Campus Releases Admissions Data

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/19_falladmits.shtml

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 Expire - 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.

This is the applicant data: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/02/07_apply.shtml

Recruitment efforts pay off: Berkeley's fall 2006 applications set record

By Janet Gilmore, Media Relations | 07 February 2006

BERKELEY – When UC Berkeley admissions officials hit the road last fall to recruit the state's best and brightest high school students, their mantra was straightforward: We want you here. And have the courage to compete for a space in the freshman class.

Many students got the message. According to numbers released today (Tuesday, Feb. 7) by campus officials, more than 34,500 California students applied for admission to UC Berkeley's fall 2006 freshman class – a 12 percent increase over last year's numbers.

A record number of exceptionally talented students from across the state applied for admission here, including students from geographic areas that typically produce far fewer applicants. For example, campus officials saw a 21 percent increase in freshman applicants from students in the Central Valley and a 28 percent increase in applications from students in Southern California's Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

In addition, the statistics show an 18 percent increase in applications from students whose parents did not attend college and a 19 percent increase in applications from underrepresented minority students, Chicano-Latino, African American and Native American students. In fact, applications increased in every ethnic category.

Walter Robinson, the campus's director of undergraduate admissions, said admissions officials stepped up their recruitment efforts, and the work paid off. Seeking to reach new populations of talented students, admissions staff and students went to twice as many college fairs and high school visits last fall. They also partnered with alumni and lawmakers to hold receptions and other events that encourage students to learn more about UC Berkeley.

The new statistics show that, across the UC system, freshman applications from California residents increased approximately 8 percent.

Detailed statistics on UC Berkeley's application data and that of other campuses in the UC system are available online. The website includes data for both freshman and transfer applicants.

Being an undergraduate @ Cal- I feel deeply invested in admissions. If you notice the fine print in either of these articles, you will see that while minority applicants increased by 19 %, admits only increased by 8%. And if you take Mr. Robinson's word for it- that's only because white applicants decreased. What does this say about admissions policy?

Any statistics, as we all know, can be very tricky things. The statistics say overall admission increased by 12%. So if we get an increase of 19%, does that include the already mentioned 12%? So who knows what the percentages are of. I mean, if the population/immigration grows- then applications would grow. But then that 8% increase would not be representative of the actual population of California. Because Berkeley is a CA public school. And around 90-95% of all Undergrads are from CA.

[Tangent] Did you know that it is a misnomer to say people of color are minorities? That's because in CA, people of color are not the minority- collectively, we are the majority. Ok, if you look at the 2000 census- then it will say that whites are the majority (with 59.5%). But that is of reported figures. Considering how many people might not have reported (i.e. people who didn't understand the census, people not reached, people who chose not to do it, illegal immigrants who didn't want to report their status, transnational/state/region people)- that already seems like sketchy number. And considering birth and immigration rates...I'm pretty sure I am right about the majority minority (what an oxymoron) thing.

Well. Ok. All I am saying is that it isn't about the numbers. It isn't about how much recruitment or outreach you do. It matters who ends up going to Cal. That is the real test.

It matters how many people graduate with a Cal degree. I have a feeling undergrad retention is especially dicey when you look at "minorities".

And we're just limiting it to undergraduates. What about graduates? Faculty of color? I'm sure there are some great disparities there.

I know a staff member at Cal who often talks of the "glory days" of Affirmative Action @ Cal. I can imagine campus was a different place. Ok, no I can't imagine because I live here in this time period.

I read And We Are Not Saved by Derrick Bell. One chapter talked about affirmative action. About how it was a quota system. A system to assuage the guilt of white oppression by fulfilling a numbers game.

I know numbers are as good a place to start as any. But it seems so difficult to undertake any plan of Affirmative Action. I want to live in a world where I feel safe in my own skin, in my own school, around people of diverse views. Yet, I still have trouble seeing what that would be like or how one would go about it.

And secondly, I wonder why "Filipino" gets its own box in the admissions application. Does that have something to do with Affirmative Action? But why, if they do seperate these ethnic/national categories- they combine them again for applicant/admit statistics.