UCSB HAS OFFERED a place in its fall 2010 entering class to a total of 19,721 high school seniors. The prospective freshmen were selected from a total of 46,700 applicants — the second-largest applicant pool in UCSB’s history. The campus expects its fall 2010 entering class to number about 3,900.

Both the academic qualifications and the diversity of the applicant class accepted by UCSB continue to be at very high levels. The average high school grade point average of applicants admitted is above 4.10, and more than half of all admitted applicants are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.

Admission to UCSB is becoming increasingly competitive. While in recent years around 50 percent of all freshman applicants were accepted, this year just 42 percent were offered a place in next fall’s entering class.

At press time, applications from 12,320 students seeking to transfer to UCSB were still under review, with decisions to be announced soon. Transfer applications this year were up 2,235 over last year, an increase of 22 percent.

Acceptance letters were sent in mid-March, and applicants could check their admission status via a protected Web site. Freshman applicants who have been accepted by any UC campus had until May 1 to submit a Statement of Intent to Register.

A total of 2,428 freshman applicants to UCSB are now on the waitlist. Decisions on their applications will be made by mid-May.

Led by Chancellor Henry T. Yang, UCSB officials and faculty and staff members have been working to ensure that the class enrolled this fall is the campus’s most talented and diverse ever. In March, Yang served as the host of a well-attended reception in Los Angeles for high-achieving applicants. At this event, volunteers from the campus — faculty and staff members, as well as alumni and students — met with applicants and their family members to answer questions about academic programs, student life, financial aid, and other topics.

Despite California Department of Finance projections that high school graduation rates in 2010 would remain the same as in 2009, the UC system received a record 134,029 applications — 100,320 from freshman applicants and 33,709 from transfer applicants. All UC undergraduate campuses experienced increases in both categories. At UCSB, campus leaders acknowledge the challenges posed by such a large applicant pool, especially after having absorbed far more freshmen and transfer students — about 1,500 total — in the 2009-10 academic year than had been projected. Nonetheless, they say that UCSB is working to ensure that the size of the entering class does not adversely affect the quality of the educational experience offered to students, or prevent students from enrolling in the classes they want and need.

Reflecting those considerations, Admissions Director Christine Van Gieson said the target number of 3,900 freshmen that UCSB expects to enroll in the fall will be 700 fewer than actually enrolled in 2009, while the 1,500 new transfer students it enrolls will be 350 fewer.

The average total score achieved by applicants admitted by UCSB on the required SATR Test was 1909 out of a possible 2400, up from 1877 last year. The average high school grade point average of applicants admitted is above 4.10, up from 4.01 last year.

Of all applicants admitted, 90 percent, or 17,744, are enrolled in California high schools. Among those California students, members of underrepresented minority groups (African-American, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino students) totaled 4,614, or 26.0 percent, down slightly from 26.1 percent last year. Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until after admissions decisions are made.

Admissions statistics for all nine UC undergraduate campuses are posted on the UC Office of the President Web site at <www.ucop.edu/news/studstaff.html>.