Keeping pace with increased demand, enrollments are continuing to grow at the University of California, Davis, with as many as 608 more students expected to register next week than registered last fall. When classes begin Sept. 30, a student body of 25,473 is anticipated, up from last fall's 24,865. Total undergraduate enrollment is expected to rise by 458, mostly due to a larger number of continuing students. Drawn from a record pool of 22,772 applicants, about 3,825 new freshmen likely will register by the start of classes, 190 more than last fall. About 800 of the 1,500 new transfer students, drawn from a record applicant pool of 5,122, will have participated in the Transfer Admission Agreement program with 56 community colleges throughout the state. Upper-division students will continue to make up 60 percent of the undergraduate student body this year. New graduate and professional students are expected to increase their ranks by 28, for a total of 3,702. Health science enrollments should increase by 20 to 1,970. The newly admitted freshman class's average grade point is 3.85 and mean Scholastic Aptitude Test score is 1222. More than 13.4 percent of the newly admitted freshmen are from underrepresented ethnic groups, compared to 14.6 percent last year. Fifty-six percent are women. Here's a snapshot of what this fall's students will find as they arrive next week: o Course availability. Most students (as of Sept. 20) were able to enroll in a full load of 12 or more units: 89 percent of freshmen; 85 percent of sophomores; 87 percent of juniors; and 82 percent of seniors. Students needing to pick up additional courses to complete their schedules will find a variety of open course sections and classroom seats. Currently, about 700 sections with some 14,000 seats are available within the high-demand College of Letters and Science. "This is clearly a testament to the excellent work that faculty and staff have done in monitoring their enrollments and in striving to match course offerings to student demand, even in an environment of student enrollment growth," said Fred Wood, associate dean of the College of Letters and Science. Openings exist in many popular introductory courses such as general chemistry, and the waiting lists are relatively small in such high-demand courses as calculus and organic chemistry. Courses in the social sciences continue to be very popular. Many introductory and advanced courses are full, but students will find openings in a limited number of sections and courses. English composition courses are again full this fall, but students should be able to find seats winter quarter. Wait lists are relatively long for introductory language courses in Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. But students will find openings in introductory courses in French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin and Russian. As in the past, students may request "simultaneous enrollment" to enroll in a course at another college when its equivalent at UC Davis is full. For example, students electing to study Spanish might choose to enroll in a comparable course at a nearby community college until the more advanced course is available at UC Davis. o Financial aid. For the second year in a row, UC systemwide fees will decrease 5 percent for California-resident undergraduates, marking the fifth consecutive year that resident undergrad fees have not been raised. Systemwide fees for resident academic graduate students also will fall 5 percent. Undergrads who are California residents will pay $4,034 this school year, and resident academic grad students will pay $4,314. An estimated 55 percent to 65 percent of the undergraduate student body is expected to be provided some form of financial aid. So far, $12 million has been disbursed to 9,000 undergraduates for this fall. The average indebtedness of a new bachelor's degree graduate totals about $12,000-$15,000, but an expected increase in grants this year may pare that debt estimate. o Housing. Housing is expected to be tight again this fall, both on the campus and within the city. Undergraduate residence halls and apartments for students with children are expected to be full when classes begin next week, and a city apartment vacancy rate of just 0.7 percent is projected. Primero Grove, a 1-year-old 180-unit complex, will house freshman and transfer students displaced by the current renovation of Emerson Hall. Beginning in fall 2000, the privately owned complex will be available for leasing to graduate and upper-division students. Construction continues on LaRue Park, expected to be ready for occupancy in fall 2000. Residence hall students will find two new housing options this fall -- the Agricultural Interest Program and academic theme programs in the fields of science, health science, and anthropology and communication. o Building construction and renovation. The campus is in the midst of its biggest building boom in at least 12 years. Projects worth well over $200 million are now in planning, design or construction. Among major projects: The basement has been dug and foundation work has started on a plant and environmental sciences building north of Veihmeyer Hall. The 125,000-square-foot building, to be completed in fall 2001, will replace aging Hoagland and Hunt halls and provide lab and office space for the agronomy and range science and the land, air and water resources departments. The Walker Hall replacement project, west of Crocker Nuclear Lab, is 60 percent complete. The 62,000-square-foot building is scheduled to be completed next summer. The Equine Analytical Chemistry Lab is nearly finished. Occupants will be moving to the 30,000-square-foot building next month. The campus wastewater treatment plant is 85 percent built and scheduled to be completed in November. Seismic renovation of Webster Hall is finished; similar repairs on Emerson Hall will continue through the summer. o Parking and transportation. This year, the campus's parking system, entirely funded by user fees, should again be able to handle parking demand though some south campus drivers may be temporarily inconvenienced. Construction has begun on the South Entry Parking Facilities -- 715 spaces within a three-level structure and 885 surface parking spaces. The project has taken 438-space Lot 2B out of service. To make it easier for south campus drivers to park their cars until the new surface lot comes on board, Parking Services has constructed 70 additional temporary parking spaces east of Lot 2 and will provide attendants to coordinate "stack" parking in nearby lots. When the new 867-space South Entry surface lot is opened in March, Lots 1, 1A and 2 will be closed so construction can begin on the three-story structure, due to open in December 2000. Three temporary parking lots accommodating 480 vehicles have been constructed east of Primero Grove, north of Regan Housing and south of the Fire/Police Building. Several roads and bike paths have been resurfaced and additional high-security bike racks installed over the summer. Most UC Davis parking permits can now double as a free bus pass when shown to a Unitrans driver at boarding. The annual Transportation Fair will be held Friday, Oct. 8, at the Silo Union Courtyard, with "plenty of fun, food and prizes," says transportation and parking services director Brodie Hamilton. Participants will learn about carpool, vanpool, transit and bike commute options, as well as air quality and traffic congestion. Bicycles at bargain prices will be available at the campus's biannual bike auction, held Saturday, Oct. 9, at 9 a.m. behind the Fire/Police Building on Kleiber Hall Drive. Bikes can be previewed at 8 a.m. More than 325 used bikes, as well as unclaimed lost-and-found items, will be available to the highest bidder.