Number of Black Students Accepted at the University of California, Berkeley Drops

In the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state-imposed bans on race-sensitive admissions at public universities, the University of California system released data on acceptance rates for Black and other minorities students. In 1996, voters in California enacted a ban on the consideration of race in university admissions decisions. Earlier this year an effort to end the ban in the state legislature was shelved after objections were raised by the Asian-American community.

African Americans make up nearly 7 percent of the California population but are only 4.2 percent of all students from California admitted to the Class of 2018 at the nine undergraduate campuses in the system. This is an identical percentage from a year ago.

At the flagship campus of the University of California at Berkeley, 287 African American students from California were admitted to the freshman class, compared to 333 a year ago. Blacks make up 3.4 percent of all admitted students to the first-year class from California. A year ago, African Americans made up 3.6 percent of all students admitted to the entering class from California.

If we include students from out of state, 392 African Americans were admitted to the Class of 2018. This is down from 417 a year ago. African Americans are 3.2 percent of all admitted students to the freshman class, compared to 3.5 percent a year ago.