Asian Americans make up largest ethnic group of University of California first-year students

The UC Berkeley campus is a favorite choice among Asian American college students.

This week, as first-year students attend their classes at the University of California's nine undergraduate campuses, they might notice that a lot of their classmates are Asian Americans.

Asian Americans will make up  the largest ethnic group, with 35% of the incoming class. Chicano/Latino students increased slightly as a proportion of admitted students from 33% to 34% percent. The proportion of white students stayed flat at 22%. The proportion of African American students also stayed flat at 5%, while American Indian students remained at 0.5%.

The University of California has offered an all-time record number of incoming students  for the 2019-20 academic year, including respectively the highest numbers of freshmen and transfer students in UC’s history.

“Yet another year of record-setting admissions underscores the tremendous interest in the world-class education at UC,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “The best and the brightest young minds continue to make UC their university of choice, and I am pleased to welcome all of these remarkable students this year.”

The university admitted 108,178 freshmen out of a pool of 176,695 students, including a record number of Californians (71,655). UC also accepted 28,752 transfers from a pool of 41,282 students, including the largest-ever class from the California Community Colleges (26,700).

Admission of California Community College transfer students grew slightly to 26,700 students from 26,582 in fall 2018, in keeping with UC’s goal of enrolling one new California transfer student for every two new California freshmen.

The university’s transfer enrollment is expected to rise in the coming years from growing awareness of the UC Transfer Pathways program, which provides a roadmap of course preparation for the university's most sought-after majors, as well as the Transfer Admission Guarantee offered at most campuses.

“With UC Transfer Pathways, we expect to see even more Californians, especially first-generation college students and underrepresented minorities, enroll at UC and graduate in a timely manner,” said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, UC’s interim associate vice president and director of undergraduate admissions. “Our efforts to streamline the transfer process reflect not only our commitment to the state, but also to high-achieving, hardworking students who otherwise may not have found a home at UC.”

Students from historically underrepresented groups comprise 37 percent of admitted transfer students. Chicano/Latino students and white students comprised the largest ethnic groups at 31 percent respectively, followed by African Americans represented 5 percent of admitted transfers, while American Indians and Pacific Islanders made up nearly 1 percent of admitted transfer students.

Asian Americans make up 28 percent of the transferees.

The distribution of Asian American freshmen throughtout the nine campuses was uneven. At UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, for example, Asian Americans made up 48% and 44%, respectively. At UC Merced, Asian Americans made up only 28%.

The preliminary data includes applicants admitted from waitlists and through the referral pool. The data tables, which include campus-specific information for both freshmen and transfers, may be accessed here.

The UC system includes more than 280,000 students and more than 2 million alumni living and working around the world.