U.C. Berkeley Admissions and Diversity
Prepared by the Student Diversity and Academic Development (SDAD) Committee1
Despite the change in U.C. Berkeley’s admission policy to increase the share of nonresidents among undergraduates, the share (%) of underrepresented ethnic minorities (UREM) on campus has remained fairly
constant thus far. The share of UREM undergraduates who are Californians has fallen because of the
overall increase in the share of all nonresidents. Because UREMs are a larger share of Californians than of
U.S. nonresident undergraduates, increasing the share of nonresident undergraduates reduces diversity.
Moreover, the UREMs’ share of both Californian and domestic nonresident freshmen has remained relatively constant. The main reason that the overall share of UREMs has not dropped is because their share
of transfer students has increased substantially.
Nonresident Students’ Share of Undergraduates
U.C. Berkeley is planning to hold the
overall number of undergraduates constant, while increasing the share of undergraduates who are paying out-ofstate tuition (“net payers”) to 20% by
2013–2014. The chart shows the percentage of enrolled undergraduates
who are net payers, where the shares
starting in 2012–2013 are projections.2
Because some nonresidents receive a
waiver from paying nonresident fees,
UCB must accept more than 20%
nonresidents to achieve its goal.3
To quickly achieve its target of having
20% of all undergraduates be net payers, UCB enrolled a larger share of nonresident freshmen and transfer students
in 2010–2012 than it expects to in later
years. The chart shows that nonresidents were 12% of freshmen, 22% of
transfers, and 15% of both in 2009–
2010. The share of freshmen rose to
23% in 2010–2011, while transfers’
share was 21%. UCB expects that this
year and in subsequent years, 30% of
freshmen and 23% of transfers will be
nonresidents.
UREMs’ Share of Undergraduates
Despite these changes in admissions policies, overall UREMs’ share of all undergraduates has remained
essentially constant from 2007 through 2011, fluctuating from 15% (in 2007 and 2009) to 16% (in 2008,
2010, and 2011).
1
SDAD collaborated with Admissions, Enrollment, and Preparatory Education (AEPE) and the Status of Women and Ethnic
Minorities (SWEM) committees to produce this document. Unless otherwise stated, the data are from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. We are very grateful to Greg Dubrow for his help in obtaining and understanding the data. The counts
of students are based on “statements of intent to register” rather than actual enrollment figures.
2
Source: Office of Planning & Analysis.
3
For example, AB540 students (including undocumented students) are classified as nonresidents even if they live in California, but they do not pay the full nonresident tuition and fees.
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UREMs’ Share of Entering Undergraduates
The table shows UREMs’ share of all
Share of Entering Students (%)
2009 2010 2011 HS
entering students (freshmen and transAll UREMs
16.1 17.2 16.9 49.3
fers). The last column shows the
American
Indians/Alaskan
Natives
0.5
0.8
0.8
0.8
shares of UREMs among Californian
4
African
Americans
3.0
3.4
3.3
6.9
high school graduates in 2009. Thus,
Chicano-Latino
12.6
13.1
12.8
41.6
the share of African Americans among
31.1 30.4 28.6
UCB entering students is about half First Generation
that among Californian high school students. Similarly, the UCB share of Chicano-Latino is less than a
third of their high school share. The last row of the table shows that the share of first generation students
(neither parent has a bachelor’s degree) is falling.
Californians’ Share of Freshmen UREMs
The share of freshmen UREMs who Californians’ Share (%)
are Californians is falling.
All UREMs
American Indians/Alaskan Natives
African Americans
Chicano-Latino
UREMs’ Shares of Californian and of Domestic Nonresident Freshmen
UREMs’ share of freshmen is greater UREMs’ Shares (%)
for Californians than for domestic non- Californians
residents. African Americans were American Indians/Alaskan Native
3.3% of California freshmen in 2011, African Americans
which was more than double their Chicano-Latino
share for domestic nonresidents. Simi- Domestic Nonresidents
larly, Chicano-Latinos’ share of Califor- American Indians/Alaskan Native
nians was more than triple that of doAfrican Americans
mestic nonresidents.
Chicano-Latino
2008
97
96
98
97
2009
96
100
96
97
2010
93
86
90
94
2011
92
87
90
93
2008
2009
2010
2011
0.5
3.6
12.8
0.5
2.7
12.1
0.8
3.3
13.4
0.9
3.3
14.2
0.3
0.8
5.6
0.0
2.3
7.5
0.7
2.2
4.9
0.5
1.4
4.0
UREMs’ Share of Transfer Students
Given that UREMs are a smaller share of nonresidents
than of Californians and relatively more nonresidents are
being admitted, why has the UREMs’ share of all undergraduates remained relatively constant? The main reason is that the share of UREM Californians has risen.
Over the last three years, the UREMs’ share of freshmen
remained relatively constant. The share of American
Indians/Alaskan Natives was between 0.5% and 0.8%,
the share of African Americans was between 2.7% and
3.4%, and the share of Chicano-Latinos was between
12% and 13%. However as the figure shows, the share
of UREMs among transfer students rose substantially
over the same period.
Thus, continued emphasis on UREM outreach programs, particularly those directed at Californian freshmen and especially transfer students, may be increasingly critical to promote the diversity of undergraduates on campus.
4
Source: www.cpec.ca.gov/StudentData/CACGREthnicity.asp
8/22/12
2