<p>MERCED ? The newest University of California campus here has tried attracting students based on its own merits. Now it is using other schools’ merits as well.</p>
<p>UC Merced will allow about 1,000 students who narrowly missed admission to a more established UC campus to attend the Central Valley school for two years and then transfer to the university they originally chose. Four UC campuses ? Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego ? issued the “Shared Experience” offers last week.</p>
<p>Administrators at the sparsely attended Merced campus, which will welcome its third freshman class in September, hope most of the diverted students will stay after the first two years.</p>
<p>“This program takes advantage of enrollment capacity at UC Merced,” said university spokeswoman Patti Waid Istas. “We’ll have quite a few (students) who decide to stay.”</p>
<p>Growth has been slower than expected since the 100-acre university opened in September 2005. Planners had hoped for 2,600 students by the third year, but administrators now are aiming for 2,000 in the fall term.</p>
<p>Freshmen enrollment dropped 38 percent last fall. Ongoing construction and a shortage of nearby amenities have made the school a hard sell for students outside the Central Valley.</p>
<p>Along with several other strategies, the Shared Experience program is part of a renewed push for higher enrollment. The same program boosted attendance at UC Santa Cruz in the 1980s, when some students were guaranteed
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subsequent entry to UC Berkeley, and the University of Texas system has a similar strategy.</p>
<p>“It was considered a great success by the people at Berkeley and by the people at Santa Cruz,” said Nina Robinson, a student-affairs administrator for the 10-campus UC system.</p>
<p>University leaders said they retained 80 percent of the students who arrived in 2005, largely because of a sense of community at the nascent school.</p>
<p>The university boasts 80 student-led clubs, including six sports clubs, and is increasing financial aid dramatically this year, Istas said.</p>
<p>The school also is guaranteeing a dorm room to each incoming student, she said.</p>
<p>On-time freshman applications were up slightly this year to 8,257, she said, and the university had admitted about 6,680 through Thursday. Only 3.7 percent of admitted freshmen agreed to come to Merced last year, far lower than at other campuses.</p>
<p>“Our application numbers are always strong,” Istas said. “We just face some hurdles when it comes to yielding students.”</p>