Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858 534-7404 or pjacoby@ucsd.edu

UCSD TO WELCOME RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS AS FALL QUARTER GETS UNDERWAY SEPTEMBER 17

A record 22,035 students will begin the Fall 2001 quarter Sept. 17 at the University of California, San Diego, with the first day of classes set for Sept. 20.

Enrollment figures for the fall term, which will be finalized in October, show an expected enrollment growth of slightly more than seven percent (or 1,485 students) over last year’s enrollment of 20,550, according to Judith O’Boyle, director of Analytical Studies and Space Planning.

The estimated total enrollment figure includes 18,075 undergraduates, 2,660 graduate students, and 1,300 School of Medicine graduate students. The undergraduate figures include:

·     4,203 new freshmen culled from a record pool of more than 38,000 applications, and

·     more than 1,400 new California community college transfer students drawn from a transfer applicant  pool of 7,026.

With a high school GPA of 3.95 and a SAT average of 1263, the Fall 2001 freshman class will be among the most academically prepared group of students in UCSD’s history, according to William Armstrong, director of Student Research and Information.

This year’s freshman class includes an additional 33 local high school graduates who were admitted directly to the campus as a result of UCSD’s policy of guaranteeing admission to San Diego/Imperial County high school students who are UC eligible and whose grades in college preparatory courses placed them in the top four percent of their graduating class.

Students will find a number of new and continuing construction projects underway throughout the campus, including the largest construction project in UCSD history, the Eleanor Roosevelt College campus due for completion in the summer of 2003. At a project cost of $110.4 million, it will provide 373,033 square feet of new construction including housing, dining and academic facilities and an International House.

Other construction underway includes the Powell-Focht bioengineering building on the Warren campus--a $36.2 million structure due for completion in September, 2002; the Natural Sciences building--a $60.1 million project scheduled for completion in November, 2002, and the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center--a $14 million research building on the medical school campus due to be completed this November.