A record number of California students were offered admission to the University of California this fall, but the gains weren’t spread evenly across the system, with some campuses defying the trend, new preliminary data shows.
The UC system announced Wednesday that for the fall 2026, it offered admission to 102,031 first-year California students. That’s the highest number to date, according to a news release from the UC Office of the President, and an increase of 1,458 students compared with last year.
The overall fall 2026 California student admission rate for the UC’s nine undergraduate campuses was 78%, compared with 77% the previous year. The system accepted a total of 153,272 first-year students, both in-state and out-of-state students, the UC said…