UC Admissions and Application New Process Bad Change

The proposed UC admission changes would eliminate the promise of guaranteed admissions to the top 12.5% of graduating California high school students; instead, admissions would be based on a vague set of criteria that would allow schools to disregard merit and admit students based more on whim or ill-defined diversity goals.

The SAT Achievement tests (also called the SAT Subject tests and SAT II) would no longer be required, despite the well-known study which showed that the SAT Achievement tests were the best predictor of freshman performance. (It should be noted that UC has already watered down the Achievement test requirement, dropping the requirement for three tests in specific areas to two tests in subject areas chosen by students.)

The advocates of this change in admissions must be badly out of step with the middle-class Californians who fund the UC system -- it is the promise that qualified students are guaranteed admission to the UC system that explains the taxpayers' continuing support of the University of California system. The advocates justify their proposal on the basis that "rural and inner-city high schools that do not offer all the college preparatory classes required by UC and that do not have enough counselors to properly guide students to take the required courses and tests." I am skeptical that many high schools in California do not have college preparatory classes -- but even those that do not can offer admission on the basis of examination, an option already existing in the UC system. Furthermore, a student incapable of reading the UC admissions criteria (which are highly publicized throughout California high schools) is probably a student we do not want.

It should be mentioned that UC has already recently adopted a policy allowing California students who otherwise would be rejected to be considered if they are in the top 4% of their high school graduating class. Surely, this enormous concession is already sufficient to address the concerns that inner-city students are underrepresented at UC campuses. Moving UC admissions further away from a merit-based method and accepting students who have failed to take college preparatory courses or even simple objective exams is hardly the path for a university systems that wishes to have students that excel. - Source: By tygar-blog.com