The University of California, Santa Barbara has offered admission for its Fall 2001 entering class to a total of 16,450 high school students. The prospective freshmen were selected from a pool of 34,003 applicants.
The statistics are being released today in conjunction with a report by the University of California Office of the President on admission to all UC campuses for the Fall.
Statistical tables for all UC campuses are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ucop.edu/.
Compared with last year, UCSB has accepted larger numbers of applicants from all ethnic groups, including all underrepresented minority groups--African American, American Indian, Chicano, and Latino.
"The class of students that we have accepted is perhaps the best prepared academically and the most diverse that we have yet seen," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "Our efforts now are focused on a vigorous campaign to enroll the best and most diverse class we possibly can."
The 34,003 applicants for Fall 2001 was 2,775 more than last year, an increase of 8.9 per cent. Once students have made their final decisions about where they plan to enroll, UCSB expects its Fall 2001 entering class to number approximately 3,700. About 93 per cent of first-year students who enroll at UCSB are from California.
UCSB acceptance letters were mailed on March 20.
The race or ethnicity of applicants is not known to UCSB until after admissions decisions are made.
The total number of applicants from all underrepresented minority groups combined who were accepted by UCSB was 2,869, or 474 more than last year, an increase of 20 per cent. The 1,771 Chicano applicants accepted were 346 more than last year; the 560 Latino applicants accepted were 47 more than last year; the 429 African-American applicants accepted were 68 more than last year; and the 109 American Indian applicants accepted were 13 more than last year.
"We have shown steady improvement in the numbers of students from underrepresented groups who are applying to and being accepted by UCSB," said William J. Villa, UCSB's special assistant to the chancellor on admissions. "We are very grateful to have had this significant increase in applications from these groups, which is the product of a lot of effort by a lot of people."
Faculty and staff members as well as students are involved in a variety of efforts to contact applicants who have been accepted and answer questions about the campus and its programs, part of UCSB's pursuit of its twin goals of academic excellence and diversity.
In particular, the campus sponsors a series of receptions around the state for applicants who have been accepted and their family members at which UCSB volunteers--faculty and staff members, students, administrators, and alumni--speak and answer questions about the institution, its programs and opportunities. Chancellor Yang is host for these events, of which seven were scheduled this year, starting March 10 and ending April 7.
In addition, special "Spring Insight" programs are held on the campus for admitted students to visit and see UCSB for themselves. These and other activities coordinated by the Office of Relations with Schools, the Educational Opportunity Program, and other departments are complemented by various student-initiated outreach activities.
Richard J. Watts, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and chair of the Academic Senate at UCSB, said faculty participation in a campaign to place telephone calls to members of underrepresented minority groups who have been accepted by the campus and discuss their academic plans has been growing steadily.
"Our faculty is insistent that we have academic quality and diversity, and they see this direct contact with prospective students as very important," he said. "Usually the faculty member is from a department or program in which the applicant plans to study. We want to demonstrate to students we have accepted that our faculty has a real interest in having them attend this campus."
Applicants who have been accepted by UCSB or any other UC campus have until May 1 to sign a statement of intent to register.
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