While Black and Latino enrollment is down at other elite institutions a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action, there’s been a slight uptick at the University of California campuses in Berkeley and Los Angeles—the UC system’s most selective universities.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The University of California system enrolled a record number of in-state students in fall 2024, following ongoing criticism that the country’s largest public university system doesn’t have enough seats for California students.
Overall undergraduate enrollment increased by 1.2 percent since last year, according to new enrollment data the UC system released Tuesday. Of the 236,070 undergraduates enrolled in 2024, California residents made up 84.2 percent, compared to 83.5 percent in fall 2023.
The system also reported a more racially and ethnically diverse student body, including at its most selective institutions. Across the 10 campuses, African American undergraduate student enrollment increased by 4.6 percent, American Indian student enrollment by 12.9 percent and Latino student enrollment by 3.1 percent.
“The University of California is committed to expanding access and opportunity, helping our state’s brightest students from all backgrounds realize the value and promise of a UC degree,” system president Dr. Michael V. Drake said in a news release. “These enrollment figures reflect the State’s investment in California students and the dedication of our staff, faculty and campus leaders to providing a world-class education.”
California’s in-state enrollment has slowly increased over the past several years. The trend comes after some members of the California State Legislature lamented that while the number of qualified applicants in the state was growing, admissions rates weren’t keeping up and a disproportionate share of underrepresented students were being shut out.
The continued growth of in-state student enrollment reflects the UC system’s attempts to reverse a decades-long trend.
Between 2002 and 2022, admission rates for in-state students decreased at nearly every campus, including at the most selective campuses, UCLA and UC Berkeley.
To change that trajectory, in 2021, the state invested in a plan to pay the UC system—which has capped out-of-state enrollments since 2018—to increase in-state enrollment over a period of five years. It set a specific goal of reducing out-of-state undergraduates at UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego from more than 22 percent to 18 percent between fall 2022 and 2025, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2021.
This week, the UC system celebrated inching closer toward the state’s broader goals.
“For the fourth year in a row, UC increased California undergraduate enrollment while decreasing numbers of out-of-state students,” UC officials said in a news release Thursday. “Out-of-state enrollment caps combined with funding support from the state are helping drive this trend, especially at UC’s most in-demand campuses.”
Black, Latino Enrollment Up
Although Black and Latino enrollment has declined at many elite institutions across the country since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled race-based admissions unconstitutional in 2023, the most selective institutions in California—which banned affirmative action in 1996—saw small increases.
Berkeley, which has an 11 percent admission rate and increased its in-state student population from 77.8 percent in 2023 to 80.2 percent last year, admitted slightly more new Black and Hispanic students. UCLA, which has a 9 percent admission rate and increased its share of in-state students to just over 80 percent in 2024, saw similarly small increases in its Black and Hispanic new student population.
“California has made significant progress in increasing racial and ethnic diversity in higher education, without the use of affirmative action,” Jessie Ryan, president of the California-based Campaign for College Opportunity, said in an email.
“Targeting underrepresented student groups and communities for providing access to college pathways and resources, like direct admissions, dual enrollment, equitable placement and transfer reform as well as financial aid support, has ensured that California higher education institutions like UCLA and UC Berkeley are moving closer to having the state’s student populations reflect the population of California as a whole.”
At the same time, 18,653 of the in-state students enrolled in the UC system transferred from community colleges in 2024, a 4.5 percent bump from 2023. Enrollment of low-income students also increased from 33.7 percent in 2023 to 36.3 percent in 2024, while the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants increased by 9.1 points over the same period.
What’s Driving the Trend?
John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow in public policy and higher education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, said that a number of factors may have played a role in boosting in-state enrollments, but “it’s a bit hard to unpack it clearly at this stage.”
One explanation may be that although California has experienced a slight decline in high school graduates, “more students are completing the UC and CSU college preparatory courses, meaning more high school graduates are UC eligible,” he wrote in an email. Specifically, more Hispanic and Latino students—the fastest-growing populations in California—are college ready, which “is helping to drive racial and ethnic diversity at UC campuses.”
Another driver may be California’s recent efforts to make it easier for students to transfer from community colleges to UC institutions, given that “the largest increase is in transfer students who tend to be from lower- and middle-income families,” he said.
Douglass’s colleague Saul Geiser, a senior associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley, said UC’s elimination of the SAT and ACT requirement is also contributing to increased enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Latino students.
“The growing number of Black and Latino enrollments at the UC system’s most selective campuses, Berkeley and UCLA, is particularly suggestive,” he said in an email. “While some highly selective institutions that have reinstated testing requirements have seen declines during this period, Berkeley and UCLA have gone in the opposite direction.”