UC Davis to accept more in-state freshman, transfer students for Fall 2016.
UC Davis received 86,041 undergraduate admissions applications for Fall 2016, making it the highest number of applications on campus record.
The number of freshman applicants grew by 6.1 percent from last year, totaling to 68,519 applications, and transfer student applications rose by 14.2 percent, for a total of 17,522 applications. Overall, UC Davis saw a 7.6 percent increase in applicants compared to 2015.
UC Davis also received a 4.5 percent increase in applications from California residents this year, with 80 percent of this year’s freshman applications coming from in-state, and more than 81 percent of transfer applicants coming from California community colleges.
“We are really pleased that UC Davis has attracted so many excellent applicants truly representative of our state and the world-class university we are,” Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said in a statement.
For the 2016-2017 academic year, the UC Office of the President asked UC Davis to enroll 1,000 more California residents. This request is in accordance with a state legislature enrollment plan that provided the UC with $25 million in an effort to increase the enrollment of California undergraduates by 5,000 for the upcoming school year, including an additional 5,000 by 2018.
In addition to receiving more California applicants this year, UC Davis also saw an increase in historically underrepresented students for Fall 2016. African American, American Indian and Chicano/Latino applicants now represent 35.1 percent of California freshman applicants, and 32.2 percent of California community college transfer students.
“UC campuses attract so many applicants each year mainly because of their top academic quality and excellent value,” said Rebecca Trounson, UC Office of the President media specialist. “Year after year, UC campuses are at — or near — the top of various rankings, whether those are measuring academic excellence, research quality and reputation, public service or other areas.”
For Gabe Mendez, a third-year engineering major, it was more than just the quality of the engineering program that led him to choose UC Davis.
“I felt like if I went to school in a big city, there would be a lot more distractions,” Mendez said. “I chose Davis because it’s a little more homey — a little college town.”
Whether it is for education quality, school rankings or a college-town feel, a record-breaking 206,339 people applied to the UC system this year for Fall 2016 admission. Aiding this record-breaking number was UC’s extension for transfer applications, which bumped the deadline from Nov. 30, 2015 to Jan. 4, 2016, allowing an additional 2,183 transfer applications from California residents to be received.
Last year, UC Davis enrolled 5,385 new freshmen and 2,971 new transfer students — one of whom was Mendez, who transferred from Mission College in Santa Clara, Calif.
“I am happy with my decision to attend Davis because I noticed that they love transfers here,” Mendez said. “I felt like it was very welcoming here, and something that stood out to me was that a lot of people in Davis were nice.”
For Fall 2016, UC Davis expects to have an undergraduate class of about 9,500 — a 13.5 percent increase over 2015 with the addition of 1,100 new undergraduates.
UC Davis will release all freshman admission notifications on March 11 and all transfer notifications on April 22.
Written by: JENNIFER PUZA – campus@thaaggie.org
