The University of California system admitted an all-time record number of freshmen and transfer students for the 2019-2020 academic year, while UC Santa Barbara saw a slight decline in the number of admissions, bringing the admit rate to 29.7%. 

27,719 students were offered admission out of the 93,423 freshman applications for the fall of 2019, compared to the 29,782 accepted out of 92,294 applications last year for fall of 2018.

Out of a pool of 176,695 applicants, 108,178 students were admitted as incoming freshmen across the nine UC campuses ⁠— the highest number in the system’s history and a change that comes as the system prepares to enroll an additional 2,500 Californian undergraduates for 2019-2020 across its campuses. 

The number of in-state applications in this year’s pool decreased slightly for the first time in several years, the Nexus reported in February. 

“The best and the brightest young minds continue to make UC their university of choice,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in a press release. “I am pleased to welcome all of these remarkable students this year.” 

The UC system overall offered admission to 28,752 transfer students in 2019, virtually identical to the  28,755 students admitted last year. The admissions rate for transfer students from California Community Colleges remained at 76%. 

UCSB saw a decline in the number of transfer students offered admission, from 10,139 in 2018 to 9,457 in 2019.

Asian American students remain the largest percentage of admitted in-state freshmen at UCSB, making up 39% of the 2019 pool, an increase of 1% from last year. This is accompanied by a 2% increase in the number of admitted Latinx students, who make up 28%. Both groups of admits have slowly been growing in numbers since 2017. 

Additionally, white students made up 25% of this year’s admitted in-state freshmen at UCSB, down from 26% last year, while the percentage of African American and Native American students admitted remained the same at 4% and 1% respectively. 

Approximately 40% of UCSB’s in-state admissions in 2019 are first-generation college students, down 1% from last year. 

There was also a 1% decrease in the number of total admitted freshmen and transfer students who are considered low-income, at 39% of in-state admissions this year. Approximately 35% of admitted freshmen are low-income, compared to 50% of admitted transfer students. 

According to the UC Office of the President, this data is subject to change as admits off the waitlist and conditional offers are processed in the coming months. The office will release the final enrollment data for all campuses in December 2019. 

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