Court Decision Will Restrict UC Berkeley 2022 Enrollment

On Thursday, February 10th, the California 1st District Court of Appeal issued a decision requiring UC Berkeley to freeze its student enrollment at 42,347, which is the same level as the 2020-2021 school year

Compared to the fall 2021 enrollment of 45,057, this is a significant reduction. UC Berkeley appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of California on Monday, February 14th. 

Negative Impact on Prospective Students for the 2022-2023 School Year

Due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, student enrollment levels at UC Berkeley during the 2020-2021 academic year were abnormally low, as many students deferred their enrollment or took a semester or year off. Therefore, they were not included in UC Berkeley’s official enrollment numbers. Due to the court’s order for UC Berkeley to limit their enrollment based on a highly anomalous school year, Berkeley will have to drastically lower its enrollment rate for fall 2022. 

Undergraduate Applicants Most Affected

Since this decision from the court has come suddenly, the majority of graduate students have already received offer letters from UC Berkeley, which cannot be rescinded at this time. Therefore, in order to reduce the overall number of students enrolled, UC Berkeley estimates that it will be forced to reduce the number of enrolled undergraduate students by approximately one third. 

According to a Berkeley News article, in a typical year, about 21,000 freshman and transfer students are offered admission to UC Berkeley and among them approximately 9,500 enroll. Considering the usual yield rates and what had originally been planned for the 2022-2023 enrollment, Berkeley estimates that it will need to reduce the number of offer letters sent to undergraduate students by about 5,100 in order to reduce enrollment by 3,050 overall. 

Further Action

The appeal will be heard in the spring and summer of 2022, and a decision is anticipated before the end of this year. However, due to the severe and unprecedented nature of this decision and the negative impact it has on this year’s incoming class and campus operations, UC Berkeley has requested that the California Supreme Court stay this judgment during the appeal process. 

For more information about this case, read the full press release from Berkeley News. 

By: Calla Buttke, Director of College Advising, PathIvy