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UC recognized California’s largest undergraduate students in the fall of 2025, maintaining a diverse student body and increasing the number of students, the first generation of their families to attend university.
The University of California also offered to enroll 17% more undergraduate international students. This is a group that has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration, with increasing screening and visa delays.
The strategy to raise international students took into account that UC would increase tuition fees for non-residents last year, meaning that White House actions are likely to decide to study in the US in the fall. The larger admission pool is intended to attract a large enough student group to bring in the value of international diversity UC.
Overall, UC has recognized 100,947 freshman California students, up over 7% from last year. The figure represents the largest class in the country’s public university system as leaders address public demands to give Californians more seats.
UC is working on job freezes, layoffs, postponements of state funds, campus-level structural flaws, potentially expensive union contract negotiations and increased tuition fees. Among the Trump administration’s claws and multiple federal investigations, billions of questions on federal grants investigate allegations regarding anti-Semitism, racial use in hospitalization, and sources of foreign funding.
Entrance fees for the entire California freshman system have increased from 70% last year to 77%, even incorporating highly competitive campuses, including UCLA and Berkeley. Overall, UC provided seats in its first year of 180,382 people, relocating students from California and other states and countries.
At UCLA, the country’s most applied university, the admission rate remained roughly the same at 9%. UCLA offered 8,575 California freshman applicants to enter in the fall of 2025. As in the past few years, this number represented the smallest offer set between UC campuses.
Monday’s data focused only on recognized students. This is not a student accepting and registering the offer. Therefore, the numbers are higher than campus capabilities.
“We continue to experience significant growth, which clearly shows that Californians recognize the value of a UC degree,” said UC President Michael V. Drake. “Our latest enrollment numbers show that families in our state recognize that UC degrees prepare students for their community and more meaningful contributions.”
Dr. Drake leaves his role at the end of July and returns to research and education. He is replaced by James B. Milicken, former Prime Minister of the University of Texas.
“Creating a pathway to UC education for a wide range of California students benefits not just those students, but the entire state,” said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, UC Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director and Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions. “We are proud to provide the University of California location for these exceptional young people.”
Racial diversity continues to grow
Data released Monday continues the years of UC trends in racial diversity, first-generation students, students from low-income families, and relocations from community colleges in California.
In recent years, UC has touted a racial and ethnic mix of recognized students, even though it better reflects California’s demographics despite the political and legal attacks of its national diversity program, and in 2023 the Supreme Court held that positive behavior in university admissions was unconstitutional.
In California, Proposition 209, approved by voters in 1997, prohibits race considerations in admission to public education institutions. For many years, UC has been working to recruit diverse students, and in the early 2000s began two major reforms. The focus is on enrollment guarantees for top-performing students across the state and most California high schools. The other is to evaluate applicants using a comprehensive review process that includes special talent, how students are compared to their high school peers, geographical location, and more.
This year, the UC admissions message has been quiet about race as the Trump administration criticises the campus diversity program. The press release on admission data did not mention the racial composition of hospitalized students, as in the past few years, but racial data was included in the detailed admissions table.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration said it was investigating UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine using “illegal DEIs” in hospitalizations, suggesting that the system’s teacher diversity goals amount to racial-based employment discrimination. The Department of Justice focused on the UC 2030 Capacity Plan, which hopes to increase diversity in graduate students and faculty, including the addition of 1,100 tenure-track faculty members.
UC has vehemently defended IT admissions practices and said it is compliant with state and federal laws.
UC data on Monday showed an increase in hospitalizations for all racial groups, including blacks, Latino, Native American, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Whites and “Unknown.” Despite a slight decline in the total applicant pool, growth has reached 249,824 despite being less than 1%.
For the sixth year in a row, Latinos were the largest group of freshmen in California, mainly due to the large numbers accepted by UC Merced and UC Riverside.
On the other seven faculty campuses, Asian Americans were the main admissions group.
Overall, Latinos recognized 39% of first-year Californians, followed by 33% Asian Americans, 18% White Students, 6% Black Students, about 1% or 604 Native Americans, and 294 less than 1% Pacific Islanders.
Like last year – following the national trend in higher education, women are admitting to surpassing men. All of the UC campuses, 54% of fall hospitalizations were women and 42% were men. Additionally, 1% were non-binary, with less than 1% each being transgender male or female, and 3% had different gender identity. UC Berkeley and Davis had their biggest gender split, as 57% were female.
UC’s overall admission data showed an increase in the number of students offering slots, but data from campus to campus were very different.
Merced and Riverside accept most students
Most campuses only have hundreds or thousands of students hospitalized. The majority of admissions were dominated by UC Merced and UC Riverside.
At Merced, UC’s latest campus, overall enrollment has increased by more than 60% from 31,585 last year. At Riverside, admissions ranged from 51,345 to 71,069 to over 38%.
In an interview, Yoon-Wu said that some of the increase reflects targeted recruitment on these campuses.
“One of the changes this year has been focusing on students who are probably not familiar with these two campuses and taking part as applicants early,” she said.
Merced achieved the biggest growth in its application this year, up 45% to 51,745. The second biggest increase was Riverside, jumping to 18% at 82,904.
Both campuses are expanding and do not face the same restrictions of several well-known UCs surrounded by dense urban areas with relatively high housing costs, such as UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Riverside, which is undergoing a housing expansion, aims to enroll 35,000 students by 2035. This is an increase of around 9,000 since last fall. Merced has a registration target of 15,000 by 2030, which will grow by about 6,000 since last fall.
Merced and Riverside Campuss have the highest enrollment rates in UC and are the most diverse in terms of race, first generation status and student income levels.
Furthermore, a low yield rate on campus means the percentage of enrolled students who choose to enroll. Merced had a 7% student yield rate for all first-year students last year. On Riverside, it was 12%.
The systemwide, the number of low-income students and the first to attend university in their families was stable in relativity. Low-income students accounted for 42% of the California class in the first year students, an increase of 1% from last year. First generation students also accounted for 42%, a 1% decline.
The system benefited from expanding access to California Community College relocation applicants. This is an increase of 27,845-5.9% from last year.
Growth of out-of-state and international acceptance
UC began adding more out-of-state students who paid higher tuition fees after raising funds during the Great Recession. In recent years, under public pressure, California hospitalizations and registrations have steadily increased amid the state’s budget deal.
The most recent admissions data showed that 2,150 admission offers increased to 26,191 (growth of 9%) to students who are residents of other states. At the same time, 3,263 first-year international students were offered seating, an increase of 17% from last year.
UC said both figures were high because of “increasing uncertainty about the likelihood of enrollment,” noting that the percentage of accepted students in the groups that chose to enroll is generally “significantly lower” than California residents.
Yoon-Wu said there were “many factors” that contributed to the system that wanted larger non-resident hospitalizations. She noted that being a non-Californian at UC has increased the costs. Last fall, the UC Regent Committee approved a 10% increase in “non-resident” tuition fees from $34,200 to $37,602.
“There’s more uncertainty about how people feel about higher education this year,” Yoon-Wu said, adding that the change in the Trump administration is a “undetectable” factor in students’ minds. “We are fortunate enough for the University of California to prove that earning a degree from UC is a valuable decision.”
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