The University of California has offered admission to its 2014 freshman class to a record-high number of students — 86,865 students to be exact. There are more state residents and more Latinos than ever, as well as a wide mix of out-of-state and international residents.
The admissions reflect an increase of 4.8 percent over preliminary counts for 2013.
Latinos jumped as a proportion of the total admitted by UC, from 27.6 percent in 2013 to 28.8 percent in 2014. They were the biggest ethnic group among UC applicants and the quickest-growing ethnic group among California high school graduates. That makes them the second-largest ethnic group of state residents admitted to UC, behind Asian-Americans.
White students constituted 26.8 percent of admissions for 2014, followed by African-Americans at 4.2 percent. UC reported that it's continuing to admit very large and growing proportions of freshmen who would be the first to attend college in their families — 42.5 percent of admitted California applicants. Those who come from low-income families are 37.4 percent, those attending low-performing high schools are 20.9 percent.
Here's what else UC had to say:
Preliminary data show the number of California applicants admitted — 61,120 — increased by 1.7 percent over last year. Californians continued to make up the vast majority of admitted students. Although four of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses made fewer offers to non-resident students this year, the overall number of such offers increased from a systemwide total of 22,761 in 2013 to 25,745 in 2014. It is important to note, however, that applicants from outside California traditionally decline UC admission offers at a higher rate than do Californians. It is expected that, systemwide, about 13 percent of enrolled UC undergraduates in 2014-15 will be out-of-state and international students.
May 1 is the deadline for admitted students to return their statement of intent to register, the last step in the admissions process before enrollment. In a change for the next admissions cycle, UC will open its 2015-16 application for undergraduate admissions on Aug. 1, two months earlier than in previous years. Completed applications have to be submitted between Nov. 1-30, the same as in prior years.