UC Santa Barbara has offered a place in its fall 2007 entering class to a record 22,168 high school seniors. The prospective UCSB freshmen were selected from a pool of 40,912 applicants. The fall 2007 entering class will be approximately 4,200.

Applications from 7,896 students seeking to transfer to campus are under review, with decisions to be announced in May. UCSB expects to enroll some 1,450 transfer students in the fall.

Both the academic qualifications and the diversity of the class of applicants accepted are at record high levels. Of those admitted, 93.3 percent, or 20,690, are enrolled in California high schools.

Chancellor Henry T. Yang said success in attracting an outstanding applicant pool was the product of “the concerted efforts of my colleagues in every department on our campus.” He noted that UCSB was now focused on working to ensure that the class it enrolls in the fall will be the campus’s most talented and diverse ever.

Over the past month, Yang served as the host of several well-attended UCSB receptions in the Bay Area, Orange County, and Los Angeles for high-achieving applicants and their family members.

Christine Van Gieson, director of admissions, encouraged admitted students to visit the campus. “This is an exciting time for accepted students and their families, as students explore their college choices and prepare to make important decisions about their future,” she said.

“We enjoy welcoming them to the campus during April.”

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.

The UC Office of the President has posted systemwide statistics on the World Wide Web at <http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2007adm.html>.

The average high school Grade Point Average of the applicants admitted by UCSB was 3.98, compared with 3.97 last year. The average total score on the required SATR Test was 1866 out of a possible 2400, up from 1864 last year.

Of all applicants admitted, 47.3 percent identified themselves as members of a racial or ethnic minority group—up from 47.1 percent last year. Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until after all admission decisions are made.

Among those students, members of underrepresented minority groups (African-American, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino students) account for 21.6 percent, up from 21.1 percent last year. The total number of California applicants from all underrepresented minority groups combined who were accepted was 4,444, or 383 more than last year, an increase of 9.4 percent.