The University of California, Santa Barbara has offered a place in its fall 2006 entering class to a total of 20,644 high school seniors. The prospective UCSB freshmen were selected from a pool of 39,838 applicants.
Applications from 8,065 students seeking to transfer to UC Santa Barbara are still under review, with decisions to be announced in May. The campus expects to enroll some 1,400 transfer students in the fall.
Both the academic quality and diversity of the class of applicants accepted appear to be among the strongest ever for UC Santa Barbara.
UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang said the campus's success in attracting a highly qualified and very diverse applicant pool was the result of the "determined efforts of many people and every department" on the campus. "As in every year at this time, my UC Santa Barbara colleagues and I are now working diligently to ensure that the class that we enroll in the fall will be our most talented and diverse ever."
All of the UC undergraduate campuses are releasing admissions statistics today. The UC Office of the President is posting systemwide statistics on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2006adm.html
UCSB freshman acceptance letters were mailed in mid-March. Applicants also were able to learn if they were admitted 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. UCSB expects its fall 2006 entering class to number approximately 4,000.
"I'm pleased that we were able to offer admission to an additional 1,000 applicants this year," said Christine Van Gieson, UCSB director of admissions. "These students are among the most talented that UCSB has admitted, and we look forward to welcoming an outstanding freshman class in the fall."
The average high school Grade Point Average was 3.98, compared with 3.99 last year.
The SAT examination was changed substantially for students applying to enroll in fall 2006 or later. Applicants now must take the SAT Reasoning Test, which is made up of three sections: Reading, Mathematics, and Writing (as opposed to two sections, Math and Verbal, in the past). The average total score on the required SATR Test of the applicants admitted by UCSB was 1849 out of a possible 2400. The averages for the three component parts were: SATR Math, 630; SATR Reading, 608; SATR Writing, 611.
Of all applicants admitted to UCSB, 48 percent identified themselves as members of a racial or ethnic minority group – up from 46 percent last year. Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until after all admission decisions are made.
Of those admitted, 94 percent, or 19,229, are enrolled in California high schools. Among those students, members of underrepresented minority groups (African-American, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino students) account for 21.1 percent, up from 20 percent last year. The total number of California applicants from all underrepresented minority groups combined who were accepted by UCSB was 4,061, or 387 more than last year, an increase of 10.5 percent. The 3,456 Chicano and Latino applicants accepted were 356 more than last year. The number of African-American students admitted was three fewer than last year. American Indian applicants who were accepted totaled 34 more than the previous year.
UCSB faculty and staff members as well as students and alumni are now involved in a variety of activities aimed at making personal contact with applicants who have been accepted, talking to them about the campus and the opportunities it offers, and answering questions.
Last month Chancellor Yang served as the host of several very successful and well-attended UCSB receptions in the Bay Area, Orange County, and Los Angeles. At each of these four weekend events, volunteers from the campus – faculty and staff members, students, administrators, and alumni – met with high-achieving applicants and their family members to discuss UCSB and its programs and opportunities.
In addition, this year's open house for admitted students and their families, called "Spring Insight," drew 5,000 visitors to the UC Santa Barbara campus on April 8. Record numbers of visitors have taken part in weekday and Saturday tours of UCSB during the first half of April.
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