Hispanics are the largest group to be accepted in a freshman class across the University of California system for the first time with more than 28,000 approved for admission this fall, just ahead of Asians.
The numbers were posted online Thursday by the University of California’s office of the president, which noted that Hispanics comprise 36% of the nearly 80,000 prospective students — 8,000 more than the previous year — who were offered spots across Cal’s nine colleges and universities.
Asians comprised 27,771 of the offered admissions, or 35%, followed by whites at 23%, Blacks at 5%, and American Indian and Pacific Islanders, which had less than 400 each.
Three percent declined to identify their race.
The University of California system admitted 69% of all freshman applicants.
“This has been an incredibly challenging time as many students have been making their college decision in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Los Angeles Times quoted UC President Janet Napolitano, who was the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama.
“UC continues to see increased admissions of underrepresented students as we seek to educate a diverse student body of future leaders.”
Asians still comprised the largest share of freshman admission offers at the University of California’s two most famous institutions, Cal-Berkeley and UCLA.
They made up 42% of the more than 10,000 offers from Berkeley, followed by Hispanics at 29%, whites at 19% and Blacks at 5%. At UCLA, Asians were 42% of the 9,208 offered admission, followed by whites and Hispanics with 23% each and Blacks at 6%.
School officials said they won’t know how many students will accept the offers for a few months.
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