CSU sees big jump in student interest
- December 6, 2011
By Lisa M. Krieger
Staff Writer, Mercury News & Bay Area News Group
For the third year in a row, the California State University has received a record number of undergraduate applications.
Freshmen and transfer students submitted 665,860 applications -- easily eclipsing last year's total of 611,225. The increase in interest comes at a time of tight budgets and diminished funding by the state.
At San Jose State University, applications from first-time freshmen climbed almost nine percent, from 22,702 to 24,690. Applications by transfer students to SJSU increased by 4 percent.
Freshmen applicants to CSU East Bay jumped from 9,623 to 11,418, or 18 percent. The number of transfer students stayed flat.
This was the first year that Latino applicants to CSU outnumbered white applicants, by 33.3 percent to 31.2 percent. No ethnic or racial group forms a majority among CSU undergraduate applicants.