| As I understand it, the numbers are not based on any sort of hard data, the top 10% numbers are simply "estimates" by administrators.
You have to keep in mind that the California Master Plan for Higher Education mandates that "UC [is] to select its freshmen students from the top one-eighth (12.5%) of the high school graduating class". The admission standards are adjusted as to meet this goal. ELC was added guaranteeing that anyone from the top 4% of an individual high school (no matter how horrible it is) is also eligible for admission. Now, California has a huge population (and a huge number of crappy high schools) which can explain how 3.0 students can still be in the top 10%.
I don't think those numbers are implausible. This is anecdotal, but I'm guessing schools like Harvard tend to draw from higher performing high schools where the student pool is much more competitive too.
|