Cal State Fullerton Inundated by Applicants

Student Population Drops Meanwhile, Due to Budget Cuts

December 21, 2009 :: No. 056

Cal State Fullerton has received a record number of applications — 56,132 — for admission to the university for fall 2010.

Compared to last year, applications are up 32 percent among those seeking undergraduate admission and up 97 percent from prospective graduate students.

Last year by the end of November, 40,674 had applied for undergraduate admission; this year that number rose to 53,713. In that same period last year, 1,225 applied for graduate admission, while 2,419 applied this year.

Applications from transfer students, most of whom are completing lower-division studies at community colleges, rose 93 percent. For the 11th consecutive year, Cal State Fullerton remains the No. 1 destination of community college students seeking transfer to a public university in California.

“The dramatic rise in the number of applications from community college students indicates just how severe the access issue has become since the budget situation worsened. The number of applications is unprecedented for Cal State Fullerton,” said CSUF President Milton A. Gordon. “The demand for an affordable, high-quality university education is at an all-time high.”

Ten years ago, Cal State Fullerton received 23,136 applications from prospective students — less than half the amount it receives today.

This high demand comes at a time when the 23-campus California State University system is reducing enrollment by 40,000 students over two years, due to an unprecedented $564 million budget cut from the state of California.

The latest census figures put Cal State Fullerton’s student population at 36,262 — 734 fewer students than were enrolled last fall and 1,503 fewer students than were enrolled in the spring. The drops are a direct result of budget cuts to the CSU system, as campuses were directed to reduce enrollments. Still, despite the drops, Fullerton’s enrollment is the highest in the system.

The university anticipates a spring 2010 enrollment of just under 33,000 students. Classes are scheduled to begin Jan. 23. Due to the statewide budget cuts, the crop of community college transfer students that typically arrive at CSUF in the spring were unable to apply, resulting in a spring class that is expected to be about 4,000 students smaller than the number enrolled in spring 2009.

Meanwhile, the outlook for demand from local high school graduates remains high. According to California Department of Finance data, the anticipated annual number of high school graduates in Orange County through 2018-19 remains at about or above levels seen for the Class of 2008 that generated the largest freshman class in the university’s history.

California Public Education Commission data for 2008 show that 56 percent of Orange County’s high school graduates enrolled at a community college, California State University or University of California campus.

The next application window opens Oct. 1 for those who seek admission to CSUF for fall 2011.

The latest CSUF census figures compiled by the offices of Admissions and Records and Institutional Research and Analytical Studies also show:

Females remain in the majority, accounting for 58 percent of the student population.
Enrollment at Cal State Fullerton’s Irvine Campus is up since last fall. The number of students enrolled in classes at the university’s branch campus is 2,714, up from 2,178 enrolled last fall.

Census data also reflect the diversity of the student body: Hispanic students now constitute 29.2 percent and Asians/Pacific Islanders 21.4 percent of the student body, while whites are 31.4 percent. Black students account for 3.1 percent of the student population, and international students make up 4.7 percent of those enrolled on campus.

Unknowns constitute 8.1 percent of the population, and multiracial, a new designation employed systemwide for recording ethnicity, is 1.6 percent, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Analytical Studies.

“The recent change in the collection of ethnic/race codes allows the CSU to align with federal reporting requirements,” explained Edward Sullivan, acting assistant vice president for institutional research and analytical studies. “The categories now are aligned with the way the 2000 U.S. Census collected race/ethnic data.”

The freshman class offers a glimpse at the expanding diversity of the Cal State Fullerton student body: American Indian, Asian, black, Hispanic and multiracial categories constitute 67 percent of the freshman class, while 27 percent of freshmen are white.

Media Contact:
Paula Selleck, Public Affairs, 657-278-4856 or pselleck@fullerton.edu

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