Record 60,000 frosh admitted to UC campuses university of california

The University of California offered admission to the most freshmen ever, sending out more than 60,000 acceptance letters for fall 2008 even as it faces budget cuts from reduced state funding, officials announced Monday.

Even though not every hopeful got his or her choice of school, overall 3 out of every 4 applicants were offered admission to one of the system's nine undergraduate campuses.

Compared with fall 2007, UC accepted 4.7 percent more students and will fulfill the university's promise of offering admission to all eligible high school seniors.

Each year, UC releases numbers based on admission information collected as of March 31 for California resident students. The data does not include admissions offered after that date.

For example, the data does not include 8,450 applicants who were rejected by their campuses of choice but were subsequently offered admission to UC Merced and UC Riverside, two schools with room to spare.

UC received a record number of applications - 79,661 - because of a peak in the number of Baby Boomers' children graduating from high school and because a greater number of students are becoming UC eligible, officials said.

Even as the system accepted more students than ever, many individual campuses became more selective - posting higher overall grade point averages and test scores.

All students have until May 1 to decide whether or not to accept UC's admissions offer. The system would be in big trouble if everyone said yes, especially with budget cuts looming. Last year 52.7 percent of those admitted said they planned to enroll.

"Campuses have gone to great lengths to select an applicant pool that will result in the desired number of students they have space for," said Susan Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions. "The budget situation is very serious for us, and we are very concerned about the possibility of overenrollment."

According to numbers released by the UC Office of the President, UC's flagship campus in Berkeley offered admission to 8,615 high school seniors for the 2008-09 school year including a set of quadruplets, someone who wrote a symphony during high school, a champion in youth division sailing and an international Irish dance competition winner.

Its admissions rate fell to 22.5 percent, making it the second most selective UC campus, after UCLA, which had a 22.1 percent admissions rate. The average total SAT I score for Cal's admitted class is 2014 out of 2400, up from 2009 the year before. Cal's average GPA grew to 4.18 - up from 4.17 the year before.

For the second year in a row, some applicants to UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego will receive offers to participate in UC Merced's "Shared Experience" program. Students can begin their education at the Merced campus but have the option of transferring to another UC campus in their junior year.

Systemwide, 39 percent of applicants would be first-generation college students and 36.8 percent come from a low-income family, defined as one earning less than $43,000 a year. Roughly 8 percent were from rural California, 39 percent from urban areas and nearly 53 percent from the suburbs.