The University of California accepted a record number of freshmen applicants this year at its nine undergraduate campuses, totaling 55,242 admissions UC-wide.

The UC system accepted 5,225 more freshmen for Fall 2006 than it did for Fall 2005, a UC press release stated. Of the applicants, 78.2 percent were admitted into at least one UC campus, as opposed to 76.3 percent in Fall 2005 and 73.3 percent in Fall 2004, when state budget cuts forced the UC system to accept fewer students than in previous years. The average applicant submitted transcripts to 3.6 UC campuses.

According to the UC press release, all of the UC campuses accepted more applicants than last year, with UC Merced having the lowest increase at 118 additional admissions and UC Davis having the highest at 3,507. UCSB increased its total admissions by 1.1 percent, accepting 835 more potential freshmen than it did last year.

The University increased its total admissions by 10.4 percent. An additional 3,534 students were offered winter or spring admission, while another 6,257 applicants were offered admission to UC campuses for which they had not applied by way of a referral process. Nearly nine out of every 10 admitted students are California residents. About 6,143 out-of-state and international students were also admitted into the UC.

The average grade point average (GPA) of admitted freshmen UC-wide was 3.78. UC Berkeley had the highest average GPA at 4.17, while UC Merced had the lowest average GPA at 3.58. The average GPA for admitted UCSB freshmen is 3.9.

Notably, admitted students scored lower on the math and verbal sections of the SAT this year, averaging a UC-wide 1195 for Fall 2006, as opposed to a 1214 in Fall 2005 and a 1210 in Fall 2004 admissions. The Fall 2006 applicants were the first students to take the new SAT test, which includes a writing section.

The University also increased its admission numbers of underrepresented students such as African Americans, American Indians and Chicano/Latinos, by 1.1 percent, according to the press release. UC-wide, underrepresented minorities constitute 21.7 percent of the Fall 2006 admissions.

Admitted students have until May 1 to make their Fall 2006 enrollment decisions. The UC press release statistics represent the number of admissions up to March 30.