By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ More Latino than white students in California have been offered admission to the state’s premier public universities for the first time, officials said Friday, a milestone that reflects the diverse racial makeup of a state where Latino children represent a majority of students in public schools.
Preliminary admissions data show that 17,589 Latino students have been accepted as freshmen at one of the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses for the fall, or 29 percent of all 61,120 in-state applicants who were offered a spot. That compares to 16,378 white residents, who made up 27 percent of the admitted applicants.
Asian Americans remained the largest single ethnic group represented in the accepted freshman class, making up 36 percent of all Californians admitted. Black students received 4 percent of the admission offers.
Campaign for College Opportunity Community Affairs Director Audrey Dow called the growing share of Latino students qualifying for a UC education “a positive trend.”
“It is really encouraging and emphasizes that Latinos want to go to college,” Dow said. “Latino families, Latino
University officials said that competition to get into a UC school remained stiff, a situation they tried to address by making room for more students. A record 86,865 students from California, out-of-state and abroad were accepted, or 58 percent of all 148,688 applicants. By comparison, the system had a 68 percent acceptance rate for Fall 2011. The new numbers are a sign of how much harder winning a spot has become.
Of the ones who got lucky in the admissions lottery this year, 25,745, or 30 percent of the accepted freshmen, are from out-of-state or are international students. The percentage of UC students who are not state residents has risen steadily in recent years as officials have tried to offset cuts in state funding with the higher tuition nonresidents pay.
Every campus except the two most prestigious _ Berkeley and UCLA, which admitted fewer students than last year _ accepted more international or out-of-state students for the fall.
So while the number of students admitted system-wide for the fall rose overall by 4,015 over last year, 2,984 of those offers went to non-Californians.
“I know there have been some concerns that campuses have increased the number of out-of-state and international students (and) are somehow displacing California students,” said Stephen Handel, UC’s associate vice president for undergraduate admissions. “And that’s not true. We admit as many California applicants as we receive funding for from the state.”
Even though the system has stepped up recruitment of students from outside the state, 61,120 Californians _ 1,031 more than last year _ still gained admission to a UC school. Most of the growth, however, was limited to just the three campuses that accepted more applicants overall: San Diego, Riverside and Santa Cruz.
Here is a look at the number of in-state students accepted for fall 2014 admission by campus and race. Note that the numbers by race do not equal the totals because not all races and ethnicities were included.
SYSTEMWIDE
Total: 61,120
African-American: 2,558 (4.2 percent)
Asian-American: 22,125 (36.2 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 17,589 (28.8 percent)
White: 16,378 (26.8 percent)
BERKELEY
Total: 8,391
African-American: 287 (3.4 percent)
Asian-American: 3,549 (42.3 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 1,745 (20.8 percent)
White: 2,381 (28.4 percent)
DAVIS
Total: 17,813
African-American: 504 (2.8 percent)
Asian-American: 7,401 (41.5 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 3,780 (21.2 percent)
White: 5,290 (29.7 percent)
IRVINE
Total: 17,396
African-American: 530 (3 percent)
Asian-American: 8,061 (46.3 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 4,922 (28.3 percent)
White: 3,233 (18.6 percent)
LOS ANGELES
Total: 9,128
African-American: 406 (4.4 percent)
Asian-American: 3,859 (42.3 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 2,033 (22.3 percent)
White: 2,375 (26 percent)
MERCED
Total: 9,313
African-American: 463 (5 percent)
Asian-American: 3,275 (35.2 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 3,859 (41.4 percent)
White: 1,424 (15.3 percent)
RIVERSIDE
Total: 17,758
African-American: 815 (4.6 percent)
Asian-American: 7,972 (44.9 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 5,698 (32.1 percent)
White: 2,715 (15.3 percent)
SAN DIEGO
Total: 15,762
African-American: 367 (2.3 percent)
Asian-American: 7,439 (47.2 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 3,223 (20.4 percent)
White: 4,027 (25.5 percent)
SANTA BARBARA
Total: 18,815
African-American: 660 (3.5 percent)
Asian-American: 6,713 (35.7 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 4,548 (24.2 percent)
White: 6,033 (32.1 percent)
SANTA CRUZ
Total: 18,539
African-American: 704 (3.8 percent)
Asian-American: 5,941 (32 percent)
Hispanic/Latino: 5,237 (28.2 percent)
White: 5,831 (31.5 percent)
Source: University of California Office of the President, Student Affairs, Admissions
