UC Santa Barbara received almost 130,000 applications for freshman and transfer students for fall 2022 as the entire University of California System saw a record-breaking number of applicants.
The UCSB Office of Admissions experienced a 5% increase in freshman applications this year compared to last year, with 110,995 received, and a 14% decline in transfer applications with 17,598 received.
The transfer applications, which are still being reviewed, include 1,006 from Santa Barbara City College students — 100 fewer than the previous year.
UCSB admissions sent out decisions for freshman applications last week during the campus’ spring break, said Shelly Leachman with the Public Affairs Office, but the size and demographics of the incoming class won’t be finalized until May since it’s still unknown which students will accept and what will happen with the waitlist.
“We were conservative with our initial offers to ensure we don’t over-enroll,” admissions staff told Noozhawk in an email. “We will rely on our waitlist to fill any remaining space we might have after May 1.”
The UC System has dropped the SAT and ACT standardized tests from admissions requirements (and the California State University System has decided to do the same), but it is unclear whether that’s a driving force behind the increased admissions, according to UCSB.
“As we already noted, applications from freshmen increased 5% this year but we cannot at this point be certain if that is because we’ve eliminated the use of exams for selection, or if more students planned to return to college as conditions of the pandemic seemed to be improving, (or a combination of both),” according to the admissions office.
Demographic information for applicants shows that 66% of them were from California, 83% from the United States and 17% were international, the admissions office said.
Admissions officials say 35% of California applicants are first-generation college students and 41% of California applicants are low-family-income students.
Self-reported demographic information for fall 2022 freshman applicants by race and ethnicity shows 36% are Asian-American, 30% Chicano/Latino, 26% white, 5% African-American, 1% American Indian, fewer than 1% are Pacific Islander and 3% declined to state.
UCSB currently has about 24,030 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in on-campus programs. The university has about 10,700 beds for students and 592 family housing units on and off the campus.
Concerns about enrollment growth and pressures on local housing have prompted lawsuits and community criticism.
The City of Goleta, UCSB’s neighbor to the north, has filed a lawsuit alleging the school violated its 2010 Long Range Development Plan settlement agreement, which assured the campus’ enrollment growth would be done along with constructing more on-campus housing.
UCSB’s plan for increased student housing is a mostly windowless mega-dormitory that has prompted widespread criticism over the design.
Students saw a worse-than-usual housing crunch last year, partially due to short notice that the university was making the transition from remote-only classes back to in-person classes. The final word came in July, two months before classes started, and many students could not find housing in time.
UCSB put up some students in local hotels as a temporary measure for the fall and winter academic quarters.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.