Multiple criteria ranked for UC admission
60 percent of applicants accepted for academics alone
By Allyssa Lee
Daily Bruin Staff
Early in March, Jennifer Spaulding received an envelope
addressed from the UCLA Office of Admissions. In it was a letter
stating that one of the reasons for her rejection was the
university’s "commitment to diversity."
Spaulding, an international baccaulaureate student with a grade
point average of 4.6, said the rejection was somewhat of a
disappointment.
"You know that it happens but you just want to pretend that it
doesn’t," said Spaulding, a high school senior. "It’s a hard
situation to be in because you understand, but it doesn’t make it
any easier that they didn’t accept you."
Spaulding’s situation is one of the many issues concerning
undergraduate admissions at UCLA. Continuing debates for and
against affirmative action policies have made it one of the most
pervasive and talked-about issues on the university campus
today.
Through the arguments, questions also have arisen as to the
University of California’s policy on undergraduate admissions.
"It’s really much more complicated than I can explain," said Rae
Lee Siporin, UCLA director of undergraduate admissions. "We don’t
have a point system or a formula  we don’t use an approach
where it’s really simple to peel out a number and say ‘this is race
and this is income.’ This whole issue is much more complicated than
people make it out to be."
The admissions process for the UC system begins at the regental
level, as broad guidelines are established for all UC campuses.
"We are giving the campuses the flexibility in their admissions
as long as they follow the guidelines of the UC policy," said Carla
Ferri, UC director of admissions.
Each campus is required to comply with the UC policy guidelines.
The Office of the President’s Policy requires that universities
admit at least half of its eligible applicants solely on the basis
of academic criteria. The remaining portion of students are
evaluated on both academic and supplemental criteria.
However, each individual campus is free to set their own
admissions guidelines within these broad policies.
At UCLA, the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions, a council
comprised of eight faculty members, has outlined seven objectives
for admitting freshmen to the university.
The objectives include drawing students from the top 12.5
percent of high school graduates, having every applicant compete
for every available position and establishing no admissions
cut-offs.
"(The committee) wanted to make it a policy that everything had
to be looked at and weighted together," Siporin said. "We wanted to
see students that have taken the most rigorous program available to
them. Because we have more applications than (any other UC campus),
we can get more specific and ask for more."
Those applicants that are in the top 12.5 percent of the high
school graduate pool are examined by two reviewers on the basis of
academic criteria, and one reviewer to rank supplemental criteria.
Each prospective student is then given a rank of "1" to "6" in each
of these respective categories, 1 being the highest.
Sixty percent of applicants admitted to UCLA are accepted on
academic criteria alone, consisting of a grade point average,
scores on either the Scholastic Aptitude Test or the American
College Test, the number of overall college preparation courses
taken and the quality of the senior year program.
Another portion of students are then admitted on a combination
of academic and supplemental rank. Supplemental criteria include
race and ethnicity, disabilities, socioeconomic status and
educational disadvantages. Out-of-state students are automatically
given a 6 ranking.
High school graduates who demonstrate a high disadvantage or
underrepresentation are eligible for admission to UCLA through the
Comprehensive Reading Pool. The pool is a group of about 6,000
applicants whose applications are re-reviewed and their essays
read, introducing factors such as leadership, motivation and
extracurricular activities into the admissions process.
Those high school graduates who are underrepresented in the pool
 African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans  are
automatically given a supplemental rank of 1 or 2.
"The reason those groups are given supplemental ranks of 1 or 2
is that there are so few of those students in the top 12.5 percent
that as they get into the top, we want to at least review them,"
Siporin said.
Eligibility rates in the UC system show a 5.1 percent for
African American and 3.9 percent for Latinos, whereas Asian
Americans are 32 percent and Caucasians are 12.7 percent. Native
American percentages are so low that they cannot be counted,
Siporin said.
"That’s why our process was designed," Siporin said, "to get
(the underrepresented groups) into the range on our chart where we
give them a comprehensive review, at least, before we decided ‘yes,
we’re going to admit’ or ‘no, we’re not.’"