UC San Diego will open for the fall quarter this week with what’s expected to be record enrollment and lots of overcrowding on a campus that’s in the midst of one of the largest expansions in the school’s 59-year history.

University planners estimate that enrollment will surpass 39,000 when classes begin on Thursday. That’s 202 higher than last year’s record of 38,798. Final figures will be available in mid-October.

Despite the number, the figures represent a sharp, planned slowdown in growth at the county’s largest university.

On average, enrollment grew by more than 1,000 a year over the past decade. UCSD officials decided to try to “tap the brakes” this fall to give the campus a chance to absorb the students it has and prepare for an eventual enrollment of about 42,000.


“Last year we had a bounty of new undergraduates,” said Adele Brumfield, UCSD’s associate vice chancellor of enrollment management. “It was a signal that UCSD had become more of a first choice.

“We went into planning (this year’s enrollment) with that in mind. We believe that we will be better able to accommodate our growth as our infrastructure develops.”

UC San Diego estimates that it will have 39,000 students when classes begin on Thursday. (Gary Robbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

UCSD is in the process of transforming itself into one of the nation’s largest residential campuses. The school said Monday that it is accommodating 11,730 students this fall who had housing guarantees. The final housing number may turn out to be much higher.


The university plans to expand its student housing capacity by 2,000 in 2020, by 1,300 in 2022, and by 2,000 in 2023. Long-term plans call for UCSD to house at least 22,000 students.

The boom is turning out to be a major recruiting incentive.

“I have a two year housing guarantee at The Village (residential hall),” said Suzie Purpura of Temecula, a new transfer student. “Other UCs have housing problems. I didn’t want to worry about that.”

The university will add its seventh residential college in 2020 and an eighth a short time later.


UC San Diego will begin construction of a major engineering complex in mid-November. (UC San Diego)

The housing is part of a $1.5 billion expansion that will also include a massive student union, an innovation and design building, an engineering complex, and a grand plaza at the base of the Blue Line Trolley station, which is now under construction.

UCSD is currently building a $627 million housing-office-retail and dining neighborhood that has disrupted the flow of pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the west side of campus. At times, students have to share roadways with construction workers riding e-scooters.

There will be further disruption this fall when construction begins on the innovation and engineering buildings.


The university has increased seating capacity to 4,229 in its two main libraries, and installed digital screens in Geisel Library that tell students where they can find a place to sit.

UCSD also will shuttle students to off-campus ethnic supermarkets this fall because there are no major stores on campus.

However, the retail picture is changing. Over the summer, the university condensed the UCSD Bookstore into one floor in Price Center so that the second floor can house a Target store. The change forced the university to greatly reduce its collection of mass market books.

“The construction on campus has consistently impeded university operations these past two years, but this year it seems like both returning students and full-time staff have adjusted,” said Ella Chen, editor of the UCSD Triton newspaper.