropolitan areas, saw slight declines in overall applications while Riverside, Davis and Irvine saw the biggest percentage gains.</p>

<p>UCLA continued to be the most popular UC campus, with 55,610 young people seeking a spot in the freshman class. UC Berkeley was next, with 48,616 freshman applicants, and UC San Diego was third with 47,032. Next were UC Santa Barbara’s 44,673; UC Irvine, 44,072; UC Davis, 42,344; UC Santa Cruz, 27,231; UC Riverside, 22,682; and UC Merced, 9,034. On average, prospective freshmen applied to 3.5 UC campuses each.</p>

<p>Freshman applications from African American and Latino students, groups that are considered underrepresented at UC, rose this year; they were up 5.8% for blacks and 9% for Latinos. Transfer applications saw larger gains from those groups, up 20.2% for blacks and 18.2% for Latinos. "</p>

2

<p>Coureur, I’m just shocked by the number of applicants to these schools. After reading the posts in that thread about the financial problems at the UCs, I thought very few people, would apply to these schools. ;)</p>

3

<p>^^^
In today’s difficult financial times, I’m not certain why you would be surprised by these numbers. In state tuition room and board at Berkeley or UCLA is around 25K. If you are one of those “upper middle class” families who has lost tens of thousands of dollars in your 401K, 529, home equity etc…, and your son or daughter is considering a top 25 national university and your EFC is in the 50K/year range and you’re concerned about your or your spouse’s job and you have other kids a few years behind the one graduating HS in 2009, etc…</p>

<p>Then, it makes perfect sense!</p>

4

<p>Momofknowitall, I agree with you. I was being sarcastic.</p>

5

<p>Gotta slog the numbers, however. The increase in instate apps is only 1% – the bulk of the increased apps is comprised of full payors – OOS + International (up 29%).</p>

6

<p>Glad D added UCSC as a safety and not one of the campuses that is seeing more apps</p>

7

<p>Bluebayou, true, but there are fewer high school graduates. Don’t have that number. Also, don’t know how many applications per student, this year compared to the past.</p>

<p>The bottom line. I don’t think the UCs are hurting for applicants. UCLA has over 55,000. That’s a lot anyway you cut it.</p>

8

<p>dstark:</p>

<p>Total CA high school graduates in June 2009 is to projected be down 3k (from 377k) – of course, IMO, that is a poor number bcos only a small portion of them even qualify for UC, but it is what UC uses.</p>

<p>Average number of campuses applied to dropped from 3.4 to 3.3.</p>

<p>Link to data tables:</p>

<p>[Fall</a> 2009 application tables](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2009/09app.html]Fall”>http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2009/09app.html)</p>

9

<p>Ok. Thanks.</p>

10

<p>I definitely agree that because of the financial situation, more kids may be commuter students rather than living on campus. Livings expenses are often 2/3 of the COA of a UC. </p>

<p>Students in our neighborhood are fortunate in that they can commute to either UCSD or UCI. It’s an hour’s drive either way. It doesn’t give the optimal “college experience,” but when the financial situation is iffy, something may have to be sacrificed.</p>

11

<p>^^ And there are the hybrids - live the first year on-campus then commute the rest of the time. They still get the ‘dorm experience’ and also most of the financial savings of the commuter.</p>

12

<p>^Good point, UCdad.</p>

13

<p>What is puzzling is where all these eager in-state applicants are coming from. The way all the California doomsayers have been talking on CC about everybody fleeing the state, one might have concluded that California is pretty much deserted. I guess a few tens of millions of laggards haven’t yet gotten the message, so their kids are still blindly applying to UC.</p>

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</p>

<p>Perhaps the doomsayers looked at the reason why people should look at options in other states much more than correctly ascertaining how many actually qualify (academically and financially) for options outside the regular pipeline of UC, CSU, and community college within California.</p>

<p>It remains that for the overwhelming majority of students in California the UC remains the very best option available, or perhaps the only one among selective schools.</p>

<p>An interesting tidbit (check the tables linked by BlueBayou) is that more than 55% and more than 48% of the 98,000 unduplicated applicants still apply to UCLA and Berkeley while Merced cannot crack a 10% application ratio.</p>

15

<p>What’s interesting in all these numbers is that freshman apps to the UC system are up only 2.9%, essentially flat at Berkeley and UCLA and down slightly at San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, but up at Davis, Irvine, and Riverside. </p>

<p>The big increase is in transfer apps, + 11.2% systemwide. This could reflect a couple of things. First, more students could have started at community colleges a couple of years ago and are now trying to finish up at the UCs. But second, this could also reflect some kids who started at pricey private colleges or OOS publics who in the current economy are being forced to cut back on college expenses and are retreating to the UCs—IF they can get in.</p>

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<p>It would be interesting to know how many of the transfer apps were from the community college system in CA.</p>

17

<p>I’m looking at Bluebayou’s post no. 8, including the link, and what I find amazing is around 1 out of 10 high school graduates in California apply to UCLA. Berkeley, maybe 1 out of 12.</p>

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<p>Well, if you are set on going to a UC, UCLA and Berkeley offer the best package–interesting, big city environment/big time sports teams, including football/stellar academic reputation. Since it only costs you $60 and the cost of an SAT report to apply to an extra UC, why not apply to UCLA and UCB in addition to the UC you’re probably more sure that you can get into.</p>

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<p>dstark;</p>

<p>the state flagships do have broad appeal, probably for a whole bunch of reasons, including aggressive outreach. But, those are the only two UCs that have big time, D1 sports programs. While Santa Barbara may have nationally-ranked soccer, it just ain’t the same as sitting in the Rose Bowl or Memorial Stadium on a fall afternoon. The flagships are the ONLY campuses is major urban centers, enabling commuters. While not far from the big cities, Irvine & SD are inaccessible by public transport.</p>

<p>xiggi: there was NEVER a demographic need for Merced. It was built bcos the Valley legislators complained for years that they only had ‘one’ campus serving their farms. And, in this Blue state, any expense is a good expense. :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>bc:</p>

<p>comparing data tables, 95% of instate transfer apps originate from jucos. The remaining 5% (~1400) apps were from California residents transferring from other colleges, but that includes transfers within the UC system, e.g., Irvine to UCLA.</p>