University of California admits a record number of California freshmen for the fall of 2023

The University of California has admitted an unprecedented number of California students for the fall of 2023, with the Golden State alone accounting for 88,285 first-year applicants.

It represents a 3.5% increase over last year and is part of a continuing effort to attract more in-state students to the state’s higher education system. This year’s budget in California included a 5% increase for the UC system as part of a multi-year agreement between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the University of California, with the expectation that campuses would use the money to enroll more California students, among other educational goals.

That appears to be what happened across the UC system. Californian admission rates increased to nearly 67% this year, up from 64% in 2022.

The increase was more noticeable at UC Santa Cruz than on any other campus. This fall, the school admitted 10,200 more first-year in-state students than the previous year, representing a 44.5% increase. Though final enrollment figures have not been released, Michelle Whittingham, associate vice chancellor of enrollment at UC Santa Cruz, stated that the campus expects 4,189 first-year students from California to attend this fall and winter, a 733-student increase from last year.

“We are just ecstatic that we’ve been able to strategically expand that access while balancing a focus on quality,” Whittingham said.

Latinos made up 38% of all Californians admitted as first-year freshmen across the nine UC campuses, the highest proportion of any racial or ethnic group. The UC system admitted 38,800 Latino, Black, American Indian, and Pacific Islander students, the highest number in the university’s history.

“Admitting more students who reflect the socioeconomic diversity of the state has been a priority for us,” UC Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor and director of undergraduate enrollment Jocelyn De Jong said in a press release. “We know that academic talent can be found in all communities and settings, and we value bringing together a diverse class of students with different experiences and perspectives.”

The figures come in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated affirmative action in universities across the country. Consideration of race in public university admissions has been prohibited in California since 1996 — and while the high court decision was still being debated, the University of California admitted that the three-decade-old ban had harmed the university system as a whole.

The university stated in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court that “despite its extensive efforts, UC struggles to enroll a student body that is sufficiently racially diverse to achieve the educational benefits of diversity.” The gap is particularly noticeable on UC’s most selective campuses, where African American, Native American, and Latinx students are underrepresented and frequently report feelings of racial isolation.” Despite that warning, 44% of UC’s admitted first-year class — and 37% of admitted transfer students — are Black, American Indian, Latino, or Pacific Islander, according to data from this fall. 45 percent of those admitted were first-generation college students. And 47% came from low-income households.

“We work extremely hard to ensure that we are assessing students’ achievements in the context of their opportunities,” Whittingham said. “We look at their school context, their geographical context, and their experiences.”

The University of California also admitted 153 more transfer students this fall than the previous year. 89% of the 27,761 admitted transfer students came from California’s community colleges.

UC Berkeley and UCLA accepted the fewest transfer applicants — roughly one in every three — while UC Merced accepted the most, at 76%.

Easing transitions for community college students has been a hot topic in the state’s higher education system, as lawmakers, colleges, and universities debate how to best integrate two-year students into the state’s four-year institutions.

Earlier this year, UC proposed a new path to do so, but policymakers were divided because it employs different strategies than the system already in place at the California State University system.