UC Berkeley Press Release

Campus issues fall admissions data

By Janet Gilmore, Media Relations | 19 April 2006

BERKELEY – University of California, Berkeley, admissions officials announced today (Wednesday, April 19) that they have offered admission to more than 9,800 high school students who collectively represent a broad geographic cross-section of the state and a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds and experiences.

The admitted class includes more students than last year from the Central Valley and from Southern California's Inland Empire - areas where admissions officials spent more time this year encouraging talented students to apply - as well as an increase in students from lower-income families.

"It's encouraging to see that our efforts to reach out to more communities are succeeding," said Walter Robinson, UC Berkeley's director of undergraduate admissions. "We challenged the state's best and brightest students to have the courage to compete for a space at UC Berkeley. They did, and for many of them, it paid off."

The admitted students include a nationally competitive sailor who has competed in regattas all over the world, an actor, a musician whose band has a contract with an independent record label and plans for a nationally distributed CD, a nationally ranked ballroom dancer, and a budding playwright.

In all, 9,836 students, including out-of-state students and international students, were offered admission to the fall 2006 freshman class. Competition was particularly intense this year, due in part to a 13 percent increase in applications (41,711 for fall 2006, compared with 36,943 for fall 2005) and to an admitted class that remained as academically talented as the previous year's class. The fall 2006 admit rate, or percentage of applicants offered admission, was 24 percent, compared to 26 percent for fall 2005.

UC Berkeley sent offers of admission to students on March 30, and students have until May 1 to submit a statement of intent to register. The campus projects that 4,100 of the students will enroll in the fall 2006 freshman class.

Detailed data on this admitted class of students show the following:

• There were 403 students admitted from the Central Valley for fall 2006, compared to 379 admitted in fall 2005. In the Inland Empire area of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, there were 365 students admitted to the fall 2006 freshman class, compared to 348 admitted to the fall 2005 class.
• Students from all but one of the state's counties were offered admission. No students from Alpine County applied for admission. The San Francisco Bay Area, with 2,658 admitted students, and Los Angeles County, with 2,471 admitted students, continue to provide most of campus's applicants and admitted students.
• More students are from families that earn less than $30,000 a year and have parents who did not attend college. There were 993 such students admitted to the fall 2006 freshman class, compared to 944 in fall 2005.
• Women continue to represent the majority of admitted students - 56 percent for fall 2006, unchanged from fall 2005. Campus administrators noted that while women represent just 26 percent of students admitted to the College of Engineering and 44 percent of the students admitted to the College of Chemistry, their numbers are increasing. For fall 2006, 340 women were offered admission to engineering and 191 to chemistry. Admissions officials said this development tracks a national trend of more women entering science and technology fields.
• A comparison of fall 2006 and fall 2005 data show that offers of admission to Asian American students increased by six percent to 4,122; and that white students' offers of admission dropped by 5 percent to 3,137. Campus officials noted that while white student submitted 8 percent more applications for fall 2006, in all other ethnic categories students submitted 16 percent to 32 percent more applications. They said that disparity might account for the drop in admissions among white students.
• The number of admitted underrepresented minority students - African Americans, American Indians and Chicano-Latinos - increased almost 8 percent to 1,564 for fall 2006 from 1,454 in fall 2005. These students comprise 16 percent of the fall 2006 freshman admitted class, up from 15 percent in fall 2005

"This represents another modest increase," said Robinson. "I am pleased, though not satisfied, with the increase. We will continue our best efforts to reach out to the top students in all of California's communities and encourage them to prepare themselves for a UC Berkeley education and to compete for a spot on this campus."

Students are evaluated for admission to UC Berkeley based on a combination of factors including grades, coursework, test scores, how they have handled challenges and opportunities, and indicators of personal characteristics including leadership, motivation and persistence. Additional admissions data is available online.