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Campus offers admission to 8,492 high school seniors for fall semester 2002

10 April 2002 | Recently, nearly 8,500 exceptionally talented high school seniors logged onto their computers or reached into their mailboxes to read those magic words: “Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to the University of California, Berkeley...”

In all, 8,492 students from across the state, country, and globe have been offered admission to the fall 2002 freshman class, campus officials announced last week.

Competition remained intense this year as more students applied for fewer spaces. Last year, 24.2 percent of applicants were admitted to the fall freshman class; for fall 2002, the percentage dropped to 23.3. The campus received 36,414 applications for next fall’s freshman class — up from 36,043 received at this time last year.

Richard Black, assistant vice chancellor of admissions and enrollment, said the total number of admitted students was decreased this year by about 100 students to hold freshman enrollment steady. Black said this was necessary because more students have been accepting Berkeley’s offers of admission.

At the same time, the campus has been under pressure to keep student enrollment within the limits of an enrollment cap established under a memorandum of understanding with the city of Berkeley as part of the campus’s Long Range Development Plan, which runs through 2005.

The slight drop in available admission spaces is accompanied by a reduction in the number of admitted students in every ethnic group.

The data also shows the following:

• California residents make up 87.6 percent of the students admitted into the fall 2002 freshman class. They come from across the state, representing 55 of state’s 58 counties.

• International students make up 2.1 percent of the fall freshman admitted class, and out-of-state students make up 10.3 percent.

• The overall representation of underrepresented students in the admitted class remains roughly the same as last year — 16.3 percent of admitted students are African American, American Indian and Chicano/Latino. Asian Americans account for 39.9 percent of the total, and whites comprise 33.9 percent. Students who identified themselves as “other” or did not provide ethnic information comprise 9.9 percent.

• The gender breakdown is similar to last year. Women represent 56 percent of the admitted students, men represent 44 percent.

For more than a dozen years, Berkeley admission officials have evaluated student applicants based on a combination of academics, how applicants handled the challenges and opportunities they faced, and personal characteristics such as leadership, motivation and persistence.However, UC policy previously required that all campuses in the UC system admit at least half of the fall freshman class based on academics alone. UC officials have dropped that requirement and, for the first time, every student applicant was admitted based on a full review of his or her entire application.

Admission officials posted their decisions on the Internet and began mailing admission packets on Thursday, March 28. Students have until May 1 to sign letters of intent indicating their plans to enroll at Berkeley. Campus officials are aiming for a fall 2002 enrollment target of 3,770 students.