For Fall 2013 Term UC San Diego Receives 82,340 Freshman and Transfer Applications

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UC San Diego’s Geisel Library, Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

The University of California, San Diego has received a record 82,340 freshman and transfer applications for fall 2013. The university received the third highest number of applicants among the University of California campuses. In recent years, UC San Diego has been among the nation’s top five universities with the most applications.

UC San Diego received 67,392 freshman applications for fall 2013, up 10.9 percent from last year. Transfer student applications decreased 1.5 percent from 2012 with a total of 14,948 transfer students applying for admission. The mean high school grade point average (GPA) for freshmen is 3.77; the average GPA among transfer applicants is 3.35.

“UC San Diego continues to attract many talented and well-qualified students from diverse ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Mae Brown, assistant vice chancellor of admissions and enrollment services at UC San Diego. “Our world-renowned faculty, dynamic students and vibrant campus community have contributed to the growth of UC San Diego stellar reputation as an academic powerhouse.”

Diversity among applicants continues to increase at the freshman level for fall 2013, showing a 10.9 percent increase of underrepresented students. A total 3,020 African-American freshmen (up 7.7 percent from last year) applied. Applications from Latinos increased this year, with 3,219 applicants (up 8.2 percent compared to last year).  And applications from Mexican-American freshmen surged with a 13.4 percent increase compared to last year, equating to 10,656 applications. Freshman applicants from low-income families rose 5.2 percent and the number of first-generation freshman applicants is up 9.7 percent compared to fall 2012.

For transfers, African-American applicants rose 6.7 percent and among Latino transfers, the applications increased by 14.2 percent compared to last year.

There are 5,482 or 8.1 percent freshman applicants from San Diego and Imperial Counties. The largest percentage of the freshman applicants, at 38.9 percent, come from Los Angeles, followed by San Francisco at 18.1 percent.

The most popular majors chosen by freshman applicants are in engineering, biology and the social sciences.  Almost 50 percent of UC San Diego’s transfer applications are social science majors. Other popular majors among transfers include engineering and science/math.

The University of California received a record number of applications for admission to the fall 2013 term.  Overall application volume for fall 2013 admission increased by 8.6 percent over fall 2012 with 174,767 applicants (up from a record high of 160,939). The UC system had a 10.7 percent increase at the freshman level and a 1.1 percent increase at the transfer level.

For more information on admission to UC San Diego, go to: http://admissions.ucsd.edu/.