The thick blue line represents the overall UC in-state acceptance rate.
The University of California in-state acceptance rates rebounded in 2022 and, overall, were a bit above the in-state acceptance rates of 2019. This increase came even with an increase in applications to the University of California system and demonstrates the system adhering to its pledge to boost in-state enrollment.
Overall, the in-state acceptance rates were 67.2% in 2020, 63.6% in 2021, and 67.9% in 2022. However, as our graph indicates, the in-state acceptance rates were not even close to uniform across the UC system. UC Berkeley, for example, saw its in-state acceptance rate drop from 65.8% in 2020 to 63.9% in 2021 before rebounding all the way to 72.0% in 2022. This is, obviously, great news if Berkeley is your dream school! But, UC Davis, on the other hand, had an in-state acceptance rate in 2022 that didn’t quite catch up to where it was in 2020. Its acceptance rates were 60.4%, 55.6%, and 59.4% in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
We strongly encourage everyone to put their very best effort into all of their applications — including any submitted to the University of California schools. We do not foresee these schools becoming any less competitive in the foreseeable future. If this sounds a bit gloomy, there is some good news for California residents. We believe that in-state acceptance rates can still climb a bit higher. This is due to the decrease in transfer admissions which is driven by the large decrease in enrollment in California’s community colleges. The large decrease was entirely due to the pandemic. We fully expect this enrollment to quickly recover. Make not mistake that the community colleges are overwhelmingly attended by California residents. Accordingly, we expect the transfer admissions to drive the in-state acceptance rates to higher levels.
