The University of California system saw an increase of about 1,263 in undergraduate students accepting admission offers in this year’s freshman class, with proportions of out-of-state and international students planning to enroll also increasing.
The total number of admitted freshman students stating intent to register in the UC system was 44,016 this year. Of those students, the percentage who are California residents dropped by 2.8 percent from last year’s freshman class, while SIRs from international and out-of-state students increased from 15.5 percent of all students planning to enroll to 18.3 percent for fall 2013.
“The admissions department plans for these things, and our hope was to increase our enrollment this year,” said Dianne Klein, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, about the total increase of SIRs. Klein said that enrollment data will change by fall and that SIR data is only a “snapshot” of the final numbers. “For now, the SIR statistics are preliminary, so our results aren’t concrete enough to determine what effect the (statistics) will have on the UC system,” she said.
The universitywide SIR statistics include guaranteed offers from UC Merced, which were offered to freshmen who met admissions requirements but were not originally admitted to the campus of their choice.
The percentage of out-of-state and international admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Santa Cruz more than doubled compared to last year — the biggest change in this statistic across the UC campuses. UC Santa Cruz also had the largest percent decrease in California resident SIRs over last year, with 6.6 percent fewer California resident students submitting SIRs.
The trend of a decreasing percentage of in-state SIRs follows the long debate about the increasing number of international and out-of-state students within the UC system. However, a summary released by the university, along with the data, supports this increase in nonresident enrollment, citing that “nonresidents pay higher tuition, thus self-funding the cost of their education, and helping support increases in course offerings and faculty hiring, which benefit all students.”
UC Berkeley SIRs totaled 5,979 students this year, an increase of 614 students from the campus’s 2012 numbers. The raw number of admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley in all residential categories increased, including California residents, with 115 more state residents planning to enroll than last year.
However, despite this increase in raw numbers, the percentage of admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley who are California residents decreased by 5.9 percent from last year. The percentage of out-of-state admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley increased by 1.6 percent, and international students planning to enroll went up by 4.3 percent from the year before.
Contact Dennis Vidal at [email protected]
Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that percentage of California residents who are planning enroll as freshmen at the UC this fall dropped by 2.8 percent from last year’s freshman class. In fact, the percentage dropped by 2.8 percentage points.