Some recent data about admissions rates and the question of out-of-state students motivated me to look at recent admissions data at UC Irvine from the Office of Institutional Research.
It is known that universal college application forms with each application just costing another $50 has led high school seniors to apply to more schools. So each school is now getting more applications. Since their ability to enroll students is relatively fixed, their admission rates had to drop. Unless the school is the most desired one and enrolls nearly all admitted students, they will have to increase the number admitted since students will now get admitted to more schools, but can only go to one. The average applicant to UC campuses applies to four or five campuses. This coverage is similar to those that apply to elite Eastern schools.
A real gain in selectivity would be noted by increases in the SAT scores or GPAs. In California, the UC system is designed to admit the top 9% of each high school’s graduates, and the top 9% overall, to at least one of the 9 undergraduate UC campuses. In ancient times, the admission contract was to the top 12 and 1/2 percent. Hopefully the new admissions policy will approach that. So an increase in SATs or GPAs to one UC campus, would just reflect its relative standing among other UC campuses among applicants.
Now for UC Irvine data. From 2005 – 2013, UCI has enrolled between 4,000 to 5,000 California residents a year. During this time selectivity of admitted students dropped from 61% to 39%. The 2013 yield of enrollees from admits was 24%.
Non-California resident students have to pay the full cost of their education. In the last two years when their number surged, the data show that they have not lowered the number of California residents admitted. In fact, they help to make up for the decreases in state funding, allowing us to retain or hire more Professors. In 2013, 159 non-CA resident US students were enrolled. Also, 512 foreign students were enrolled in 2013.
We also look at the average SAT scores. For 2013, the Verbal SAT average was 552. The 10 year averages ranges from 552-580. For 2013, the Math SAT average was 618. The 10 year averages ranged from 602-624. For 2013, the Writing SAT average was 561. The 10 year range was from 554-582. The Total of the three SAT tests average for 2013 was 1731. The 10 year range was from 1696-1790. No real trend in higher quality is seen, even though the percent of selected applicants has dropped.
The top SAT total among schools for 2013 was obtained in Nursing Science at 1995, and Business at 1916. The next top schools were very close, being Engineering at 1804, ICS at 1798, and BioSciences at 1791.
