Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

UC Berkeley students walk by Sather Tower on the UC Berkeley campus April 17, 2007

The University of California may not be able to admit every qualified California student if the state imposes deeper budget cuts, university officials say. Such students have been guaranteed admission under the state’s Master Plan for Education.

“These are very difficult times for the university,” said Pamela Burnett, interim director of Undergraduate Admissions at UC, in a conference call with reporters. “Faced with staggering budget reductions from the state of California, we have sharply curtailed enrollment growth... We now enroll more than 11,000 California students for whom we receive no state enrollment funding.”

UC concedes that more students are being turned away from their top choice of campuses, in order to make room for out-of-state or international students, who pay higher tuition.

“We have had to make very difficult decisions to turn away students who we know would thrive,” Burnett said. “But with the constraints that we have there are probably more California residents who are not being offered admission to the campus of their choice.”

Applicants passed over by their first choice have the option of enrolling at UC Merced; roughly 12,733 undergraduates were referred to that campus this year.  With the number of applications to UC schools rising, the Merced campus may not be able to accept as many of these "referrals," Burnett said.  That would make it nearly impossible for UC to admit all of the qualified California students who apply.

The University of California, Berkeley, was the second most competitive of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses, just behind University of California, Los Angeles, according to UC officials.

Approximately 70 percent of students admitted to those two campuses are state residents, compared with UC Merced, where the rate is 97.3 percent. California residents represent 82 percent of students admitted to the entire UC system.

The cost of attending a UC school continues to rise. This fall, tuition and fees at UC Berkeley will increase by 8 percent to $12,150, on average, a $900 jump from last year.

The state has asked UC to absorb $500 million in cuts for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. Gov. Jerry Brown has warned that tuition for UC undergraduates may double to $20,000 and $25,000 for the 2012-13 school year, if state lawmakers fail to approve tax extensions to balance California's budget shortfall.

Of the record 52,900 applications submitted, UC Berkeley sent acceptance letters to about 13,600 students for the fall. Students from outside California made up 31.2 percent of those admitted to UC Berkeley in 2011, compared with 13.6 percent in 2009, according to university figures.

Cal admits students for both the fall and spring semesters. The combined admissions rate--students offered admissions in the fall along with those offered admission in spring--is 25 percent, according to the university. These admissions rates are similar to those from last year.

The campus intends to enroll 4,200 students for the fall 2011 semester and another 950 for the spring 2012 term. Students have until May 1 to accept.

Many of the out-of-state students admitted to Cal are from Texas, Washington state, New Jersey, New York and Illinois. Berkeley also admitted international students representing 74 countries, including Botswana, Denmark, Macedonia and Rwanda. Most international students are from these five countries: China, South Korea, Canada, India and Singapore.

“We are bringing in yet another outstanding class that represents a diversity of backgrounds from around the world,” Walter Robinson, UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor and director of undergraduate admissions said in a statement, “and we think that kind of diversity is value-added to the undergraduate experience.”