UC Irvine admits its largest freshman class

Christine Carrillo

The university invited a record number of prospective Anteaters to

join its freshman class for the fall.

The number of students admitted to the university -- 17,926 --

increased by more than 880 from last year, with the biggest boost of

students going into the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and the

School of Social Sciences.

“Over the last few years, we have implemented several high tech

areas ... research facilities, the National Fuel Cell Research Center

... This has increased the reputation of the school greatly,” said

Nicolaos Alexopoulos, dean of the school of engineering. “Overall,

this attracts more students.”

Following the statewide increase in the number of students

choosing the University of California system, UCI received 34,359

applications from high school seniors, up 3,764 from last year.

“UCI is on a continuous upward trajectory. ... Right now, it’s a

very difficult time to be completely optimistic given the state

budget,” said Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor of student affairs. “We

are one of the growth campuses for the University of California. ...

We will continue growing.”

The number of students admitted into the school has jumped by

about 637 since 2002. Only about 58 more students were admitted from

2001 to 2002.

University officials attribute that significant increase primarily

to the debut of the school’s biomedical engineering program for

undergraduates.

While UCI had a jump in student admissions overall, it also had a

jump in the number of students it had to turn away.

The university had to turn away 16,433 freshman applicants, even

though two-thirds of them met the UC eligibility requirements.

Although university officials would like to accept more students,

they understand that the larger applicant pool allows the university

to be more selective in its admission process.

“We are proud that UCI is fast becoming a campus of choice for

many of the state’s most talented and high-achieving students,” said

Michael Gottfredson, executive vice chancellor. “As we face the

challenges of a significantly reduced state budget, we will continue

to rely on the support of the UC Regents, the community and private

donors to be able to accommodate enrollment increases, expand our

academic facilities and programs and improve the high quality of the

UCI educational experience.”

Since the average SAT scores of admitted students has reached 1246

and the grade point averages 3.87, the competition among the

university’s students has been taken to the next level. With that,

the university has had to take its competition with other UC campuses

and universities to the next level.

“We’re in a very competitive position in large part because of the

growing maturation of the campus, prestige and our academic

programs,” Gomez said. “It means a lot more students on the campus, a

lot more life.”

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at christine.carrillo@latimes.com.