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By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA and UC Berkeley are clamping down on freshmen admits
““ most of them from the California homefront.
According to data released Thursday, UCLA and Berkeley each
admitted roughly 300 fewer students than last year, as the UC
reached an all-time high in number of applicants.
At UCLA, the restriction is a way to cope with the lack of
resources. Admissions director Vu Tran lowered the number of
admissions to keep the number of students intending to enroll at
UCLA in line with last year’s figure of 4,200.
The availability of state funds for campus resources, such as
classrooms and housing, will determine whether the target at UCLA
will persist in future years.
Fewer students were admitted in response to the rising number of
applicants and the possibility that more California residents will
want to stay local next year, Tran said.
“We took into consideration the Sept. 11 events, that
students may want to stay close at home,” he said. “The
economy is not as robust. Many families might have to reassess
their ability to pay.”
International and out-of-state admits ““ who pay nearly
triple in tuition ““ remain fairly consistent as California
residents have been turned away to smaller campuses such as UC
Davis, which admitted 16,970, and UC Riverside, which admitted
13,985.
Overall, the University of California experienced a 4.9 percent
growth spurt in California admits, increasing from 46,130 in 2001
to 48,369 in 2002.
This far exceeds the California Department of Education’s
projected growth rate of 1.9 percent for public high school
graduates.
“That growth rate outpaces California high school
(graduation rates),” said Hanan Eisenman, a spokesman for the
UC Office of the President. “Sometimes students have a choice
preference. That choice may not always be accessible to
them.”
The rational can be traced back to the systemwide need to cope
with Tidal Wave II, the expected influx of 60,000 students to UC
over the next several years.
To keep the university’s obligations as outlined in the
Partnership, the UC must accommodate the state’s top 12.5
percent of high school students. In return, the state is to give
the UC an annual 4 percent increase in funding.
Gov. Gray Davis only allocated a 1.5 percent funding increase
for next year, however, citing budgetary constraints.
The University is counting on the opening of UC Merced and
education abroad programs to ease the swelling at the nine existing
campuses.