It was a record year in admissions for the University of California, Los Angeles. In all, about 149,700 students applied as first-year applicants to the prestigious public university in LA which, like all other UC schools, is now test-blind by order of the courts. This near 150,000 tally marks an increase of about 10% from last year’s application total when a then-record number of students submitted applications to UCLA. Among these applicants, about 91,500 hail from California (up by about 7,400 from last year), while about 58,200 students applied from out-of state (up by about 2,900 from last year).

As Steve Montiel reports in a UCLA press release entitled “UCLA again breaks applications record, sees steep rise in top California applicants,” “Outpacing the overall growth in in-state applicants, UCLA saw an extraordinary 32% increase in California applicants projected to be among the top 9% in their high school class, as determined by the University of California’s Eligibility in the Local Context program…The number of freshman applicants from several underrepresented groups continued to rise this year, even after unprecedented increases in 2021, driven in part by UCLA’s community partnerships and outreach efforts, as well as the removal of standardized testing as a requirement for admission. UCLA continues to receive more applications from African American, Chicano/Latino and Native American students than any other campus in the UC system. Applications also grew by 19% among low-income Californians and by 8% among prospective first-generation college students from California.”

Interestingly, transfer applications, both at UCLA and the entire UC system, are down about 12% year-over-year — likely due to the decline in California community college enrollment during the pandemic. In any case, UCLA will release admissions decisions for first-year applicants to the Class of 2025 by April 1st. Transfer applicants will learn of their decisions by April 30th.