Number of applicants continues to decline
By Van-Anh Tran
Feb. 7, 2005 9:00 p.m.
For the second straight year, the number of UCLA applicants has
dropped, even though the University of California experienced a
record high of over 100,000 applicants for the 2005-2006 school
year.
According to statistics released by the UC Office of the
President last week, UCLA received a total of 55,205 applications,
a 3 percent drop from the previous year. Overall, the number of
applicants to the UC system rose by 0.9 percent to 100,138,
including those who applied to more than one campus.
“This is the second year in a row that the freshman
(applicant number) has dropped, but the academic quality of the
applicant pool has increased,” said UCLA Director of
Admissions Vu Tran.
The academic averages of UCLA applicants for the next school
year experienced increases across the board, including an increase
in weighted GPA to 3.87 from last year’s 3.84, an increase in
the number of honors and advancement placement courses and an
increase in SAT I and SAT II scores.
The higher quality of UCLA applicants’ academic profiles
has increased the difficulty of the admission process.
“I expected a slight drop in applications because we have
become more selective in terms of admissions,” Tran said.
UCLA recently surpassed UC Berkeley’s status as the most
selective campus, with UCLA admitting only 15.5 percent compared to
UC Berkeley’s 16.5 percent for fall 2004.
Though the UC experienced recent funding cuts, they expect to be
able to accommodate all qualified California high school graduates
in the system, as stated in the state’s guiding Master Plan
for Higher Education, said UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina.
UCLA is also trying to increase the number of applicant
minorities.
“We’re trying to increase the number of applications
from underrepresented and high-quality students,” Tran
said.
The number of black California high school seniors who meet UC
requirements has increased by about 10 percent over the past few
years. But despite a 2.1 percent rise in the number of black
applicants to UC campuses, UCLA saw a dip in its applicants for the
second year in a row.
Latino students posted the highest increase in the UC system
with an increase of 5.9 percent from last year and a total increase
of 11 percent since 2003.
But because fewer students refused to disclose their ethnicity
than in the previous year, the numbers did not indicate whether the
gains for minorities were the result of an increase in applications
or an increased willingness of applicants to specify their
race.
The numbers of high school seniors applying to the UC system
remains about the same from past years despite the decrease in
applicants to UCLA.
“We push the top students to apply to the UCs, but I
haven’t seen a drastic change in applications from past years
or dissatisfaction with the UC schools from students,” said
Loren Drake, counselor of Fairfax High School of Los Angeles
Unified School District.
Despite the drop, UCLA officials are not worried.
“Overall, we are very happy with the applicant pool,”
Tran said.
With reports from Brian Holbrook, Bruin
contributor.
