Media Contact: Kate Callen at (619) 534-0361 or kcallen@ucsd.edu

UCSD TO WELCOME RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS AS FALL QUARTER GETS UNDERWAY SEPTEMBER 30 

The University of California, San Diego will begin its Fall 1999 quarter September 30 by welcoming a record number of 19,900 students.

Enrollment figures for the fall quarter, which will be finalized in October, show an expected enrollment growth of approximately three percent (or 530 students) over last year's enrollment of 19,370, according to Robert Starkey, UCSD analytical study officer.

The estimated total enrollment figure includes 16,350 undergraduates, 2,350 graduate students, and 1,200 School of Medicine graduate students. The undergraduate figure includes:

• more than 3,300 new freshmen, culled from a record pool of 32,500 freshman applications, and
  
• more than 1,000 new California community college transfer students (drawn from a transfer applicant pool that topped 5,300). 

The expected freshman class will be one of the most academically prepared group of new students in UCSD's history, according to Darlene Morell, Director of Student Research and Information. Their high school grade point average of 3.97 is up from last year's average of 3.87, and their Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) average of 1,256 is up from last year's SAT average of 1,240. 

This year's freshman class includes 55 students from San Diego and Imperial Counties who were among those admitted as a direct result of UCSD's new policy guaranteeing admission to local area UC-eligible high school graduates whose grades placed them in the top 4% of their graduating high school classes. 

When students start moving in September 25, they will find that on-campus housing is tight. According to Housing and Dining Service Director Larry Barrett, 88 temporary spaces have been created by converting four-person apartments to house five people or by adding extra beds in residence halls.

Returning students will find that the Pepper Canyon Apartments and Marshall Residence Halls were renovated over the summer. All campus housing facilities offer hookups for cable TV (including UCSD-TV, the university's TV station), computers, and online communication. Small appliances such as popcorn machines and microwave ovens are permitted, but pets are not allowed, except for goldfish in a small aquarium.

Major construction of three new campus parking facilities began this summer. The first of these, a 1,552-space parking lot west of Regents Road on the East Campus, opens September 27, making an additional 700-800 parking spaces available. A new shuttle service will link this area to the center of campus. And an 870-space parking structure on Gilman Drive is expected to be completed in September 2000, as is a 970-space parking structure on North Torrey Pines Road.

Among the students arriving for class at UCSD this September are the 150 middle-school students of the charter class of the model Preuss School. When they return next fall, a new Preuss School Complex west of Regents Road is expected to be complete and open.