Men are now a shrinking minority at the University of California — barely a third of admits at the selective campuses. A test-blind, grades-driven system leans on exactly the measure where boys most trail. Here's the data, school by school.
At the six selective UC campuses, about 58% of admitted students are women and 42% are men — and at Berkeley it reaches 1.66 women admitted for every man — the most lopsided ratio in the UC. Systemwide it's about 56% women, 44% men. That gap has been widening for a decade — and it maps cleanly onto a quieter change: UC dropped the SAT entirely and now admits on GPA and context, the measures on which boys lag most, while discarding the tested measures where their relative standing is strongest. This page looks at what that means, and which schools support their boys the most — and the least.
1The gap, in UC's own numbers
Women are a clear and growing majority of UC undergraduates, and the imbalance is sharpest at the most competitive campuses.
UC systemwide — admitted first-yearsFall 2025
Women 56%
Men 44%
The six selective campuses (Berkeley · UCLA · San Diego · Davis · UCSB · Irvine)
Women 58%
Men 42%
At Berkeley women outnumber men 1.66 to 1 among admits; UC Merced is closest to even.
Women admitted for every man, by campus — most lopsided first.
Ratio of women to men among reported-gender admits (UC, Fall 2025). Berkeley leads at 1.66 — nearly two women for every man; Merced is nearly even.
The Lady Bears of Berkeley
Berkeley’s Golden Bears skew decidedly Lady — 1.66 women admitted for every man, nearly two to one, the most lopsided ratio in the University of California.
1.66×
women admitted per man at Berkeley
60%
of UC persisters past year one are women
~57%
women share of US undergrad enrollment
National context: among 25–34-year-olds, 47% of women hold a bachelor's degree vs. 37% of men (Pew, 2024). Richard Reeves notes today's ~15-point degree gap favoring women is larger than the ~13-point gap favoring men when Title IX passed in 1972 — the gap has more than reversed.
2Why a test-blind system compounds it
UC has been test-blind since 2021 — no SAT or ACT considered at all — and now leans heavily on GPA plus context. Look at what boys and girls actually do on California's measures:
Grades — girls lead, consistently
Girls earn markedly higher GPAs on average — national transcript studies put the gap at roughly a quarter of a grade point (NCES), and boys are heavily overrepresented in the lowest GPA decile. The grade signal — the one UC now weights most — is the one boys trail on by the widest, most durable margin.
Tested skills — mixed, boys' relative strength
On California's SBAC, boys lag in ELA by roughly 8 points but are competitive-to-ahead in math. On the SAT math tail, boys are heavily overrepresented. UC discarded exactly the measure where boys' relative standing is best.
The honest thesis is about system design, not blame. A grades-and-context admissions system optimizes for the behaviors on which boys most lag — and UC's own numbers show the result. It doesn't cause the gap (women were a UC majority before test-blind); it plausibly widens it.
3The Admissions Swarm — young men
Every California high school, one dot — placed by the school's male UC admit rate, colored by how its male students perform on the state test (share of grade-11 boys exceeding both SBAC standards). Pick a campus; click a dot for the school's numbers.
707 California high schools with 20+ male UC applicants (a higher floor than the all-students swarm; male subgroups suppress below 11 tested / 5 applicants, so micro-schools drop out).
Boys who cleared the bar — admitted less. The high-scoring green dots left of the pack are schools where boys perform well above the state bar yet are admitted at below-median rates. At Tesoro (Orange) 18% of grade-11 boys exceed both SBAC standards, El Toro 14%, San Ramon Valley 13%, Mira Mesa 12% — but their male applicants are admitted at roughly 52–61%, against a ~77% statewide median. Strong performers, lower odds: the pattern a grades-and-context system produces. (The far-right dots at 100% are the opposite — small, low-scoring schools whose boys are nearly all admitted to the broad-access campuses.)
4Schools where boys are supported most — and least
Two rankings, computed the same way as the main site's Admitted California view but for boys only: male UC offers relative to the male students who cleared the state's top achievement bar. "Most supported" = boys admitted well beyond their tested numbers; "least supported" = strong male performers, few offers.
Schools where boys are most supported
Highest male MPR — boys admitted well beyond the number who cleared the state's top bar.
School
County
Male admit
Boys exc. both
MPR
Monte Vista High
San Diego
80%
6.2%
4.6×
Abraham Lincoln Senior High
Los Angeles
71%
9.4%
4.3×
Redwood High
Tulare
63%
5.6%
3.9×
California High
Los Angeles
82%
6.5%
3.6×
Santiago High
Orange
82%
5.2%
3.4×
Preuss School UCSD
San Diego
80%
15.3%
3.0×
Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies
Los Angeles
84%
10.4%
3.0×
Oakland High
Alameda
76%
4.2%
2.9×
Oakland Technical High
Alameda
82%
7.5%
2.8×
Yerba Buena High
Santa Clara
86%
7.0%
2.5×
Canyon High
Los Angeles
81%
4.5%
2.5×
Burton (Phillip and Sala) Academic High
San Francisco
67%
7.3%
2.4×
Schools where boys are supported least
Lowest male MPR — strong male performers, comparatively few offers.
School
County
Male admit
Boys exc. both
MPR
El Toro High
Orange
52%
14.1%
0.3×
Citrus Valley High
San Bernardino
72%
13.5%
0.3×
Esperanza High
Orange
69%
11.6%
0.4×
Piedmont Hills High
Santa Clara
70%
18.1%
0.4×
Helix High
San Diego
71%
16.6%
0.4×
Chaparral High
Riverside
81%
9.9%
0.4×
El Dorado High
Orange
70%
12.6%
0.4×
Mission Viejo High
Orange
64%
10.9%
0.4×
Santa Fe High
Los Angeles
64%
10.0%
0.4×
Pleasant Grove High
Sacramento
76%
16.1%
0.4×
San Marino High
Los Angeles
77%
61.5%
0.5×
Burroughs High
Los Angeles
72%
8.0%
0.5×
5By UC campus
Male vs. female (and nonbinary) applicants, admits, and enrollees at each of the nine campuses — so you can see exactly where the gap is widest.
Each campus, split by gender among applicants, admits, and enrollees whose gender was reported. Watch the blue shrink from applied to admitted at the selective campuses.
Boys apply to the UC in near-even numbers — then are admitted at a lower rate than girls at every single campus. The more selective the UC, the wider the gap: 7% of male applicants get into Berkeley (girls 11%), 6% into UCLA (girls 8%).
MenWomenNonbinaryDecline to state
UC Berkeley
Applied
48%
51%
Admitted
38%
62%
Enrolled
40%
60%
Boys are 48% of applicants but just 38% of those admitted — the steepest applicant-to-admit drop in the UC — recovering only to 40% of the enrolled class.
UCLA
Applied
46%
53%
Admitted
41%
59%
Enrolled
38%
62%
Boys slip from 46% of applicants to 41% of admits and just 38% of the enrolled class.
UC Santa Barbara
Applied
44%
55%
Admitted
41%
59%
Enrolled
35%
65%
Boys hold 44% of applicants and 41% of admits, but only 35% of enrollees — the smallest male share of any UC freshman class.
UC Davis
Applied
46%
53%
Admitted
41%
58%
Enrolled
36%
64%
Boys fall from 46% of applicants to 41% of admits and just 36% of the enrolled class.
UC San Diego
Applied
46%
53%
Admitted
42%
58%
Enrolled
45%
54%
Boys are 46% of applicants and 42% of admits, but tick back up to 45% of enrollees — admitted boys are more likely to say yes.
UC Santa Cruz
Applied
44%
56%
Admitted
42%
57%
Enrolled
46%
54%
Boys move from 44% of applicants to 42% of admits, then rebound to 46% of the enrolled class on stronger yield.
UC Irvine
Applied
47%
53%
Admitted
43%
57%
Enrolled
43%
57%
Boys hold steady — 47% of applicants, and 43% of both admits and enrollees.
UC Riverside
Applied
46%
53%
Admitted
45%
54%
Enrolled
49%
51%
The most balanced pipeline: boys are 46% of applicants, 45% of admits, and 49% of enrollees — near parity at every stage.
UC Merced
Applied
47%
53%
Admitted
47%
53%
Enrolled
55%
45%
Boys are 47% of applicants and admits alike, then 55% of the enrolled class — the only UC where young men are the majority of the incoming class.
Bars are 100% of the reported-gender applicants/admits/enrollees at each stage. UC suppresses small per-school gender cells (heaviest at the enrollment stage), which are excluded here rather than assigned a gender. “Decline to state” is the reported not-stated category — under 1% at every campus.
6Best for boys — which UC admits the most
The simplest fairness test: of the boys who apply, what share actually get in? Blue bar = male admit rate, ranked highest first. It largely tracks selectivity — the broad-access campuses take nearly everyone — but the comparison is the point.
Male admit rate by campus, with the female and undisclosed-gender admit rates alongside (UC, Fall 2025).
UC Merced
95%
girls 96% · decline-to-state 100%
UC Riverside
85%
girls 88% · decline-to-state 92%
UC Santa Cruz
69%
girls 73% · decline-to-state 83%
UC Davis
37%
girls 45% · decline-to-state 22%
UC Santa Barbara
33%
girls 38% · decline-to-state 19%
UC Irvine
24%
girls 28% · decline-to-state 8%
UC San Diego
23%
girls 27% · decline-to-state 8%
UC Berkeley
7%
girls 11% · decline-to-state 1%
UCLA
6%
girls 8% · decline-to-state 2%
The relative advantage, by gender
Systemwide UC admit rate — admitted to at least one campus — by gender identity (Fall 2025), and each group’s edge over boys.
Men
72.5%
baseline
Women
75.3%
+2.8 pts · 1.04×
Nonbinary
80.1%
+7.6 pts · 1.10×
Decline to state
82.2%
+9.7 pts · 1.13×
Boys have the lowest admit rate of any gender category. Systemwide, women are admitted at 75% (+3 pts over boys), nonbinary applicants at 80% (+8 pts, 1.10×), and decline-to-state applicants at 82% (+10 pts, 1.13×). Two honest caveats: nonbinary and decline-to-state are small groups (fewer than 900 applicants each systemwide), and their edge is driven by the broad-access campuses — at the selective ones the decline-to-state cohort is admitted far less (0.6% at Berkeley).
No UC admits boys at a higher rate than girls. At every campus the female admit rate is higher — the gap is widest at UC Davis (boys 37% vs girls 45%) and narrowest at Merced. The decline-to-state cohort is admitted at very different rates by campus: near-universal at the broad-access campuses, and just 0.6% at Berkeley and 1.8% at UCLA.
7Methodology & honest caveats
Data. Male UC applicants/admits by California high school and by campus come from the UC Information Center ("Fall freshmen by gender and high school"). Male academic performance is the CAASPP Smarter Balanced grade-11 Male subgroup (student group 003), "exceeded both" ELA and math, joined to each school by CDS code — the same pipeline the main swarm uses, with the male subgroup swapped in.
What this is and isn't. These are school-level patterns, not claims about any individual admit. Small male groups are suppressed on both sides (UC blanks fewer than 5 applicants / 3 admits; CAASPP suppresses fewer than 11 tested), so the young-men swarm carries fewer dots than the all-students version.
The caveats we won't hide
Correlation, not causation. Women were already a UC majority before test-blind admissions. The policy plausibly widens the gap; it did not create it. We say "compounds," not "causes."
Boys' reading gap is real. The ~8-point ELA deficit isn't an artifact of testing choices — boys genuinely read and write less well on average, and that would show up under almost any admissions system.
We don't lean on "boys are better at math." In California the male math edge is recent (post-2022) and modest; girls led statewide just a few years ago. The durable fact is the grades-vs-tests divergence, not innate ability.
The gap is multi-causal — developmental timing, engagement, and labor-market alternatives all matter, not admissions rules alone. This is a "we can care about boys and girls" argument, not a zero-sum one.
Test-blind had defensible aims (a court settlement; equity concerns about the SAT). We're arguing about an unintended consequence, not imputing bad faith.
Where did the young men go? · Admitted California.org · School-level analysis; figures being finalized against primary UC and CAASPP data before publication.
