UCs Admit for 2016

The final admission letters have gone out for the UC system, and of the 166,565 high school graduates who applied, 105,671 received them, a UC press release stated, 15.1 percent more than last year. Overall, about 71,000 are Californians, and about 17,000 come from out of state and from abroad.

At UCSB, 27,648 freshmen received admit letters. Among them, 20,110 were Californians, 3,317 were from other states, and 4,221 were from abroad. In an earlier accountability report that looked at fall 2014 enrollment, only three percent of UC Santa Barbara’s freshmen — the lowest among all the nine UCs — who accepted admission came from within 50 miles of campus. The average was 32 percent UC-wide, with the next lowest college being UC Merced at 13 percent locals, and the highest UC Irvine at 62 percent.

The UC also stated its 2016 transfers from community colleges went up by 14 percent over last year, or to 23,879 of the 33,199 who applied. That marks the largest increase in transfer students in UC history. UCSB’s portion was 8,294 students. The accountability report stated 14 percent of transfers to UCSB in fall 2014 came from within 50 miles of campus, compared to the average of 45 percent. The next lowest was UC Santa Cruz at 31 percent, and the highest was again UC Irvine, at 69 percent.

The quantity of underrepresented students admitted to the nine UCs for fall 2016 also rose over the previous year. Black and Latino students make up 4.9 and 32.3 percent, respectively, of new freshman admits, compared to 4.3 and 29.6 percent last year. Transfer students reflected a similar racial composition. As for students who are the first in their families to attend college, the UC counted 42.7 percent in its potential freshman class, and 37.3 percent who came from low-income families making $47,200 annually or less.