Admissions Academy Blog

UC to Change Admissions for Class of 2012 Applicants

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on February 6th, 2009 in Admissions, Articles of Interest
•  

Yesterday, the University of California Board of Regents approved a proposal to change the freshman admissions and selection process for the fall of 2012. One of the most visible of changes is the fact that SAT Subject tests will no longer be required for admissions. UC has been the only public university system to require SAT Subject tests from applicants, and by eliminating this requirement, UC hopes to be able to attract more students who are academically qualified but may not have access to preparation for the SAT Subject exams.

Other notable changes are the elimination of the three current freshman pathways to eligibility: Eligibility in the Statewide Context, Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC), and Eligibility by Examination Alone. Instead, all freshman applicants who meet the following statewide criteria will be “entitled to review”:
* Have completed 15 “a-g” courses, with 11 of the 15 courses completed before 12th grade,
* Have earned at least a weighted GPA of 3.0 in “a-g” courses, and
* Have taken the SAT Reasoning test or ACT with Writing.

Rather than guarantee admission to all eligible applicants, as UC does now, the following students within the “entitled to review” pool will now be guaranteed admission to a UC:
* Students in the top 9% of all California high school graduates, and/or
* Students in the top 9% of their high school graduating class.

By eliminating the SAT Subject tests, and streamlining the current pathways to eligibility, UC hopes to be able to attract a more diverse group of qualified applicants. In particular, by expanding guaranteed admission from the current top 4% of a student’s graduating class to the top 9%, UC hopes to be able to increase access to underrepresented minority students. However, some minority groups have raised concerns that UC’s new admissions policy will decrease the representation of Asian American students on campus and do little to increase Latino and African American Students. See “Unintentional Whitening of U. of California?” from Inside HigherEd for more.

•  
•  0 Comments
•