Undergraduate applications to UC Santa Barbara for fall 2008 have reached new heights: a total of 55,871 applicants—prospective first-year students and transfers. The total is 7,143 more than last year­ and is the largest one-year increase in applications that UCSB has ever recorded.

Of this number, 47,025 applications were for freshman positions, a 15 percent rise from last year, and 8,846 were from those seeking to transfer to UCSB. Transfers rose across the system’s general campuses, but UCSB alone saw a nearly 13 percent increase.

A growing recognition of the academic excellence of UC Santa Barbara and its programs is seen as the principal reason for the surge in applications, according to Admissions Director Christine Van Gieson. She noted that the overall increase in applications is part of a national trend among top institutions. “But in our case, the campus’s outstanding academic offerings and the achievements of our faculty are what help attract the interest of more and more prospective students,” she said.

UCSB has a target enrollment of 4,200 first-year students for next fall and an estimated 1,400 transfer students. Decisions on freshman applications will be made by mid-March, and on transfer applications in April.

Overall, applications to the UC system increased 9.2 percent. These included increases from California residents, out-of-state applicants, and international students.

The UC Office of the President has posted current statistics on undergraduate applications to all UC campuses on its Web site at <http://www.ucop.edu/news/studstaff.html>. A few details from that data include the fact that Californians accounted for 92 percent of UCSB’s undergraduate applicant pool.

Measured by grades and test scores, the academic quality of that pool remains strong. Of the applicants for the entering class, 14,584, or 31 percent, have a high-school Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0 or higher.

The SAT exam was changed substantially for students applying to enroll in the fall of 2006 or later. Applicants now 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 was 1744 out of a possible 2400, down 12 points from last year.