The University of California, Santa Barbara, has offered 21,557 high school seniors at spot at the university for the fall quarter 2009. The prospective UCSB freshmen were selected from a total of 44,692 applicants – the second largest applicant pool in UCSB history. The campus expects its fall 2009 entering class to number about 4,100.

Both the academic qualifications and the diversity of the applicant class accepted by UCSB continue to be at very high levels. The average high school grade point average of applicants admitted is above 4.0, and more than half of all admitted applicants are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.

Applications from 10,085 students seeking to transfer to UCSB are still under review, with decisions to be announced by the end of April.

While admission to UCSB is always very competitive, it was made even more so this year by a reduction in planned enrollment for fall at UCSB and other campuses in the UC system. In light of state budget reductions, the UC Board of Regents elected to curtail freshman enrollment and increase the number of transfer students. As a result, the target number of 4,100 freshmen that UCSB expects to enroll in the fall will be 300 fewer than last year, while the 1,700 new transfer students it enrolls will be 100 more than last year.

Transfer applications to UCSB this year were up 1,239 over last year, an increase of 14 percent. “We have worked to increase our engagement with California’s community colleges and their students, and the increase in applications shows that those efforts are succeeding,” said UCSB Admissions Director Christine Van Gieson.

All of the UC undergraduate campuses are releasing admissions statistics this week. The UC Office of the President is posting systemwide statistics on its Web site at http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2009adm.html.

UCSB freshman acceptance letters were mailed in mid-March, and applicants were also able to check their admission status via a protected Web site. Applicants who have been accepted by any UC campus have until May 1 to submit a Statement of Intent to Register.

The average total score achieved by applicants admitted by UCSB on the required SATR Test was 1877 out of a possible 2400, up from 1872 last year. The average high school grade point average of applicants accepted by UCSB was 4.01, compared with 4.03 last year.

Of all applicants admitted, 51.8 percent identified themselves as members of a racial or ethnic minority group – up from 49.9 percent last year. Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until after admission decisions are made.