Largest group admitted to University of California in Y2020

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

“In a historic first, Latino students are the largest group admitted to University of California’s freshman class”

By Alicia Lee, CNN
July 17, 2020

Below is the link to the news article:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/16/us/university-of-california-latino-diversity-trnd/index.html

2

UC is definitely one of the few largest and most diverse elite institutions in the world!

3

Is this UC illegally using racial preferences in admissions? While Diversity is important, racial preference/quota is not the right answer. It’s an old and not very creative solution that CA voters will reject in November. This admissions practice causes resentment among asian and white students in California. The policy disadvantages other students based on their race who have put forth their heart, hard work and striving to be admitted to a UC, specifically Berkeley. Their years of effort are negated by a policy of racial preferences. It is a mistake to pit ethnic groups against each other.

4

@leghornchicken - UCs do not currently consider race in their admissions (they are actually prohibited by law). There is an initiative on the ballot this November (prop 16) to reverse the status quo and allow UCs, CSUs and all public employers to use race, sex, religion, etc in their selection process. If you are passionate - be sure to vote.

https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/07/09/black-students-uc-berkeley-diversity-proposition-209-proposition-16-affirmative-action-california

5

@NCalRent It seems that UC is proclaiming that it has preemptively used race in admissions for the 2020-21 admissions cycle, even though the ballot initiative is not until November. I think that UC should reflect the makeup of the state’s population or there should at least be significant representation in numbers from each ethnic group.

6

Here is the % CA population by race/ethnicity in 2020 (est.):

Latino: 36.3%;
White: 38.8%;
Asian: 16.2%;
African American: 6.1%;
Multi-Race: 1.7%;
American Indian or Alaska Native: 0.5%;
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 0.3%
Other: 0%

==> Aim to have a true reflection of CA demographics?

And I see the point from @leghornchicken.

This is a very complicated issue indeed.

7

UC should be more creative to find ways to expand access while not taking opportunities away from deserving students because they are not the right ethnicity. Make the tent bigger.

8

There’s a clear institutional priority, more First Gen and low family income students, reflected in table 3.

https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/factsheets/2020/fall-2020-admission-table-3.pdf

https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/content-analysis/ug-admissions/ug-pages/admissions.html

9

This year Berkeley doubled down on using racial preferences. Predominantly Asian and white high schools in my area had a huge reduction in kids admitted.

10

@Sisternight
I know the outgoing UC chair has stated she’s in favor of prop 16. I haven’t seen a position from the incoming guy. But, until the law changes, they have to use the rules they have. Please post evidence to the contrary if you have any. Also, a 1974 supreme court decision affirmed race aware admission policies but, specifically prohibits racial quotas. (Bakke vs UCDavis)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_Univ._of_Cal._v._Bakke

Under the current criteria, they do use thing like first gen and low income school as factors - creative ways to expand access.

@leghornchicken -Their official data says otherwise. (see the link below. UCB admitted about 7% more freshmen this year, so ,they are growing the tent even though they are space constrained.
it looks like the admit rate for Asian/Pacific Islanders at UCB went up from 18% to 21% - and for white applicants, the admit rate rose from 16% to 18%.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary
I’d be really interested in credible evidence about UCBs use of racial preference this year?

11

Overall California population demographics are not the same as California high school graduates or applicants to UC. The following is for fall 2014 – demographics have certainly shifted (more Latino) since then.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/ca-hs-pipeline

Among high school graduates:
48% L, 29% W, 14% A, 6% B, 0.6% N

Among UC applicants:
34% L, 23% W, 33% A, 6% B, 0.7% N

Among UC admits:
29% L, 24% W, 38% A, 4% B, 0.7% N

Among UC enrollees:
30% L, 22% W, 41% A, 4% B, 0.6% N

Note that Asian students had both the highest admission rate and highest yield rate to UC compared to other race/ethnicity groups.

12

Newly released data from UC Berkeley of Y2020 admission:

1: "**UC Berkeley’s push for more diversity shows in its newly admitted class**"

(By Janet Gilmore, Public Affairs, UC Berkeley| JULY 16, 2020)

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/uc-berkeleys-push-for-more-diversity-shows-in-its-newly-admitted-class/

Quotes from the article:

“New approach to admissions - We started on this new class in August of last year” with outreach efforts, said Olufemi “Femi” Ogundele, assistant vice chancellor and director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley. “Everything shifted this year. We made a lot of changes. The cascading effects of these changes yielded the amazing, academically talented and diverse class we now have.”

“The average unweighted GPA for this year’s admitted freshman class is 3.91, the same as the prior year; the average SAT score for this year’s admitted class is 1,415, compared to 1,419 last year, a statistically insignificant difference, according to Ogundele. The average score for the ACT remains at 29.”

“Overall, UC Berkeley admitted 14,668 students as freshmen in 2019 and 15,435 for fall 2020. The admit rate remains the same as last year, at 15%.”

“UC Berkeley admitted 4,779 incoming transfer students for 2020-2021, compared to 4,883 last year. Their average GPA, compared to the prior year, remains at 3.8.”

“More than 95% of the incoming transfer students are from the California Community Colleges. The number of first generation transfer students increased from 2,253 in 2019 to 2,311 in 2020.”

2: "**Femi Ogundele: A diverse student body fosters** "

(By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley| JULY 16, 2020)

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/femi-ogundele-a-diverse-student-body-fosters-excellence/

“UC Berkeley released its 2020-21 freshman admission numbers today, which show the most ethnically diverse admitted class in more than 30 years, in terms of offers of admission to African American and Latinx and Chicanx students. Those numbers increased by about 40% over the previous year. The campus also saw gains in various measures of greater socio-economic diversity among students offered admission.”

13

It seems to me that UC Berkeley and UCLA are probably the two most ethnically diverse institutions among the public elite ones (incl. UMichigan, UVA, UNC, UW-Seattle, UT-Austin and Georgia Tech, etc.) in the US.

14

@ucbalumnus : Interesting data in Post#10!

15

By comparison, Cal Poly SLO, arguably the flagship of CSU system, is less diverse than UCB for a reason unknown to me:

Here’s the Cal Poly SLO undergraduate student demographics:

***White: 56.4%/b
***Hispanic/Latino: 16%/b
***Asian: 12.6%/b
***Ethnicity Unknown: 11.8%/b
***Non-Resident Alien + Other: 3.2%/b

Data Sources:
https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo/student-life/diversity/

https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-california-berkeley/student-life/diversity/

16

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/femi-ogundele-a-diverse-student-body-fosters-excellence/
Berkeley is not being coy about this. The new approach to admissions is spelled out in this article. This gist is:

  • Diversity is at the center of our mission and our north star, so we changed our admissions practices with the goal of enrolling more Latino students by specifically turning our focus to predominantly Latino high schools.
  • We are not looking for academic perfection, but excellence, which gives way to nuance of the student’s context. This is another way of saying they favor Latino students who are excellent in their context over objectively more highly achieving majority students.
  • "But at Berkeley, we have flipped the entire model of what a feeder school is on its head. We said, ‘Let’s not just go to the school that sends us more than 100 applications each year. Let’s spend our dollars to go to places where students don’t know who we are. " This explains why there were significantly fewer students admitted from predominantly Asian and white high schools in my area. Berkeley specifically invested in favoring other ethnic groups for admission.
  • “What would you say to Asian American and white students and parents who may have concerns that the diversity effort may leave them behind? I understand that perspective and where that comes from. I understand that some of these changes might be difficult. But as an institution, we are doing our best to serve all the populations of students that apply to us, to take a look at the populations we have been inadvertently ignoring for decades, and to do our best to right…we are trying to represent the population we have a mission to serve. Now, the time is more important than ever to double down on that mission.”
    What I am hearing is that Berkeley is trying to achieve a certain ethnic ratio by practicing preferences for students who are something other than Asian or white. The use of this practice is supposed to be decided through appropriate political processes, such as a the ballot measure or by legislative action. Maybe this is a worthy policy that should be debated, but it is currently illegal in California.
17

Two reasons that SLO is less diverse: undeserved reputation as being lesser than a UC and the what I think is the biggest reason, it’s location in the middle of CA, far from large employment centers of the SF Bay Area and SoCal.

18

I agree. The problem is that these administrators believe they can disregard the voters without any consequences.

No doubt there will be lawsuits, but until the administrators feel a hit in either their wallet or their freedom, they will continue this behavior.

19

Thanks, @sushiritto. To be honest with you, I did not know anything about Cal Poly 20+ years ago when in high school. But now it’s one of the popular options for California high school seniors.

I just had a quick glance at their MCA (Multi-Criteria Admissions) “scorecard”, a comprehensive selection process. Personally, I think it’s a very straight forward formula to determine an applicant’s admission eligibility. MCA also gives
non-academic bonus points. But do they give bonus points to URM applicants?

20

I’d say it’s a very straight forward, merit-based formula yet fair and holistic one if offers some bonus points to URM applicants.