Latinos Invade UCLA For Fall 2012: Applications up For All Ethnic Groups

JMRosenfeld

In fact -- gasp -- minorities are largely responsible for the Westwood campus' 12.7 percent increase in applications for fall.

It's the most diverse applicant pool in school history. (Blasphemy, we know). Here's the breakdown, according to UCLA:

-Applications from Latino kids went up 15.6 percent compared to last year, according to the school.

-There was a 13.7 percent increase in applications from African Americans.

-And Native Americans saw a 12.9 percent increase.

-Even Asian Americans (6.8 percent) and white students (2.3) want in on this action.

Why? Because the economy's bad and even though UCLA has some of the toughest standards and highest-achieving freshman in the nation, it's still a world-class education with state-school prices.

Sure, this doesn't bode well for the argument that California is pricing its higher education out of reach. Despite a tripling of tuition at UCLA in 10 years, they keep coming.

The campus saw a record 91,512 applications for fall, according to UCLA. Of course, according to campus stats, only about one in four will actually get in.

Janina Montero, UCLA's admissions director:

This data shows that students and families highly value the outstanding education UCLA offers. We also are pleased that despite severe state funding cuts and higher tuition, this is our most diverse applicant pool to date.

If you went to college in this town, you remember those dirty old acronyms about UCLA.

Now it's the University of Caucasians, Latinos and Asians. Orale.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]