UCLA admissions probed

UCLA turned away over 1,000 students with high SAT scores in
2002 and admitted several hundred students with comparatively low
SAT scores that same year, according to a report compiled by the
university and released on Tuesday.

UCLA’s report follows a similar one compiled on UC
Berkeley admissions statistics that was reported on Oct. 4 by The
Los Angeles Times. The Berkeley report has elicited a statewide
debate about the transparency and objectivity of university
admissions practices.

Although UCLA’s admissions statistics for 2002 followed
the same general trend as Berkeley’s, there were notable
differences between the two.

For example, although UCLA admitted fewer students with SAT
scores between 1500 and 1600 than did Berkeley, Berkeley also had
twice as many applicants with near-perfect scores.

Overall, UCLA admitted nearly five times as many students with
near-perfect scores as it denied, whereas Berkeley admitted twice
as many as it denied.

The grade point averages of students admitted to UCLA also rose
more directly with SAT scores. Students with high SAT scores who
were denied admittance generally had lower GPAs.

That admissions statistics at the university’s two
flagship campuses followed the same trends could raise questions
about University of California admissions policies.

Some contend that Berkeley ““ and perhaps other UC campuses
““ admitted some applicants based on factors other than their
achievement.

Regents Ward Connerly and John Moores, who commissioned the
Berkeley admissions report, have both suggested that Berkeley is
using comprehensive review to consider race in its admissions, a
practice that is illegal in California.

UC officials deny that race plays a factor in the
university’s admissions policy. Neither the Berkeley nor the
UCLA report took race into account.

Comprehensive review is a systemwide policy that dictates that
admissions officers give added weight to factors other than test
scores, such as an applicant’s challenging life
experiences.

Jeannie Oakes, a professor of education at UCLA, said the
university should not be so surprised if other campuses that
implement comprehensive review show the same admissions trends as
Berkeley.

“The goal of comprehensive review was to provide admission
to very worthy students who have managed to succeed in spite of
difficult circumstances,” she said. “And that seems to
me what has happened.”

A university statement released in conjunction with the report
said UCLA’s admissions policy “is consistent with
state, regental, and faculty policy.”

The statement also said the university values SAT I scores lower
than it does other scores and therefore weighs them less.

“Of the three major quantitative indicators of academic
preparation (GPA, SAT II scores, and SAT I/ACT scores), SAT I
scores are the least predictive of first-year success at the
UC’s undergraduate campuses,” the statement read.

UCLA’s report was compiled at the behest of The Los
Angeles Times, which requested the information after a confidential
regents report found that UC Berkeley admitted several hundred
students in 2002 with SAT scores between 600 to 1000 ““ far
below the school’s 1337 average for that year. A 1600 is a
perfect score on the SAT.

Moores’ report on Berkeley admissions caused UC President
Robert Dynes to say he would convene a committee to review
university admissions policies at all eight undergraduate
campuses.