Controversial Admissions Policy Proposal Could Shake Up University of California System

The biggest change in how the University of California system evaluates prospective applicants in 10 years could come from a major administrator-proposed revision to the system’s admissions policy, allowing schools to depend less on test scores and more on individual student evaluations when making admissions offers, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“U. of California Proposes Sweeping and Controversial Admissions Changes”).

The new policy would give more discretion to admissions officials at each school, David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, told the Chronicle. Longanecker also said that the move would bring the state’s college admissions policies more in line with those of private and public research universities.

Advocates say that the system’s current strict eligibility formula doesn’t adequately consider deserving students from minority or low -income backgrounds who have high GPAs, but who didn’t take the correct college-prep classes or the SAT II.

Under the newly proposed rules, students would no longer have to take this additional test or as many required college-prep courses. Administrators would be allowed to evaluate applicants on an individual basis and would be able to forego the system’s current formulaic admissions methods that depend solely on test scores or other pre-set criteria.

Those administrators who are in favor of the change say that while the new policy would only marginally affect the largest campuses, such as U.C. Berkeley and UCLA, those like the U.C. Riverside and U.C. Merced campuses, which are less selective, may see a significant shift in the composition of their freshmen class.

Critics contend that fewer students with the highest grades and test scores would be guaranteed a spot at a California state school; a factor that may violate the state’s constitution which requires that the UC system admit the top 12.5 percent of California’s high school students.

“It's a change in substance as well as in symbol,” said William Drummond, a Berkeley journalism professor. “Ever since the 1960s and the master plan, we’ve been telling kids from primary school on up that if you work hard, we will guarantee you a place. Now we’ll just guarantee that you’ll be reviewed.”