Every UC campus says it wants more low-income and first-generation students. Only one of them changed who it admits by a margin you can see from across the room. Between fall 2019 and fall 2022, the low-income share of UC San Diego's admitted California freshmen went from 34% to 52%. No other campus moved more than 10 points. And the fall 2025 high-school data shows the same tilt still at work in how UCSD reads an application.
UC San Diego moved 18 points in three years. The rest of the system moved 7.UC publishes the low-income and first-generation share of each campus's admitted California freshmen. From fall 2019 to fall 2022 UCSD's low-income share rose 18 points and its first-generation share 11. It went from the middle of the pack to the highest of the six selective campuses, passing Irvine. Then it started drifting back.
+18 pts
UCSD low-income share of admits, fall 2019 → fall 2022 (34% → 52%). UC overall: +7.
+11 pts
UCSD first-generation share, fall 2019 → fall 2022 (37% → 48%). UC overall: unchanged at 44%.
35% vs 20%
UCSD's fall 2025 admit rate for applicants from the poorest quarter of California high schools vs the richest quarter.
Share of admitted California freshmen, by campus
Each line is one campus. UC San Diego is highlighted. Merced and Riverside are left off: they admit nearly everyone who applies, so their shares track their applicant pools rather than any admissions choice. Hover for every campus in a given year.
Low-income share of admitted California freshmen
UC San DiegoBerkeley, Davis, Irvine, UCLA, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz (labeled at right)
Percent of admitted California-resident first-year students who reported family income at or below UC's low-income line (about the 30th percentile of California households, $58,000 to $68,000 depending on year). Students who did not report income are excluded from the denominator in every year.Show the numbers as a table
Why "aggressive" and not just "serves a poor region"
UC Merced and UC Riverside have the highest low-income shares in the system, but they admit 95% and 88% of applicants: their numbers describe who applies, not who they choose. The test of an admissions office is what it does with applicants from poor schools versus rich ones.
Fall 2025 admit rate by applicant's high school: poorest quarter vs richest quarter
Applicants from the poorest quarter of high schoolsRichest quarter
Admit rate = admits ÷ applications to that campus, summed over 871 California public high schools with both UC fall 2025 source-school data and a 2024–25 free/reduced-price-meal (FRPM) rate. Quarters are by school FRPM rate: richest quarter under 41% FRPM, poorest quarter above 84%. Last column is the gap in percentage points, positive when poorer schools are admitted at a higher rate. Comparing only schools within the same band of Smarter Balanced grade-11 "exceeds standard" rates gives UCSD +12 points, Berkeley +4, Santa Barbara +4, UCLA +1, and every other campus negative.
What the totality of the data says
UC San Diego is the answer, and it is not close. On the two measures UC itself publishes, UCSD made the largest move of any campus in the system: low-income share up 18 points and first-generation share up 11 points from fall 2019 to its fall 2022 peak. The next-largest moves were Berkeley and UCLA at +10 on low-income, and both of those campuses barely moved on first-generation.
The tilt persists in how it reads applications. Fall 2025 source-school data shows UCSD admitting 35% of applicants from the poorest quarter of California high schools against 20% from the richest quarter. Holding school test performance constant, that is a 12-point preference. Berkeley and Santa Barbara show a 4-point preference; UCLA is flat; Davis, Irvine, Santa Cruz, Riverside and Merced all admit applicants from poorer schools at a lower rate than those from richer ones.
It has been pulling back. UCSD's first-generation share has drifted from 48% in 2022 to 37% in 2026, back to its 2019 level, and its low-income share has come down to 44% while the system as a whole rose to 49%. The push was concentrated in the test-blind years of 2020 through 2022. The campus still shows the strongest preference for poor schools in its admit rates, but its admitted class no longer looks different from the UC average.
What this means for your student. The campus a family targets matters as much as the GPA it brings. The free school report on this page shows how your own high school's applicants have fared at each UC campus, and which campuses have been admitting students from schools like yours.
