More than 42,300 high school seniors, prospective transfer students and others applied to study at UC Davis for fall 2007 — a 5.9 percent increase over fall 2006.

A total of 42,311 students applied, compared with 39,936 applicants for fall 2006. There are 35,088 applicants for freshman status this fall, a 7.6 percent increase from last year's 32,611 and the largest percentage gain in freshman applications among UC's undergraduate campuses.

A total of 7,223 applicants are seeking to transfer from another college or university, for a 1.4 percent decrease from last fall's 7,325.

Applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups rose to about 19 percent among both domestic freshman applicants and domestic transfer students. Last year, they accounted for about 17 percent in each applicant group.

"We're encouraged by the increased diversity of our freshman and transfer applicant pools," said Pamela Burnett, director of Undergraduate Admissions.

For fall 2007, the campus aims to enroll about 4,800 new freshmen directly from high school and about 1,800 new transfer students.

Systemwide, UC applications are up 3.9 percent overall, from 106,784 for fall 2006 to 110,994 for fall 2007. A total of 87,213 students applied for freshman status, for a 5.3 percent increase over last year's 82,841. Among transfer applicants, there was a 0.7 decrease, from 23,943 last year to 23,781.

A total of 32,901 California high school students applied for freshman status at UC Davis in 2007, compared with 30,650 for fall 2006. Those from traditionally underrepresented groups — African-American, American Indian and Chicano/Latino — increased 16 percent. For fall 2007, they account for 19 percent, or 6,270, of all California high school applicants, compared with 17.6 percent for students who applied to UC Davis for fall 2006.

All ethnic groups experienced increases this year: African-American, from 1,141 last year to 1,242 this year, or 8.9 percent; American Indian, from 201 last year to 217 this year, or 8 percent; Asian-American, from 10,972 to 11,239, or 2.4 percent; Chicano/Latino, from 4,062 to 4,811, or 18.4 percent; Filipino-American, from 1,293 to 1,476, or 14.2 percent; and White/other, from 11,438 to 12,371, or 8.2 percent.

Students for whom an ethnicity is missing increased negligibly, from 1,543 to 1,545, or 0.1 percent.

A total of 5,691 domestic applicants are seeking to transfer from a California community college this year, compared with 5,873 last year. Those from traditionally underrepresented groups account for 19.1 percent of the domestic applicants, compared with 17.6 percent last year.

Those groups with increases this year include: African-American, from 213 last year to 222 this year, or 4.2 percent; Chicano/Latino, from 760 to 816, or 7.4 percent; and Filipino-American, from 198 to 212, or 7.1 percent.

Applicants will be notified of admission decisions beginning in mid-March.

Statistics for the system are available at http://www.ucop.edu/news/studstaff.html.