If you want a good read that will teach you something, get a copy of "Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions" by Jeffrey Selingo. Test scores and GPA are not the unbiased slam dunks that you want to believe that they are.
Colleges are a big business and are just as engaged in marketing and cultivating an attractive customer demographic as any corporation. If you think that they are based solely on academics and on applicant merit, then you are living 30 years in the past.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced it will once again require applicants to take the SAT or ACT, reversing a Covid-era policy that made the standardized tests optional and rejecting the idea that the tests hu...
I recall reading that UC's own research says that SAT scores are indicators of academic preparation for college. I think it was that GPA + SAT is significantly better than GPA alone.
I didn't take the time to track it down because, well, that would take time. On LRC, I'm never sure if the OP and responders really want information or if I'm wasting my time feeding trolls.
1. UC schools are legally prohibited from using race in admissions decisions. I'm not sure how many times this can be reiterated. There are boxes to check regarding race (and you're always given the option not the check any box) because federal law requires the collection of demographic data. Checking Native American would have done nothing for your child's application prospects. It's just a fact.
2. Almost 90% of UC students are California residents. They will guarantee anyone in the top 9% of CA high school students or the top 9% of a participating high school a spot (it will be at Merced, though). Even if they went to 100% in-state they would not be close to accommodating every highly qualified CA HS graduate. If you want to mitigate this problem you should either be willing to pay more taxes, so that that the UC can expand existing campuses and build more, or be advocating to divert current spending on prisons, roads, etc. to the UC general fund. See numbers and details here:
5. I am glad you recognize that this is just a bump in the road. The freakout by students and parents about college admissions is just a completely unhealthy and unnecessary element of contemporary American life. The vast majority of students are going to find a good fit somewhere that provides them a great opportunity to do/study/become whatever they want to be. But it's hard to take you seriously about getting ripped off by the state of California when you're ignoring an excellent and cheap CSU system that your child would have easily been admitted to (not to mention UC-Riverside, if that is indeed the school they did not apply to). Pretty much every resident of a Mountain West would love to have the sorts of options that CA residents have when it comes to affordable higher education.
“2. Almost 90% of UC students are California residents. They will guarantee anyone in the top 9% of CA high school students or the top 9% of a participating high school a spot (it will be at Merced, though).”
Finally someone who knows how the UCs get around their race blind admissions. If your child went to Crenshaw high, they would have been accepted to more colleges. As stated, the 9% is for the whole system, which is why UCR ends up with more minority students. So I guess your mistake was living in white suburbia.
Like most I.E. residents, you're mind-numbingly ignorant and racist. No wonder Riverside County remains the trash can of California.
Yep. I taught in the CA community colleges for many years and saw countless students matriculate to UCs in precisely this manner. Guess what, LetsRun? Most of them were ASIAN.
I can only find high school demographic information on California public high schools, but they are 57% hispanic, 22% white, 12% Asian, and 5% black. I'm sure when you account for private high schools that skews a bit, but the idea that you're penalized for being white or especially Asian in CA college admissions is insane.
Noooo. You can't spoil LetsRun's racist hate-fest w/ the truth of numbers and facts and stuff. That isn't allowed here.
Well, having a lower score but going test optional will increase your chances at admission - because certain groups have far lower average scores, so they can get in with almost nothing impressive for "equity". Test optional is idiotic
With ‘race blind’ applications, I think UCLA and Cal represent the best opportunity for in-state to get into a top 25 school. Name a top 25 school with fairer admission policies than UCLA for whites and Asians.
