Many Fall 2022 applicants to the University of California Berkeley (Cal) received an unexpected Valentine’s Day greeting—an email announcement that by court order, up to 5100 less acceptance letters may be issued for Fall 2022.
Olufemi Ogundele, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley writes:
On Thursday, Feb. 10, a California Court of Appeal ruled that UC Berkeley must follow a lower court’s order requiring the university to freeze student enrollment at the same level as 2020-21. To do so, our current estimate is that we would need to reduce our targeted fall 2022 new undergraduate student enrollment by at least 3,050 students. That in turn would mean reducing the number of offers of admission by at least 5,100.
In other words, at least 5,100 freshman and transfer students who would otherwise have been offered admission for fall 2022 would not receive such an offer.
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Since not every student will accept a spot in the incoming class, university admissions officers offer more acceptances to “yield” the intended targeted number of students. Thus, to reduce Fall 2022 enrollment by 3050 students, UC Berkeley admissions officers estimate proffering 5100 fewer acceptances.
Seniors, transfer students, and their families worry about having fewer chances to be amongst The Chosen Ones, admitted to Cal, spurring panic-filled speculation about who will make the cut or not.
To temper any Fall 2022 applicants’ (and their parents’) concerns, I predict that Cal admissions will likely offer greater numbers of waitlist offers this year, as officials wait for the outcome of an appeal to the California Supreme Court for a stay of the appeals court ruling. Then, if the court ordered reduction in enrollment is lifted, Cal admissions officers may admit students from the waitlist to fill the Fall 2022 class.
**Note: the court order only applies to admissions for UC Berkeley. Students’ opportunities of admissions at any other University of California campus are not affected.
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