Record Number Of High School Seniors Apply To Enroll At UC Berkeley
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- More than 128,100 students, a 13 percent increase over last year's record-breaking number, have applied for enrollment at the University of California Berkeley, university officials announced Thursday.
While the number of applicants coming from high school seniors soared this year, officials said transfer student applications dropped to about 19,300. The decrease, they say, was likely the result of the state community colleges pandemic-related decline in enrollment.
"In a year where we saw application numbers across the nation decline, the entire UC saw increases," said Olufemi Ogundele, UC Berkeley's associate vice chancellor of enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admissions. "Here at Berkeley, we saw even more of an increase than our peers. The diversity of our applicant pool continues to be strong, and we remain a top choice for incredibly talented scholars."
The most significant increases in UC Berkeley applications among freshman and transfer applicants combined included Native American applications were up 50%; Filipino were up 15% and Hispanic up about 14%.
Regarding gender identity, UC officials said, there was a 134% increase in applicants who identified as genderqueer/gender non-conforming.
But there is a shadow being cast over this year's admissions cycle. UC Berkeley is currently fighting a court order that would freeze enrollment to 2020-21 levels. That translates into at least 5,100 fewer offers of admission to freshman and transfer applicants hoping to enroll on campus this fall.
The problem dates back to 2005 when UC Berkeley submitted a long-range campus plan with projected enrollment numbers and studied the effect under CEQA - the California Environmental Quality Act.
"The actual levels of enrollment are much higher than the levels of enrollment that Berkeley anticipated in 2005 and studied," said Prof. Dave Owen of UC Hastings College of the Law.
Neighbors like Phil Bokovoy from Save Berkeley Neighborhoods say the deviation from the 2005 enrollment plan is illegal and obtained a court order to reduce enrollment levels this year to alleviate the housing crisis in Berkeley.
"It's a huge, huge problem," said Bokovoy. "You've seen the homeless encampments in Berkeley. The judge found that the university's enrollment growth had really contributed to these problems with housing and displacement. Our gripe is that the university should not be adding students unless they are also adding housing."
The university says the ruling could drop acceptance rates down to the single digits.
UC Berkeley's freshman admissions decisions will be announced toward the end of March. Transfer decisions will be posted in mid-to-late April.
