The University of California admitted a record 100,947 new first-year college students from California for the upcoming school year, a more than 7% bump from last year. The premier higher education system also admitted 22,230 international students, even as the Trump administration has created additional barriers to their attendance.
“We continue to experience significant growth — a clear indication that Californians recognize the value of a UC degree,” said UC President Michael Drake, who is expected to leave his role at the end of July to return to research and teaching. “Our latest admissions numbers demonstrate that families across our state recognize that UC degrees prepare students for a lifetime of meaningful contributions in their communities and far beyond.”
According to preliminary admission data released Monday, the highly regarded system accepted nearly 73% of all applicants. The university also offered admission to 17% more international students, who typically pay full freight.
The increases come amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration — with stricter visa screening and application processes, a travel ban and a flurry of student visa revocations — which has raised concerns about a decline in international student enrollment at universities across the country. The University of California also faces rising financial pressures from federal research funding cuts and proposed state budget cuts.
An April lawsuit filed by the California attorney general and 15 other states against the National Institutes of Health and other parties contends NIH has ended $37 million in research funds to UC, which announced a systemwide hiring freeze in March in response to the administration’s threats to slash funding.
Earlier this spring, UC officials told state lawmakers that the system would be forced to enroll fewer new California students if the state went through with an 8% cut to the university’s budget, as proposed in the governor’s January budget proposal. Gov. Gavin Newsom reduced that cut to 3% in the May budget revision.
As well as increasing the number of admitted international students, UC also admitted 9% more non-California resident applicants — a change that comes as UC raised nonresident tuition fees by more than $3,400 last year. The university has said very limited UC financial aid is available for students from states outside of California, while international students are generally ineligible for student loans and eligible for very few scholarships.
Overall, UC admitted 180,382 students for fall 2025 — a nearly 32% increase from last year. That total includes transfer students as well as first-time college students.
UC Berkeley — with a roughly 13% acceptance rate — admitted a little over 20,000 students total, up more than 47% from last year’s 13,639 admitted students. About 10% of Cal’s first-year admitted students were international students and the total number of admitted first-year international students — 1,463 — nearly doubled from last year’s 735 students.
Cal said in a statement Monday that the university’s admissions target for international students was set in October 2024 — before President Donald Trump was re-elected.
“We’re pleased that we were able to offer admission to more exceptional students this year — both domestic and international — while maintaining our high academic standards,” said university spokesperson Aileen Zerrudo. “We continue to see strong interest from students around the world who want to be part of Berkeley’s singular academic community and we look forward to welcoming an accomplished incoming class.”
UC Santa Cruz admitted nearly 57,100 students for fall 2025 — about a 73% acceptance rate — and about 10,000 more students than last year. Approximately 10% of the university’s first-year admitted students were international students, with 4,836 students offered admission — slightly lower than last year’s 5,249 students.
UC Santa Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this news organization.
UC acknowledged that the percentage of students who accept an admission offer and choose to enroll is much lower for non-California and international students than California students. Only about 26% of UC Berkeley’s accepted international students enrolled for the fall 2024 semester, while UC Santa Cruz saw a little more than 4% of accepted international students enroll. The UC system overall saw a little over 21% of accepted international students enroll.
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The new data shows UC admitted about 77% of all first-year California student applicants for the fall 2025 semester and the number of admitted students from lower-income families, transfers from California community colleges and first-generation students continued to rise.
About 42% of accepted first-year California students are considered first-generation college students, including 32% at UC Berkeley and 30% at UC Santa Cruz.
Despite the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and insistence that schools remove any “racial preferencing” from admissions or hiring decisions, the data showed increases in admitted students of all racial groups: Black, Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, white and “unknown.”