Southwest Airlines Sponsors UC San Diego
2011 Overnight Events for Admitted Students

Judy Piercey and Kristin Luciani | April 25, 2011

UCSD student outreach group SPACES and the Black Student Union invited newly admitted, underrepresented students to experience campus life with the Overnight Programs

The University of California, San Diego continues to enhance recruitment and yield programs to help ensure a more diverse student body and healthier campus climate. Overnight programs offered in early April were part of the university's comprehensive efforts to encourage students to accept their admittance to UC San Diego. Admitted students invited to participate in the Overnight Programs tend to come from historically underrepresented backgrounds in higher education, are the first in their families to attend college and/or are from low socio-economic backgrounds.

"We are pleased that the number of underrepresented students admitted to the university went up 15 percent this year," said UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. "We remain committed to ensuring accessibility and affordability for all qualified students who want to attend UC San Diego."

This year, the UC San Diego student outreach group SPACES in partnership with the Black Student Union invited admitted high school seniors from San Diego, Inland Empire, Orange County, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area to experience the university environment and campus life, learn about campus resources and network with other admitted high school seniors and current college students. The programs provide an up-close glimpse of what it's like to attend UC San Diego. Last year's overnight programs resulted in nearly a 60 percent yield rate.

Southwest Airlines provided airfare for 36 admitted, low-income students to attend UCSD’s Overnight Program

Although there is no cost for admitted students to participate, for some students, the cost to travel to San Diego can be prohibitive. But with the generous support of Southwest Airlines, UC San Diego flew in 36 students for the 2011 Overnight Programs. In total, 109 admitted students from throughout the state attended programs that took place the weekend of April 7-9, 2011.

UC San Diego has admitted 18,234 freshmen for Fall 2011. The new freshmen were selected from a record 53,455 applications. UC San Diego admitted 3,512 underrepresented students, up 15.4 percent from Fall 2010.

Of the 18,234 admitted freshmen, the average GPA is 4.09 and average SAT Reasoning scores are 633, 681 and 654 respectively for Critical Reading, Math and Writing. UC San Diego continues to enhance the diversity of its campus community, with a total of 394 African-Americans (up 2.9 percent from last year), 2,317 Mexican-Americans (up 19.6 percent from last year) and 721 Latinos (up 17.2 percent from last year) admitted for Fall 2011. In addition, UC San Diego admitted 4,568 first-generation students, up 4.6 percent from last year.