The University of California system has released data on the number of applications it has received for this coming fall’s entering class. Systemwide, 111,611 California residents applied to one of the university’s nine undergraduate campuses for the class that will enter in the fall of 2017. Of these, 6,905 are African Americans. Thus, African Americans are 6.2 percent of all in-state applicants to the University of California. Blacks make up about 7 percent of the California population.
The number of African Americans from California applying to the nine undergraduate campuses is up 4.8 percent from a year ago and up more than 10 percent from two years ago. The number of Black applicants from California is up at all nine undergraduate campuses this year.
There are 2,983 African Americans from California who applied to the flagship campus at Berkeley. They are 6.1 percent of all Berkeley applicants from within the state of California. At the University of California, Los Angeles, Blacks are 6.2 percent of all applicants from California.
Blacks make up 7 percent of the applicant pool from California at the University of California, Merced, the highest percentage among the nine undergraduate campuses. At the University of California, Irvine, Blacks are 5.1 percent of all California applicants, the lowest percentage in the system.
According to state law, all admissions decisions by the University of California must be made without consideration of race. In last year’s admissions cycle, African Americans were 6.3 percent of all applicants but were only 4.9 percent of all students admitted.
