Another record year of applications for UC Merced

UC Merced’s 19,932 undergraduate applications for next school year were the most ever in the school’s 10-year history and were a 14 percent increase over last year’s total, according to numbers released Monday by the UC Office of the President.

Despite the high demand, the school still expects to only grow slightly because of space constraints. According to the data, 17,611 people applied to UC Merced for the fall 2015 freshman class, compared with 15,264 last year. The remaining number were transfer applications from community college students and others.

The campus’s 15.4 percent growth in freshman applications was the highest in the UC system, which saw a total growth of around 7 percent.

Charles Nies, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said the university has made an effort to reach a diverse demographic of students.

UC Merced leads the system in applicants who come from low-income households (59 percent), and whose parents didn’t receive a four-year degree (65 percent). “I think all of that has created a reputation,” he said. “And, I think, also that our faculty are becoming more established and are creating (a) name for the research.”

Most of the identified ethnic groups showed an increase in applicants to UC Merced compared to the prior year. Black applicants accounted for the largest growth, with a 23 percent increase. At 5.7 percent, blacks make up one of the smallest percentages of the student body. “Making sure that we reach out to all populations has become really important to us,” Nies said.

The campus also surpassed its target of 2,000 applications from transfer students, receiving 2,321 applications for the fall semester. Last year it drew 2,205.

Nies said the university is focused on helping students finish their degrees in less than five years, which could open up seats on campus for incoming freshman and transfer students. “The longer that students are here, it slows our ability to bring in new students,” he said.

The university expects to continue to see relatively small increases in student population until 2016, when Classroom and Office Building 2 is expected to be finished. Around the same time, the university is looking to find a development team that will help plan the campus’s growth through the 2020 Project, when the campus wants to reach an enrollment of 10,000.

“It’s wonderful to see that interest in our campus continues to climb,” said Chancellor Dorothy Leland in a news release. “The strong growth aligns with our long-term enrollment plan to reach 10,000 students and is further proof that UC Merced is developing as a highly competitive and distinctive University of California campus.”

Applications across the UC system were up nearly 6 percent from last year.

This story was originally published January 12, 2015 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Another record year of applications for UC Merced."