More than 3,600 students from a broad cross-section of the state will enroll at Berkeley this fall, culled from about 31,000 applicants and 8,400 admitted -- about the same as last year.

They come from 48 of the state's 58 counties, with 33 percent from the Bay Area, 11 percent from Northern California, 23 percent from Los Angeles County, 20 percent from other Southern California counties, 11 percent from out of state, and 2.4 percent from abroad.

The 1999 freshman class will include a slight, across-the-board increase in all ethnic groups. The only drop is in the number of students who chose not to state their ethnicity.

Asian American students are expected to make up 44.8 percent of the campus's freshman population, up from 42.8 percent in fall 1998. White students are expected to comprise 31.5 percent, up from 30.3 percent. Underrepresented minority students are expected to make up 13.2 percent, up from 10.5 percent last year.

Campus administrators say they are encouraged by the moderate increase in underrepresented minority students, which includes African American, Chicano, Latino and American Indian students. But they also note that the overall figure -- 471 freshmen projected to enroll this fall -- is well below the 776 minority students who stated their intent to register for fall 1997, the last admissions cycle before California banned consideration of race and ethnicity in the college admissions process.

Semester fees will drop slightly for California undergraduates, from $2,088 last fall to $2,020 this fall. Fees and tuition for out-of-state undergraduates will rise from $6,879 to $7,089/semester.