Under pressure, UC admits a record number of Californians; racial diversity remains strong

Los Angeles Times

3 days ago

UC admitted its largest class of California undergraduates for fall 2025, while also maintaining a diverse student body and increasing the number of students who are the first-generation in their family to attend college, according to preliminary data released Monday.
The University of California also offered admission to 17% more undergraduate international students, a group which has come under scrutiny from the Trump administration with increased vetting and visa delays.
The strategy in raising international student admits took into account that UC raised nonresident tuition fees last year and that White House actions will likely mean fewer foreigners will decide to study in the U.S. in the fall. The bigger pool of admission offers aims to capture a large enough group of students who will enroll and bring the international diversity UC values — as well boost coffers with the full-price tuition paid by non-California residents.
Overall, UC admitted 100,947 first-year California students, up more than 7% from last year. The number represents the largest admitted class to the nation's premier public university system as leaders address public demands to give more seats to Californians — despite the allure of charging higher tuition to out-of-state students during tough budgetary times.
UC is grappling with a hiring freeze, layoffs, deferred state funding, campus-level structural deficits, potentially costly union contract negotiations and talk of tuition increases. Questions loom over billions in federal grants amid Trump administration claw-backs and multiple federal government investigations probing allegations regarding antisemitism, use of race in admissions and sources of foreign funding.
The system-wide admission rate for California first-year students — even taking in highly competitive campuses including UCLA and Berkeley — increased to 77% from 70% last year. Overall, UC offered seats to 180,382 first-year and transfer students from California and other states and nations.
At UCLA, the nation's most applied-to university, the admit rate remained roughly the same at 9%. UCLA offered admission to 8,575 California first-year applicants for fall 2025, down by more than 200 students over last year. Like in previous years, the number represented the smallest set of offers among UC campuses.
Monday's data focused only on admitted students — not those who will end up accepting offers and enroll. Thus, the numbers are higher than campus capacities.
'We continue to experience significant growth — a clear indication that Californians recognize the value of a UC degree,' said outgoing UC President Michael V. Drake. 'Our latest admissions numbers demonstrate that families across our state recognize that UC degrees prepare students for a lifetime of meaningful contributions in their communities and far beyond.'
Drake, a physician, will leave his role at the end of July to return to research and teaching. James B. Milliken, the former University of Texas Chancellor, will replace him.
'Creating pathways to a UC education for a wide range of top California students yields benefits not only for those students, but for the state at large,' said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, UC associate vice provost and executive director for undergraduate admissions. 'We are proud to offer these exceptional young people a place at the University of California.'
The data released Monday continues years-long UC trends of increasing racial diversity, first-generation students, those from lower-income families, and transfers from California community colleges.
In recent years, UC has touted the racial and ethnic mix of its admitted students as a better reflection of California demographics — even as diversity programs nationwide have come under political and legal attack, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.
In California, Proposition 209, approved by voters in 1997, bans the consideration of race in admission to public education institutions. Over the years UC has moved to recruit a diversity of students and in the early 2000s, launched two major reforms. One focuses on an admission guarantee to top-performing students statewide and at most California high schools. The other evaluates applicants using a comprehensive review process — including special talents, how a student compares to peers in their high school, and geographic location — in addition to grades and coursework.
This year, as the Trump administration has criticized campus diversity programs, UC's messaging around admissions has been quieter about race. A press release on admissions data did not refer to the racial make-up of admitted students, as it has in the past several years — although racial data was included in detailed admissions tables.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration said it was investigating UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine of using 'illegal DEI' in admissions and suggested the system's faculty diversity goals amounted to race-based hiring discrimination. The Justice Department zeroed in on a 'UC 2030 Capacity Plan' that charts out desires to increase diversity among graduate students and faculty, including adding 1,100 tenure-track faculty.
UC has vigorously defended it admissions practices and said it abides by state and federal laws.
Monday's UC data showed increases in admits of all racial groups: Black, Latino, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, white and 'unknown.' The growth happened despite the total applicant pool declining slightly — by less than 1% — to 249,824.
For the sixth consecutive year, Latinos were the largest group of admitted first-year California students, primarily because of their high numbers accepted by UC Merced and UC Riverside.
At the other seven undergraduate campuses, Asian Americans were the leading admitted group.
Overall, Latinos made up 39% of first-year Californians admitted, followed by Asian Americans at 33%, white students at 18%, Black students at 6%, Native Americans at roughly 1% — or 604 people — and Pacific Islanders at less than 1% with 294 people.
As it was last year — following national trends in higher education — women admits outweighed men. Across UC campuses, 54% of admits for the fall were women, 42% were men. In addition, 1% were nonbinary, less than 1% each were transgender men or women, and 3% were of a different or unknown gender identity. UC Berkeley and Davis, where 57% of admits were women, had the biggest gender divides.
While UC's overall admission data showed increases in the number of students offered slots, the campus-by-campus data varied widely.
Most campuses only increased admits by a few hundred or few thousand students. The bulk of admissions growth was dominated by UC Merced and UC Riverside.
At Merced, UC's newest campus, overall admissions grew more than 60% to 50,662 from 31,585 last year. At Riverside, admissions jumped greater than 38% from 51,345 to 71,069.
Part of the increase reflected targeted recruiting for those campuses, Yoon-Wu said in an interview.
'One of the changes this year was focusing on students who perhaps were not familiar with those two campuses and getting them in as applicants early on,' she said.
Merced saw the biggest growth in applications this year with a 45% increase to to 51,745. The second-biggest increase was at Riverside, jumping 18% to 82,904.
Both campuses have been expanding and do not face the same restrictions of some high-profile UCs that are surrounded by dense urban areas with relatively high housing costs, such as UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Riverside, which is undergoing housing expansion, aims to enroll 35,000 students by 2035 — an increase of roughly 9,000 from last fall. Merced has a enrollment goal of 15,000 by 2030, which would be a growth of roughly 6,000 from last fall.
Merced and Riverside campuses also have the highest admission rates in UC and are among the most diverse when it comes to race, first-generation status and student income levels.
In addition, the campuses also have low yield rates — the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll. At Merced, the overall first-year student yield rate last year was 7%. At Riverside, it was 12%.
Systemwide, the number of low income students and those who are the first in their family to attend college was relativity stable. Low income students made up 42% of the admitted first-year California class, a 1% increase over last year. First generation students also made up 42%, a 1% decrease.
The system made gains in expanding access to California Community College transfer applicants. It offered admission to 27,845 — 5.9% more than last year.
UC began adding more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition, after funding cuts during the Great Recession. In recent years, under public pressure and amid state budget deals, it has steadily increased California admissions and enrollment.
The latest admissions data showed an increase of 2,150 first-year admission offers to 26,191 — a growth of 9% — students who are residents of other states. At the same time, 3,263 more first-year international students were offered seats, an increase of 17% over last year.
UC said that both numbers were higher due to 'rising uncertainty of their likelihood of enrollment' and noted that share of accepted students in the groups who choose to enroll is generally 'substantially lower' than that of California residents.
Yoon-Wu said there were 'many factors' that contributed to the system wanting a larger pool of nonresident admits. She noted that that cost of being a non-Californian at UC has gone up. Last fall, the UC Board of Regents approved a 10% increase of the 'nonresident' tuition fee from $34,200 to $37,602.
'This year, there is more uncertainty about how people are feeling about higher education,' Yoon-Wu said, adding that changes in the Trump administration are 'definitely' a factor on student minds. 'Luckily for the University of California, we have proven that getting a degree from UC is a valuable decision.'