Background Briefing

The University of California, Santa Barbara has received a record 45,997 applications for undergraduate admission to the campus for fall 2005.

Of this total:

• 37,460 applications were from prospective first-year students---809 more than last year.

• 8,523 were from applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB---217 more than last year. (Just over a dozen other applicants fall in special categories not reflected in these totals, such as someone seeking a second bachelor's degree.)

The campus has a target enrollment of 4,025 first-year students for next fall and an estimated 1,555 transfer students. Decisions on freshman applications will be made by mid-March, and on transfer applications the following month.

The UC Office of the President today posted statistics on undergraduate applications to all UC campuses on its web site:

http://www.ucop.edu/news/studstaff.html

Applicants for the Fall 2005 Freshman Class

• The total number of applications received by UCSB for the freshman class is 809 more than last year, an increase of 1.9 percent. Four campuses in the UC system experienced decreases in undergraduate application numbers while the others saw increases. Over all, applications to the UC system increased 2.8 percent. There was a drop in applications to the UC system from out-of-state students (401) and an increase in applications from international students (156).
• Applications to UCSB from students in the top 4 percent of their high school class make up 14.5 percent of the applicant pool, or 5,059, an increase of 458 over last year. (The University of California system, under its Eligibility in the Local Context program, guarantees that such students will be admitted to a UC campus, although that campus might not be a student's first choice.)
• Over the past three years, applications to UC campuses from prospective freshmen have decreased by 1 percent. At UCSB over the same period, applications have increased 0.4 percent.
• Of the 76,152 prospective freshmen that applied to one or more UC campus this year, half of them included UCSB among the campuses to which they applied.
• Californians account for 93 percent of UCSB's undergraduate applicant pool.

Academic Quality of Prospective Freshmen

- Combined average score on the required SAT I exams this year is 1186, which is 10 points higher than last year. Average scores on the three required SAT II exams are all higher than last year.

 

- SAT

II

 Writing:

587 this year (585 last year)

 Math: 599 this year (596 last year)

 3rd exam:

612 this year (611 last year)

Diversity of Applicants for the Freshman Class

Transfer Applicants

Related Links

• The academic quality of UCSB's applicant pool, as measured by grades and test scores, is the highest ever.
• Of the 37,460 applicants for the entering class, 11,535, or 30.8 percent, have a high-school Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0 or higher---641 more than last year.
• The average GPA of all freshmen applicants is 3.71, slightly higher than last year's record 3.7.

   

   

   

   

  • UCSB's undergraduate applicant pool is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever. (Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until after all admissions decisions are made.)
  • 49.5 percent of all applicants for the freshman class are members of a racial or ethnic minority group, the highest such proportion ever at UCSB.
  • UCSB received a total of 7,555 freshman applications from members of underrepresented minority groups. These African American, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino applicants numbered 242 more than last year and represent 20.2 percent of the applicant pool (vs. 19.9 percent the previous year). The number of African-American and Chicano and Latino applicants increased, while the number of American-Indian applicants declined by 8.

   

   

   

   

   

   

  • The vast majority (92 percent) of the record 8,523 applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB are enrolled in a California community college.
  • The total number of transfer applications was 217 more than last year, an increase of 2.6 percent. (Across the entire UC system transfer applications decreased by 2.7 percent.)
  • Of the 8,523 total transfer applications, 1,626, or 19 percent, were from members of underrepresented minority groups, a small decrease from last year, when such applications accounted for 19.5 percent of the total. Transfer application numbers increased for all underrepresented minority groups except American Indians, which dropped by 14.
  • Over the past five years, transfer applications to UC campuses increased 14.8 percent; at UCSB, the increase over that same period was 25.6 percent.

UCOP Statistics for all UC Campuses