Three years ago, there was a major increase in the number of Black students admitted to the nine undergraduate campuses of the University of California. In 2016, the total number of Black first-year students from California admitted to one or more undergraduate campuses of the University of California increased to 3,464 from 2,653 in 2015. This was a major increase of more than 30 percent.
In 2017 and 2018, the University of California reported no significant progress in the number of admitted Black students. Once again this year, the number of Black students admitted to an undergraduate campus of the University of California has not improved. In fact this year, there were 3,414 Black student admitted compared to 3,452 a year ago. As was the case in 2017 and 2018, Blacks make up 5 percent of all admitted students. Readers will recall that due to state law, admissions offices at state universities in California are not permitted to consider race as a factor in their admissions decisions.
At the flagship University of California, Berkeley campus, the number of Black admits increased slightly from 380 in 2018 to 391 this year. Blacks are 4 percent of all students admitted to the Berkeley campus.
At the prestigious campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, Black admits dropped from 528 in 2018 to 522 this year. Blacks have held steady at 6 percent of all admitted students during the past few years.
The undergraduate campuses at Davis, San Diego and Merced have more Black admits this year than in 2018. But the campuses at Los Angeles, Riverside, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz showed declines. The largest declines were at the Irvine and Santa Barbara campuses. But both campuses saw a significant drop in total admits.
