Minorities, Cabrillo Students Big Factors in the New UCSC Class

As new students make their way to Santa Cruz this week for the Sept. 26 start of the semester, some 40 percent of them will be from underrepresented minorities and 144 of them will be transfers from Cabrillo College.

The 40 percent minority students is a big jump from 2011 when the school was made up of 33.9 percent of underrepresented groups including African-American/Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Hispanic ethnicities.

Some 4,300 undergraduate students are enrolled and campus housing opens Wednesday. About 3,300 are new freshmen  and 1,000 are junior transfers from California's community colleges, with Cabrillo drawing the most. 

 “We were more selective in admissions for both frosh and transfers this year, so our incoming students are academically talented and well-prepared to succeed in their studies," said Michael McCawley, UCSC’s director of admissions.

“We have students coming from throughout California, from other states, and other countries, making for a more globally diverse class,” McCawley said in a press release. “California students make up more than 90 percent of our incoming frosh and we have transfer students coming from 95 of California's 112 community colleges – those numbers reflect our commitment to our state’s residents.” 

This fall's freshman class is also expected to comprise 34 percent from Hispanic or Latino backgrounds and 28 percent who are Asian American. Approximately 31 percent identify themselves as white/Caucasian. The percentage of African American students is expected to increase to 4.8 percent from 4 percent a year ago and from 3.6 percent two years ago. Unknown or unspecified ethnicity is 1.5 percent.

 Forty-four percent of incoming freshmen are first-generation students where neither parent has a four-year college degree. Students coming from low-income households (below $40,000 annually) comprise a little more than 33 percent of incoming new class.

Among the frosh who have indicated a major:

·      23.6 percent intend to major in the Physical & Biological Sciences – most popular major: molecular, cell, and developmental biology;

·      22.9 percent in the Social Sciences – most popular: psychology;

·      16.2 percent in Engineering – most popular: computer science;

·      5.2 percent in Humanities – most popular: literature;

·      3.8 percent in the Arts – most popular: film & digital media;

.       28 percent are undeclared.

Some  8,100 of the nearly 8,400 bed spaces available in university provided housing are filled, including about 4,100 continuing students who will be living in campus-provided housing again this year.

The rest are in your neighborhoods. The school expects 16,450 students, about 300 fewer than were enrolled in the 2012-2013 academic year.