UCLA, UCR See Record Number Of Applications
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A record number of potential students have submitted applications to attend UC Los Angeles and UC Riverside, university officials said Monday.
UCLA's applicants include more than 97,000 prospective freshman and 22,000 prospective transfer students, making the West Los Angeles campus the most applied-to four-year university in the nation, university officials said.
"These numbers show that our relentless efforts to recruit students from every corner of the state are bearing fruit," said Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, UCLA associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. "They also show that our message to low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students -- that they, too, have a place at UCLA -- is getting through."
Applications from minorities went up across the board – 5 percent for black students, 8 percent for Chicano/Latino students and 3 percent for Native American applicants. The overall number of applications increased by 4.7 percent among prospective freshmen over last year and 4.2 percent for transfer students.
UCLA applicants represented the bulk of a record 206,000 students who applied to University of California campuses across the state -- a 6.4 percent increase over fall 2015 and the 12th straight year of record-setting application numbers, UC officials said.
UC Riverside, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, also saw a record high number of applications, which exceeded 50,000 for the first time. There were 41,559 freshmen applications, along with 10,908 transfer applications, seeking to enroll at UCR this fall.
"Hitting this milestone is significant for the Riverside campus because it demonstrates, in real numbers, UCR's popularity across the state," UCR Undergraduate Admissions Director Emily Engelschall said. "The numbers show that UC Riverside continues to grow as a campus of choice."
The number of fall 2016 applications exceeded the previous year by 10 percent -- and was 20 percent higher than the fall 2014 term.
According to figures, Hispanics comprised the highest number -- 44.3 percent -- of freshmen applicants to UCR, followed by Asians at 33.1 percent and whites at 12.5 percent. The number of black applicants numbered 7.1 percent, while 2.5 percent of applicants declined to declare an ethnicity or race.
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