For Fall '19, UCLA accepted 12.3% of all Freshman applicants, while Berkeley accepted 16.8%. Discuss. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-admission-offers-fall-2019?utm_campaign=ucomm&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=News&sf216114687=1&fbclid=IwAR23duH7IF1qoNkNvHFK1t6hnXBX2xHdP3uOp3HNnbe4I0dIEPBUJe_FinE https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/07/22/newest-admits-are-whip-smart-and-speak-more-than-20-languages/?fbclid=IwAR3V7G3kC2jsYTg0Obg9rZyvky7wOTLFZhipPqHRAgOFmvCYlx3pbRDHQ28
The two links above confirm acceptance numbers, this link confirms applicant numbers https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/factsheets/2019/fall-2019-applications-table-1-1.pdf
New data out today: For Fall '19, UCLA accepted 12.3% of all Freshman applicants, while Berkeley accepted 16.8%. Crazy shift between these two over the past few years.
Because UCLA’s popularity > UCB’s (UCLA has over 20K+ more applicants than UCB), I believe a better stat to analyze would be the GPA and SAT/ACT scores which I am sure are similar. Anyone can apply by simply checking the appropriate UC boxes. The more applicants there are, the greater the denominator resulting in a lower acceptance rate (numerator is almost constant). UCLA is a great school and this is not to downplay their 12% acceptance rate compared to Cal’s.
Impressive stuff.
What is more interesting is that UCSD and UCSB are getting more apps then UCB from Californians and almost as many as UCLA. They only lag in OOS applications.
The other interesting stat to me is that 2019 applications for CA applicants is down at both UCB & UCLA, which I hope is a trend for the fall class of 2020 when D20 applies this year! Total applicants to all UCs are down about 3% from the peak in 2018.
Southern California has 9 million more people than Northern California, so it would stand to reason that the UC’s down south would get more applications than Berkeley and Davis. And as such, the reject rates would be higher.
There has never been a relation to Southern California and Northern California residence when determining which school to apply to. Also, funny how I never saw Cal alum dismiss acceptance easily back when theirs was lower than UCLA’s. But the tables turn and suddenly, for the first time in 35 years, acceptance rate suddenly are totally irrelevant.
Ok.
You’re wrong since all the other SoCal UCs have higher numbers of applications than Northern California schools.
That is a location desirability issue. Not a “more people live in SoCal” issue. Better weather, bigger cities, closer to beaches. It’s not science.
And regardless, UCLA has always has more applicants than Berkeley. It’s actually been the most applied-to university in the country for over 20 years. But something has changed in the last 2-3 years. UCLA’s acceptance rate is consistently lower than Berkeley’s now, and it never used to be that way. Far from it actually. Very interesting.
That’s bcos its hasn’t been studied. The vast majority of kids (prefer to?) attend a college close to home, generally a 4-5 hour drive, and why should a UC be any different? The Professor is correct. SoCal is much larger than NorCal so it should be no surprise that UCLA has been receiving more apps than Cal for quite awhile. Heck, LA also receives more OOS apps – the sun and fun are more attractive to the easterners that NorCal grunge – as well as more International apps.
as an aside, those of us who follow college admissions closely, know that admission rate/yield is not a very meaningful statistic since it is so easily manipulated (in general, but not by a UC campus). But admission rate/yield are always fun for bragging rights.
Add one more person to the list of folks who agree with the Professor. In fact, I have a rising HS junior, who for the time being (kids change), appears to want to stay closer to home. Larger population = more apps. And SoCal is far larger in terms of population. We’re located in the NorCal.
BTW, USNWR dropped admissions rate data as a ranking indicator.
All of these accounts of a particular person that prefers to live close to home are great. But getting back to the thread: Berkeley had a significantly lower acceptance rate that UCLA for at least the last 30 years. Now UCLA’s is about 5% lower than Berkeley’s. Unless those campuses have moved, or California cities have moved, I’m not sure I see how it relates to this post. Just wanted to clarify.
Just as an example:
1997: Berkeley, 31.4% UCLA, 36.3% (Berkeley up 4.9%)
2019: Berkeley, 16.8% UCLA 12.3% (Berkeley down 4.5%)
Now compare that back to the rate of population growth of each area and the demographic changes in CA since 1997. And any other changes that may have affected the final results.
Again, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD and UCI all have larger application #'s than any of the NorCal UC’s, as the Professor mentioned above. Also, another factor is that UC Merced opened its campus in 2005 and has gained popularity amongst applicants, possibly draining applications away from other NorCal schools, including Cal.
Also, Cal Poly SLO’s numbers would have to examined too, since it’s rise in popularity here in NorCal. My point is that there are many factors and the raw data isn’t the entire story.
No disrespect to the 7,000 students currently attending UC Merced , but I don’t think UC Merced is pulling a meaningful amount of potential students from UC Berkeley.
And surprisingly, Northern CA counties have grown at a faster rate than Southern CA counties over the past 20 years, so according to the theories posted on this thread, the opposite admit rate trends should be occurring. https://journal.firsttuesday.us/golden-state-population-trends/9007/
How many counties are there in CA? 58.
And how many are represented in those charts? 10.
How about some respect for UC Merced? UC Merced rated one of the best new universities.