UC Berkeley admitted only 21.5 percent of freshmen applicants for the 2008-09 school year, the lowest acceptance rate in campus history, officials announced Monday.

Of the record-high 48,418 high school seniors who applied, the campus offered admission to 10,388 for the fall semester, according to admissions data. Additionally, it admitted more than 2,000 for the spring term.

“We have an incredibly wonderful new group of freshman applicants,” said Susie Castillo-Robson, the campus’ associate vice chancellor of admissions and enrollment. “The (admissions) process itself was actually the smoothest we’ve ever had for 10 years. The challenge is in that the quality of the student pool was so robust.”

This fall’s freshman admit class averaged 2034 on the SAT, up from 2029 for fall 2007, said Evera Spears, associate director of undergraduate admissions. Its average GPA matches last year’s class at 3.87. Advertisement

Meanwhile, underrepresented minority students comprise 16 percent of UC Berkeley’s admitted freshmen, remaining relatively constant from last year. Across the overall UC system, the number of admitted minorities from California increased nearly 15 percent.