When UCLA reported the average number of advanced courses taken
by students admitted for fall 2003, many believed the figure was
unrealistic.
The UCLA admissions office reported freshmen admits took an
average of 18.7 Advanced Placement and honors courses during high
school, but the figure was misinterpreted by high school counselors
and UCLA students who consider a high school course to be a
yearlong class.
Vu Tran, UCLA admissions director, said UCLA reported its
figures in the manner endorsed by the University of California,
considering each semester of a class as an individual course.
“I remember reading those numbers and thinking to myself,
“˜That is impossible,'” said Kyle Taylor, a
second-year political science and business economics student.
Taylor graduated from Salinas High School in 2001. He was class
valedictorian, finishing high school with a weighted GPA of 4.56
and a combined SAT score of 1360, both of which were above the 2003
freshmen admit averages of 4.24 and 1333, respectively.
But despite high grades and standardized test scores, Taylor,
who entered UCLA with 40 units from AP tests, took only eight
advanced yearlong courses during high school. The reason that
Taylor carried the above average GPA and SAT scores, while
appearing to have taken fewer advanced courses, has to do with the
way the UCLA admissions office represented the number of advanced
courses admitted students took.
“Courses typically equal one semester,” said Vu
Tran, UCLA admissions director.
This is because classes like AP economics and AP government are
only offered as semester courses, while other courses like AP
physics are usually taken for the full school year. Tran said high
school counselors and students are aware of this policy when
applying to the UC.
But Judy Prothro, college counselor at Los Altos High School
near Stanford University, said that is not the case.
“Nobody considers one yearlong class two courses,”
Prothro said.
Referring to the number released by the UCLA admissions office
““ 18.7 ““ Prothro said it is impossible to take that
many advanced courses, adding that the average Los Altos
college-bound student takes approximately eight AP and honors
courses during high school.
Many high school students even enter UCLA with far fewer
advanced courses under their belt.
“The average Bell student takes three AP classes during
their high school career,” said Jerry Munoz, assistant
college counselor at Bell High School in Los Angeles. Despite this,
Bell High School sent 32 students to UCLA in 2002, Munoz said.
The high figure reported by the admissions office confused
students, many of whom were more likely to believe newly admitted
students took 18.7 advanced courses when they learned the
admissions office had counted each yearlong course twice.
“I was trying to figure out if that was the number of
credits achieved, or the number of classes taken,” said
second-year psychology student Jeffrey Craw.
Tran acknowledged that presenting a yearlong class as two
distinct courses may have confused some people.
“Maybe next year we can make it a little clearer,”
he said.