Black Applicants Surge at the University of California

As has been the case with most of the nation’s highest-ranked universities, the number of freshman applications has increased significantly this year. Systemwide, applications to the University of California are up 9 percent from a year ago.

But the number of black applicants to the nine undergraduate campuses of the University of California is up 16.1 percent. Over the past two years, the number of blacks applying to the University of California has increased by more than 26 percent.

At the University of California at Berkeley, the most prestigious campus of the system, there are 1,984 black applicants this year, an increase of 9.4 percent from a year ago. At UCLA, black applicants are up 12.9 percent. The most dramatic increase was at the University of California at Santa Barbara. There, the number of black applicants rose from 1,292 in 2007 to 2,084 this year, an increase of 61.3 percent.

It is important to remember that all applicants to the University of California are considered without regard to race.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.