Enrollment in the University of California system for fall 2012 has increased, especially for out-of-state students.
All UC campuses, except for Berkeley, have increased their out-of-state admission offers by 43 percent this year. Admission offers to in-state residents only increased by 3.6 percent.
Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC system, said that California student enrollment is up this year from 2011, but the number of applicants is at a record high for the eighth consecutive year.
“[The UC system] admitted 2,155 more California students this year,” Klein said. “These are preliminary numbers. They don’t include transfer applicants.”
The overall admission rate of in-state residents at UC campuses has dropped from 69.7 percent in fall 2011 to 65.8 percent in fall 2012 due to a large increase in out-of-state applicants.
The UC and Cal State University systems have a 10 percent enrollment cap for out-of-state students, which, by law, cannot be exceeded.
Cal State Long Beach is also looking to boost its out-of-state enrollment, according to David Dowell, vice provost for planning and budgets and director of strategic planning.
“We are in fact doing some recruitment, because there is some money to be had in it,” Dowell said. “But we are not reducing in-state admissions in order to do that.”
Dowell said that in fall 2012, CSULB is expected to enroll 34,943 California residents, which is more than the 33,568 enrolled in fall 2011. The projection for non-residents in fall 2012 is 1,300, which is a slight decrease from 1,302 in 2011.
If these projections are correct, CSULB will enroll an additional 1,375 California residents, with 2 percent less out-of-state enrollments for fall 2012.
Lindsey Jeans-Shaw, who graduated from CSULB last spring, said she thinks the most qualified applicants should be accepted into California universities, even if that means they are out-of-state students.
“It’s already kind of difficult to get into UCs, but I feel like they should accept whoever is most qualified,” Jeans-Shaw said.
Many students said that, as long as applicants fulfill the requirements to get in, they should be accepted regardless of their birthplace.
“I think it’s great. It makes [campus] more diverse,” senior social work major Jessica Appel said. “[I support it] just because I think everyone deserves equal opportunity.”
Junior mechanical engineering major Tin Nguyen agreed.
“I’m fine with it,” he said. “Why not? I like variety.”
Julie Chung contributed to this report.