UC broadening their high achievement admissions "lotto"

UC Berkeley and UCLA already use a "holistic review".  UC San Diego and UC Irvine, similar to UC Santa Cruz, will change to a "holistic review" next Fall.   Still the requirements, acceptance and cost are brutal. 

 

From Palo Alto Daily News, 12/24/11. "As it becomes increasingly selective, UC Santa Cruz is putting a new emphasis on personal achievement in shaping next fall's freshman class. This major shift in its admissions process means that people, not computers, will read all 30,000 or more applications. And while strong test scores and good grades are still important, they're not everything. Other factors will also be considered -- such as special talents or whether a poor student from a weak school took advantage of every educational opportunity. Put simply, this new approach, called "holistic review," broadens the concept of "merit." "There are more nuances," said Michael K. McCawley, UCSC's associate director of admissions. "We can really try to judge the student in the context of their educational environment. It tries to take into account more information. It's more fair."

The policy applies to this year's college-bound seniors, who submitted their applications by the Nov. 30 deadline. It comes at the same time as another big change to overall UC admissions rules: While students still need to take the SATs, they no longer need to take the separate SAT "subject tests." These two reforms are expected to diversify the acceptance pool. They will particularly help students whose statistics -- test scores and GPA -- are less impressive because they come from schools with few advanced classes......" 

CHANGES IN UCSC's ADMISSION METHOD:  Before: A fixed-weight score was assigned to each of 14 criteria. Then a computer analyzed the scores, using a special algorithm, assigning different points to different parts of the application. The GPA and SAT scores represented more than 60 percent of the final tally; other factors, such as extracurricular activities, were read by humans and accounted for the rest. Now: The same 14 criteria are still reviewed -- but by a human, not a computer. Then the application gets an individualized, single score (1-5), with no fixed weights for particular criteria. This allows admissions officers to better exercise their judgment in individual cases. Included in their assessment: high school demographics, socioeconomic status and academic stature". See full article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh