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By Rachel Makabi
Daily Bruin Reporter
More than 95,000 University of California hopefuls submitted
applications this year for fall 2002 enrollment ““ a 3.4
percent increase from last year ““ according to figures
released by the UC Office of the President Wednesday.
The UC experienced an influx of applicants over the past two
years from different ethnic groups within California, including a
22 percent increase in African-American applicants, a 25.8 percent
increase in Chicano applicants and a 20 percent increase in Latino
applicants.
But despite the rise in the total number of applicants, the
rates of increase in every ethnic group ““ except Latinos and
whites ““ dropped.
Thus, while the total number of applications from
underrepresented groups has increased, the growth rate is
slowing.
For example, even though the number of African-American
applicants from California increased by 267 from 2001 to this year,
the number is smaller than the increase of 325 African-American
applicants a year before.
UCOP admissions media coordinator, Hanan Eisenmen, said he is
pleased with the increase and is not concerned that the growth rate
is decreasing.
“Our real thrill here is that there is still a great
interest in the UC,” Eisenmen said. “I wouldn’t
want to speculate about little fluctuations, especially when the
numbers are so new.”
Eisenmen attributed the increase in applicants to new UC
policies. Comprehensive review, which passed in November, takes an
applicant’s personal achievements and challenges into greater
account. The UC’s admission of the top 4 percent of high
school graduates is another prime factor in increased applications,
Eisenman said.
But the number of out-of-state students applying to the UC has
dropped by 2.2 percent in the past year.
UCLA director of undergraduate admissions and relations with
schools, Vu Tran, said he does not think the decrease in
out-of-state applicants has affected the quality of the application
pool at UCLA.
“California is a large state and attracts a wide range of
students. As it is, we have to turn away many qualified
students,” Tran said, adding that though 90 percent of
applicants to UCLA meet minimum requirements for acceptance, only
26.8 percent get accepted.
Out of 95,000 applicants to the UC, close to 43,000 sent their
applications to UCLA ““ a 6.5 percent increase from last year
that has made UCLA the most applied to college in the nation for
the fifth consecutive year.