The University of California enrolled a record number of Californians in Fall 2024, while UC Berkeley joined UCLA in bucking national trends at elite institutions that saw declines in new Black and Latino students in the first class since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action.
The data, made public Tuesday, came as the nine undergraduate campus system has faced intense ongoing public pressure to take in more Californians and amid speculation over how its racial makeup would fare in a state where public universities and colleges have long been banned from considering race and gender in admissions.
In total, 198,718 Californians were enrolled for the academic year that began in the fall at the system’s undergraduate campuses that stretch from Davis to San Diego. California residents made up 84.2% of 236,070 undergraduates, compared to 83.5% the year before.
Among those were 60,644 first-year and transfer students from the state. The number of California residents in that category increased at six campuses. UC San Diego had the biggest jump, increasing from 8,436 to 8,907.
“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,” UC President Michael V. Drake said in a statement. “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.”
Three campuses, however, saw declines in California enrollment. At Irvine, first-year and transfer Californian undergraduates declined from 7,848 to 7,541. In Riverside, the decrease was from 6,390 to 6,371. At Merced, the drop was from 2,610 to 2,283. Despite the decline, Merced, the newest UC campus, draws heavily from Southern California and has a close to 99% Californian undergraduate population.
The number of out-of-state and international students continued to decrease, making up 37,352 — or 15.8% — of undergraduates, down more than a percentage point from Fall 2023.
In recent years, UC has faced calls to give additional seats to Californians. It began adding more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition, after funding cuts during the Great Recession. In the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, it responded to criticism by enrolling thousands more California undergraduates. Leaders have indicated desires to continue to add about 3,000 California students each year through 2026-27 under a “compact” with the governor’s office.
Racial diversity
Across UC campuses, total undergraduate enrollment of most races and ethnicities grew. Asian Americans made up the largest group with 36.3% of undergrads. Latinos were second, growing to represent 26.7% systemwide; white students were down slightly at 19.8%. Black students made up 4.8% of enrollment, an increase of 494 to 11,257. The share of Native Americans was up slightly at 0.6% and the number of Pacific Islanders remained roughly the same, 0.2%.
Racial and ethnic groups of first-year classes and transfers also showed increases among Asian American, Black and Native American students. The number of Latino first-year and transfer students decreased slightly — 19,504 to 19,418 — as did white students, from 14,305 to 14,172.
The increase in newly enrolled Black students — both first-year and transfers totaled 3,532, up from 3,412 — was notable as it defied a trend seen at many elite U.S. campuses, where the number of Black first-year students declined after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.
U.S. students who enrolled last fall were are the first to be affected by the decision, which matters only at a small number of the most selective American universities where admissions are highly competitive.
Because the two most selective UC campuses, UCLA and Berkeley, tend to compete with elite private and public universities, their admission policies and rates are often compared.
At Berkeley, with an 11% admission rate, new Black students increased by seven people in the fall to a total of 400, or 4.4% of their class. Asian American students dipped by 17 to 3,698, or 41.1% of first-years. Latino students decreased by 55 to 1,971, although their share of the class grew to 21.9%.
According to final data, UCLA enrolled 33 more new Black students in 2024 compared to the year earlier, for a total of 717, or 6.9% of first-year and transfer enrollment. The number of Asian Americans grew by 37 to 3,523, representing 33.7% of new arrivals. At 2,584, Latinos grew by 96 students and made up 24.7% of first-year and transfer students. UCLA had a 9% admission rate.
At 37 of the top U.S. universities and colleges that have posted fall 2024 enrollment data, 30 said there were declines in Black students and 23 saw drops in Latino students, according a tracker by the nonpartisan, nonprofit educational group Education Reform Now.
The number of Black students enrolled at Johns Hopkins University dipped by 66.1% while Latinos declined by 51.2% last fall compared to the average in the prior two years. The same groups decreased at MIT by 64.3% and 26.7%, respectively, and at Stanford by 37.5% and 11.8%, in the same periods.
Black student enrollment also declined at Pomona College, USC and Harvard while Latino enrollment grew. At Yale and Northwestern, Black and Latino student enrollment grew in last fall’s new classes.
Pell Grants
Tuesday’s data also showed an increase for the second-year in the number of low-income UC students. Students receiving federal Pell Grants had declined over multiple years until 2023. In 2024, 7,180 more students received the grant for a for a total of 85,772 system-wide.
Pell Grants do not have to be repaid and are given to students who come from families with among the lowest incomes or ability to pay for college. In 2024-25, the maximum Pell Grant amount is $7,395.
Han Mi Yoon-Wu, associate vice provost for Systemwide Undergraduate Admissions, said in a statement that the enrollment data show there are many avenues to securing a spot at UC.
“The students behind these numbers come from all corners of California and are proof that there are many paths to a UC education,” she said. “The University of California is committed to making UC accessible to the best students.”
