UC Santa Barbara Receives 68,331 Applications for Fall 2012

The total number of applications is 5,028 more than last year, an increase of 7.9 percent.

Of the total:

54,807 applications were from prospective first-year students –– 5,792 more than last year, an increase of 11.8 percent.
13,524 were from applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB –– 764 fewer than last year, a decrease of 5.3 percent.

The UC system received a record 160,939 applications –– 126,299 from freshman applicants and 34,640 from transfer applicants. All nine UC undergraduate campuses experienced increases in freshman applicants. With the exception of UC Merced, all UC undergraduate campuses experienced decreases in transfer applicants. The UC Office of the President today posted statistics on undergraduate applications to all campuses on its web site.

UC Santa Barbara has target enrollments of 4,350 first-year students and 1,650 transfer students for the fall, a small increase over last year’s enrollment.

The campus’s director of admissions, Christine Van Gieson, said she was extremely pleased by the academic quality and diversity of this year’s applicant pool. “These extraordinary results are the result both of our strong campus leadership and of the hard work and dedication of our faculty, students, alumni, and staff members,” she said.

Applicants for the Fall 2012 Freshman Class

The total number of applications received by UCSB for the freshman class is 5,792 more than last year, an increase of 11.8 percent. All campuses in the UC system experienced increases in applications from prospective first-year students this year. Over all, freshman applications to the UC system increased by 19.1 percent. The system saw increases from California residents, out-of-state applicants, and international students.

Admission Applications

Of the 126,299 prospective freshmen applying to one or more UC campuses, close to half of them (43.4 percent) included UCSB among the campuses to which they applied.
Non-resident applicants to UCSB totaled 3,572, an increase of nearly 77 percent over last year. Non-resident applicants to the UC system were up 56 percent overall.
Californians account for 84 percent of UCSB’s freshman applicant pool.

Academic Quality of Prospective Freshmen

The academic quality of UCSB’s applicant pool, as measured by grades and test scores, remains strong. Of the 54,807 applicants for the entering class, 17,128, or 31 percent, have a high-school Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0 or higher.
The average GPA of all freshman applicants is 3.72.
The average total score on the three-part SAT exam is 1,748 (down 19 points from last year). The SAT average among all applicants to UC was down 22 points.

Diversity of Applicants for the Fall 2012 Freshman Class

Over all, the number of applications from members of underrepresented minority groups increased by 2,033, or 13.3 percent. The increase in applications from African-Americans was the greatest, at 532, or 21.5 percent over 2011. UCSB received a total of 17,338 freshman applications from African-American, American Indian, and Chicano and Latino applicants combined. This total represents 32 percent of the applicant pool.
60 percent of all applicants for the UCSB freshman class are members of a racial or ethnic minority group. (Individual applicants to UC are not identified to the campuses by race or ethnicity until all admission decisions have been made.)
International applicants number 4,108 — an increase of 102 percent over last year.

Transfer Applicants

90 percent of the 13,524 applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB are currently enrolled in a California community college.
The total number of transfer applications was 764 fewer than last year, a decrease of 5.3 percent. All UC undergraduate campuses except Merced saw a decrease in transfer applications.
A total of 2,705 transfer applications were received from members of underrepresented minority groups, a six percent decrease (213 applicants) over last year. Members of underrepresented minority groups accounted for 25 percent of all transfer applicants this year.