UC applications hit record highs

The number of applicants for both freshman and transfer admission to the University of California for fall 2009 has hit record highs, even as UC prepares to reduce freshman enrollment, officials announced Friday.

Applications for freshman admission to at least one UC campus for the fall totaled 98,002, up 2.9% from last year. The number of California residents seeking entrance as freshmen rose 1.6% to 80,730, while out-of-state and international applicants increased 10% to 17,272.

Meanwhile, undergraduate transfer applications grew by 11.2% from last year, to 28,699.

Susan Wilbur, the UC system’s director of undergraduate admissions, said it was too soon to say whether the recession will influence more students to seek spots at state universities instead of higher-priced private colleges. But she noted that the number of freshman applications to UC from California residents rose slightly even though the population of high school graduates in the state is expected to decline this spring.

In addition, application patterns suggest that more applicants may be considering living at home and commuting to a UC to save money, she said. That may be one reason the Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses, which are not in large metropolitan areas, saw slight declines in overall applications while Riverside, Davis and Irvine saw the biggest percentage gains.

UCLA continued to be the most popular UC campus, with 55,610 young people seeking a spot in the freshman class. UC Berkeley was next, with 48,616 freshman applicants, and UC San Diego was third with 47,032. Next were UC Santa Barbara’s 44,673; UC Irvine, 44,072; UC Davis, 42,344; UC Santa Cruz, 27,231; UC Riverside, 22,682; and UC Merced, 9,034. On average, prospective freshmen applied to 3.5 UC campuses each.

Freshman applications from African American and Latino students, groups that are considered underrepresented at UC, rose this year; they were up 5.8% for blacks and 9% for Latinos. Transfer applications saw larger gains from those groups, up 20.2% for blacks and 18.2% for Latinos.

The release of application statistics followed a recent decision by the UC Board of Regents to reduce enrollment of California freshmen for the fall by 2,300, or about 6%, because of expected cuts in state funding. The regents, however, increased the number of transfer student slots by 500, or about 4%.

Under the plan, six of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses will see significant cuts to their ranks of California freshmen, while UCLA and Berkeley will stay close to current levels and UC Merced will grow.

Wilbur said all qualified students still will be guaranteed a spot somewhere in the UC system, but not necessarily at their top-choice campuses, and most students will receive offers from fewer campuses than they did last year.

Admissions decisions are to be announced in February and March.

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larry.gordon@latimes.com