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

UCSD ANNOUNCES COMPOSITION OF 1999 FRESHMEN CLASS

The University of California, San Diego has received letters of intent to register from 3,490 students, culled from a record pool of 32,500 freshman applications. The freshman entering class in Fall 1999 will be the most academically prepared group of entering freshmen in the school’s history. Their mean high school grade point average of 3.97 is up from last year’s record 3.87, and their average composite Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) of 1256 is up from last year’s record 1240.

The students who committed to enroll in the fall include 55 students from San Diego and Imperial Counties who were accepted as a direct result of UCSD’s new policy guaranteeing admission to local UC-eligible seniors who placed in the top 4% of their graduating high school classes.

The fall freshmen class will have 297 underrepresented students, 2.9% less than last year. Underrepresented students comprise 8.4% of the freshmen accepts. (Students comprising the underrepresented group include Native-American, African-American, and Mexican-American.)

Data on the underrepresented students present mixed news. More Mexican-American students will enroll, but fewer African-American and Native-American. There will be 252 Mexican-American students, up 12.5% from last year; 33 African-American students, a decrease of 45% from last year; and 12 Native American students, a decrease of 45.5% from last year.

"We are delighted by the superb students attracted to UCSD and their excellent academic credentials," said Dr. Joseph Watson, UCSD Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs. "We are also

deeply disappointed by the number of students from underrepresented racial groups in our entering class, particularly the decrease in African American and Native American students," Watson continued. "The University is determined to reverse this trend and substantially increase the number of new students from the three under-served populations."

Biology continues to be the most frequently named major among first-time freshmen, followed next by majors in engineering, political science and psychology. One-third of the new class will start in the fall as undeclared. Women will comprise 54% of the class, and men 46%, reflecting little change from the 1998 class.

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