With a 10.5% admission rate this year, UC Berkeley is harder to get into than ever before — especially for underrepresented minorities.
The UC system saw a record-breaking 251,907 applications this year, leading to tightening acceptance rates. Following the 2026 data, UC Berkeley is once again more selective than UCLA.
“Getting admitted to competitive colleges like the UC system is … getting harder because there are more students applying,” said L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy, an associate professor of sociology of education at New York University. “The question then becomes, … if there’s a hunger for education, then how do we provide it?”
In this cycle, competitive college admissions hit underrepresented minorities the most.
At UC Berkeley, African American and Latine admissions have decreased from the 2025-26 cycle to the 2026-27 cycle, with a percent change of -18.1% and -9.8%, respectively.
The percentage of UC Berkeley’s first-year admits who self-identify as an underrepresented minority — including African American, Latine, Native American, Pacific Islander and Asian students — also dropped 11.1%. Yet as a whole, UC admissions went up for African American, Latine and Asian Californians from 2025 to 2026.
“That is a deep concern because California is a very diverse state, and if other campuses are able to find talent out there regardless of background, (UC) Berkeley really should be able to do that too,” said OiYan Poon, co-director of College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative.
College Admissions Futures found more minorities have been applying to “prestigious, highly resourced universities” in the last few years.
Outreach strategies might also impact fluctuations in admissions numbers for underrepresented minority groups.
Margaret Solomon, incoming ASUC president, shared that in the predominantly Latine Inland Empire, she didn’t get much interaction with UC Berkeley in high school.
“I think it’s very important that we send recruiters to different communities all around, especially … places that might not be feeder schools or places that might have students … that aren’t really excited about a certain college,” Solomon said.
In total, the UC system admitted its highest-ever number of California residents, with two-thirds of incoming freshmen being Californian, but in Berkeley that number has been decreasing, going from 79% in 2024 to 68% this year.
Rising California resident admissions were motivated by the UC 2030 Сaрacity Plan, which aims to add about 17,000 California undergraduate students by 2030. According to a UC press release, the system is on track to meet its target.
A 2022 multiyear agreement between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the UC system requires the university to increase undergraduate enrollment of California residents by 1% each year in order to receive greater state funding.
“As the nation’s No. 1 public university, we have a responsibility to serve all of California and we look for the highest achieving students in the context of their own school and community,” said John Marfield, assistant vice chancellor and director of undergraduate admissions, in an email.