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CSU freshmen, transfer applications increase

The 23-campus Cal State University system has seen a significant rise in first-time freshmen and transfer applications in recent years.

Although total applications numbers are up, Gov. Brown’s recent budget proposal may stop the CSU from admitting 20,000 extra students it had originally hoped to enroll, CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said.

As part of his four-year funding plan, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed to increase CSU funding by $142.2 million for the 2014-15 academic year, which is $95.4 million short of the $237.6 million that the CSU Board of Trustees asked for in November.

Uhlenkamp said the decrease could prompt the CSU to reconsider its goal of adding 20,000 more students.

First-time freshmen applications across the Cal State University system rose by 2.8 percent from fall 2013 to fall 2014, a smaller increase than the 8.5 percent jump between fall 2012 and fall 2013, according to the CSU website.

“It is an incremental increase [in applications for fall 2014],” CSU Spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said.

Uhlenkamp said the larger increase between fall 2012 and fall 2013 was generated because 13 CSU campuses, including Cal State Long Beach, stopped accepting applications in spring 2013 semester.

The CSU campuses stopped accepting applications for the semester because of budget cuts and the possibility of a $250 million trigger cut that lingered over the CSU.

Because Proposition 30 passed in November 2012, the $250 million trigger cut did not occur.

Uhlenkamp said that as a result, other students who would have applied in spring 2013 pushed their applications back to fall 2013, resulting in the 8.5 percent increase.

He also said that fall 2014 saw a smaller increase in transfer applications than fall 2013. According to data provided by the CSU, fall 2014 transfer applications rose by only 0.2 percent from fall 2013.

Fall 2012 to fall 2013, on the other hand, saw a 21.2 percent increase in transfer applications.

Community college students who applied to the other 10 CSU campuses, which were accepting applications, were required to have an Associate Degree for Transfer. Under Senate Bill 1440, any community college student with an Associate Degree for Transfer is guaranteed admission to a CSU.

According to the CSU website, applications for the 10 CSU campuses were mostly limited to those who had an Associate Degree for Transfer.

Although six CSU campuses saw a decrease in the number of applications for first-time freshmen in fall 2014, CSULB still saw a 1.2 percent increase.

CSULB was also one of 11 CSU campuses that saw an increase in the number of transfer applications in fall 2014, according to CSU data.

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