UC Renews Admission Offers to 3,179 Seniors

The University of California announced Tuesday that it offered admittance to 3,179 high school seniors who met eligibility requirements but had been squeezed out in the competition for the system campuses where they applied.

Of the newly admitted California high school students, 19.6% are underrepresented minorities. UC Irvine offered admission to 339: 127 are white; 27 are African American; 39 are Chicano; 16 are Latino; 83 are Asian American and 47 declined to state their ethnicity.

It is not yet known how many of the students accepted the admission offers. University officials are tallying acceptance letters, which were due May 1, and expect to have a final count later this month.

During the first round of freshman admissions in March, the UC system admitted 44,362 students--11,894 at Irvine.

The new admissions brings the number of underrepresented minorities in the freshman class systemwide to 7,147, or 15.6%. That total is 1.9% lower than last year, what officials say is a result of the post-affirmative action era.

“There’s no choice,” said Rick Malaspina, a UC spokesman. “It’s the law, but we would like to do better.” He said some campuses, including UCI, are implementing outreach programs in efforts to boost the number of minority students.

For now, Malaspina said, all the state’s high school seniors who applied and qualified for admission have been accepted. “It’s part of our long-standing commitment,” he said.