UCD sets application record despite bad publicity
A record 62,515 people have applied for admission to UC Davis.
That’s an increase of 5.3 percent over last year, but it’s also easily the smallest growth among the nine UC undergraduate campuses. They saw applications shoot up 13.2 percent overall, according to numbers released Thursday.
It begs a question:
Did a viral YouTube video and nationwide news coverage of the Nov. 18 incident in which campus cops pepper-sprayed nonviolent Occupy UC Davis protesters cause students and parents to look elsewhere?
UCD’s application deadline fell less than two weeks later, on Nov. 30, but the campus traditionally receives the bulk of its applications during Thanksgiving week.
“Is there a pepper-spray effect? I don’t know,” said Walter Robinson, who is in his first year of as director of undergraduate admissions, “but we are the only campus that had that experience.”
He said he planned to crunch more numbers on the subject.
UCLA tallied the largest percentage increase in applications at 12.7 percent. UCD’s total fell 2.5 percent behind eighth-place UC San Diego.
A total of 49,389 people have applied for freshman status at UCD, a 7.8 percent increase over 2011. The number of students who wish to transfer to Davis is 13,126, a 3.2 percent decrease.
UCD saw big gains in applications from international students, up 97.5 percent, third highest in the system, to 4,085. The same was true for out-of-state students, up 58.5 percent, second highest in the system behind UC Merced, to 2,786.
The admissions office has dedicated one recruiter to nonresidents for two years now, and Robinson credited that effort with the uptick.
Applications to the Davis campus by Californians increased by 538, or 1.3 percent. That made it the only campus with less than a 5 percent increase in would-be California freshmen.
Robinson said the in-state numbers likely reflect some blind spots in UCD’s recruiting over the past year, following staffing changes made in response to budget cuts.
“We didn’t have people on the ground in some high-population areas for this last cycle,” he said. “Part of my mission is to develop a strategic plan to put us back into those communities so that we see a greater increase, particularly from California residents.”
Transfer applications from in-state students dipped 4.4 percent, to 11,284, while the number from out of state increased by 36 students, to 183, and from outside the country by 56, to 1,659.
On Wednesday, Sacramento City College opened a new, larger extension center in West Village, the first such building on a UC campus. UCD officials hope it will increase the number of transfers while smoothing the transition for students.
The number of non-white students applying to be freshmen at UCD increased across all racial and ethnic groups. The 16,836 applications by Asian-Americans comprised 39.6 percent of applicants.
A total of 12,098 white students (a drop of 1,106, largest in the system) applied to be freshmen. That’s 28.5 percent of those who applied.
Chicano/Latino students made up 23.2 percent, with 9,863 applicants.
Of Californians applying to be UCD freshmen:
* 47.8 percent have parents who did not graduate with a four-year degree;
* 43.2 percent come from a low-income home;
* 20.8 percent come from high schools that rank low on the state’s Academic Performance Index.
All three categories make up a greater share of freshman applicants than in 2011.
Among California community college students applying to UCD, 33.2 percent were Asian-American, 30.6 percent white and 16.9 percent Latino.
Numbers fell slightly across racial and ethnic groups, except American Indian, which increased by 12 students to 108. The number of white students fell by 364 to 3,589.
This is the eighth straight year that UC has set a systemwide record for applicants.
Not counting duplicate applications, 126,299 people applied for freshman status (a 19.1 percent increase) and 34,640 for transfer status (a 4.2 percent decrease) into the UC system.
Much of that growth for 2012 came from nonresident students, up from 21,095 last year to 33,001 this year.
The pool of freshman applicants represents UC’s most diverse to date, with growth across racial and ethnic groups. For the first time, Chicanos and Latinos (30.1 percent of the pool) make up a greater percentage than whites.
“These outcomes are consistent with the university’s new admission policy, which is intended to expand consideration for admission to a broad range of students,” said Kate Jeffery, interim director of admissions at the UC Office of the President, in a news release.
UC dropped the requirement that students take two SAT subject tests. UC says it appears grade-point averages, ACT and SAT tests scores remain comparable to last year’s applicants.
The Davis campus counted 25,096 undergraduates for fall 2011.
In September, Chancellor Linda Katehi announced a plan to increase the number of students by 5,000 and hire 300 more faculty over five years. The “2020 Initiative” would be paid for partly by adding more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition.
— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=125736
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Posted by Cory Golden
on Jan 12 2012.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 03:57:15 PM PDT
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“UC says it appears grade-point averages, ACT and SAT tests scores remain comparable to last year’s applicants.”
Strange that UC gives extensive, detailed information about racial backgrounds, but doesn’t give test scores or grades. They are totally obsessed by race, which they are forbidden by the state constitution from considering.
Your reasoning doesn’t make sense, and doesn’t prove UCD is “totally obsessed by race,” whatever that means. Also, information about test scores and grades of incoming students is available to the public at the admissions web site.
Jack Prais +1
Why not focus on an increase in the average student’s GPA? The record drop in white applicants to 28.5% also begs the question, is there discrimination going on against white students? Do we need to provide them with an outreach program??
In 2011 Davis had the fifth largest increase of nine campuses.
In 2012 Davis was in last place, the only campus with a single digit
increase (about 2/3 of the increase of next lowest campus)!
UCB UCD UCI UCLA UCM UCR UCSD UCSB UCSC
2011-12 16.5 7.8 15.4 18.1 11.3 14.8 13.8 11.8 17.2
2010-11 5.2 5.9 3.3 6.8 8.9 8.5 11.2 5.0 1.7
yes, it was likely the pepper-spraying. good for ags, though, because the last thing they should want is their campus to be packed to the gills like ucla and ucb.