UC Discussing Ending Admission Guarantee

Jonathan Lekstutis
November 27, 2007

The University of California’s long standing guarantee of acceptance for students achieving minimum grades and standardized test scores is in jeopardy. A plan to eliminate the admission procedure is being debated Tuesday by UC San Diego’s faculty senate. The proposal would replace the guarantee with a pledge to look over each qualifying student’s entire application.

For proponents of the plan this is a way to make sure that students in rural and inner-city high schools don’t miss out on the chance of attending UC just because they lack access to honors courses and advisers who could guide the students to the courses and standardized tests that UC requires for admission.

The proposal would also bring to an end the requirement that applicants take two SAT subject tests. This would reduce the number of mandatory SAT tests from five to three. In addition the plan would modify the way the schools weighs students grade point averages. Less emphasis would be placed on honors courses and college courses to make for a fair playing field for students who don’t have access to those types of courses.

Taking these steps would likely mean that fewer students would be guaranteed admission, but as many as 50 percent more could have their application reviewed, as opposed to many being denied for not being able to achieve the minimum grades and test scores.

The proponents of the proposal claim that the admission process now denies thousands of applicants because they didn’t take all the courses and tests required for admission.

“The overarching objective here is to simply be more fair by removing a filter which arbitrarily excluded some students, even though they were high-achieving,” said Mark Rashid, an engineering professor at UC Davis and chairman of the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, the system wide faculty committee that came up with the proposal. “That is nobody’s idea of an optimal admissions process.”

The opponents of the new admission process worry that the loss of the guarantee would remove the predictability that students and parents count on when planning for college.

“Right now, parents and students can say that if I do this, then I’m guaranteed a place at UC,” said Jim Posakony, a biology professor and chairman of UCSD’s faculty senate. ”That’s valuable for planning and just for psychological knowledge.”

There will not be a vote on the proposal Tuesday. It is expected to be reviewed and then submitted to the UC’s board of regents.