University of California officials are pushing for the removal
of UC campuses from the National Merit Scholarship Program and are
instead advocating the evaluation of student merit on a
comprehensive basis.
Universities that are part of the National Merit program,
including UCLA, award students with one-time $2,500 scholarships
based on high performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit
Scholarship Qualifying Test in addition to follow-up
recommendations and academic success.
Last month, the UC Academic Council met and voted 17-0 to
recommend to UC chancellors that they withdraw from the
program.
The UC says the selection process for the scholarships is
flawed, as 97 percent of applicants are wiped out of contention
solely because they do not score high enough on the test. Out of
1.3 million test takers, only 16,000 advance with eligibility for a
National Merit Scholarship, and only a little over half of those
students will actually receive a scholarship, according to a
briefing from the UC in conjunction with the academic
council’s resolution on the issue.
The council’s resolution also states that the program has
an adverse impact on underrepresented and disadvantaged students.
Only 3 percent of the UC’s National Merit students are
Latino, black or Native American, according to a Los Angeles Times
article.
The decision of whether to discontinue the program is ultimately
up to chancellors from the six UC campuses that use the
scholarships.
Chancellors from four of those universities ““ San Diego,
Irvine, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz ““ met Wednesday in
Oakland to discuss the issue, but did not come to a final decision.
UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale and UC Davis Chancellor Larry
Vanderhoef were unable to attend, said Ravi Poorsina, spokeswoman
for the UC Office of the President.
Although Carnesale hasn’t taken a public position, he
“is aware of the arguments made on both sides of the issue,
and is giving it the consideration it deserves,” said Phil
Hampton, a UCLA spokesman.
Elaine Detweiler, spokeswoman and public information director
for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, defended the
selection process for the scholarships.
“We have over a million students, and we need some
instrument to consider them all on the same basis and in a timely
manner,” she said.
Detweiler said that National Merit is always reviewing its
processes and procedures, but added the current method will
probably not change.
In a letter to UC chancellors, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, a
member of the UC Board of Regents by virtue of his office, urged
them to adopt the recommendation to discontinue the practice of
awarding scholarships only on the basis of PSAT scores.
“I am an advocate of eliminating the
“˜single-test’ criterion for scholarships and replacing
it with the “˜comprehensive review’ concept. Under
comprehensive review, merit is established by evaluating a
student’s grades, test scores, extracurricular activities and
life challenges,” Bustamante wrote in the letter.
If UCLA pulls out of the program, it will discontinue its
partial funding and awarding of the scholarships.
Poorsina said the UC believes its applicant pool would not be
negatively affected by discontinuing the scholarships.
“If you look at our comparison universities, public and
private, none of them participate,” Poorsina said.
UC Berkeley removed itself from the program in 2002. Poorsina
added that “Berkeley does not (award National Merit
Scholarships), and some would say that they have some of the
greatest applicants.”
“If we were to discontinue funding these programs, the
kids could still receive scholarships through other sources,”
she said.
The money that would normally be allocated to the scholarships
would not go straight to financial aid if UCLA exited the
program.
Many National Merit Scholars have bittersweet views about the
program, like Ravi Sahae, a third-year music student who refers to
himself and other winners of the scholarship as
“numsquats,” in reference to the entrance test’s
acronym, NMSQT.
Sahae said he believes schools use the program to recruit
high-ranking students and to boost their academic profiles.
“The bottom line is that worse schools will try to attract
better scholars, and better scholars are those kids who have been
awarded through the National Merit program. UCLA is in no dire need
of attracting good scholars. (Scholars) are trying to go to UCLA in
the first place,” Sahae said.
Sahae also criticized the scholarship, calling it “a mere
pittance that doesn’t even cover the cost of
books.”
“After all of the work I put in, all the essays I wrote,
and all of the teacher recommendations I had to get, it was
definitely a letdown to find out I would only receive $2,000 over
the course of my college career, but I chose to come to UCLA
knowing I’d receive more money at a worse school,”
Sahae said.