jas0n

Collegemom16,

Sorry, but I don’t see how admitting students from a high socio-economic diversity increases rankings by a large factor. Somewhere in the messy vines, it makes a difference, but it seems negligible sometimes. Rankings are, as you’ve read, 15% contingent on the selectivity of admissions. If schools were to accept students for the sole reason of them being in a disadvantage, that portion would definitely drag them down in rankings. How do you think private universities do such a good job in rankings?

Also, I still don’t understand the fuss about ELC. ELC is granted to the top 4% of every high school. If you make it and finish the paper works, you basically get a huge boost in admissions. As you know, collegemom16, your favorite college UC Davis grants a fat 1000 points for ELC. This is like turning a 4.0 GPA into a 5.0 GPA. UCSD, as we know, also grants 300 points (like a 0.3 gpa boost). UCI does something along those lines also. In fact, 95% of ELC students who apply to UCI get in while 98% of ELC students who apply to UCD get in. The percentages are very close. UCLA and UCB have the lower percentages for ELC students too. They do this because they do recognize that it may be easier to qualify for ELC at some schools rather than others so they reserve less of their comprehensive admissions process towards ELC. Most of the schools in California participate in ELC, even the ones that are not economically challenged. In essence, the top 4% of any school basically have guaranteed admissions into mid-tier UCs (not including the automatic acceptance program). This also brings up another point. I believe your ELC rankings are off. If you look at the introducing the university PDF files, you can see that UCI has a high acceptance rate for ELC students as opposed to the other schools. Once again, the percent differences are very negligible.

Worriedsenior,

I totally agree with you when you say it’s harder to stand out from a low API school because they are more likely to be economically challenged as well. You have to take into account California makes notice of this. We have programs like AVID and MESA here in southern California that help boost admissions. Just being in these programs allows students to have an automatic boost in admissions since UCs recognize these. MESA, a program only offered to schools that are economically challenged, has been promoting students from allover SoCal to get into college. I’ve been volunteering for MESA for the past year, and, let me tell you, it’s such a great program. I’ve dealt with many students particularly from the Compton area. Not only have many of these students been accepted to UCI and are also volunteering for the program, these students have shown a great deal of interest at the high school level. Many have 4.0+ GPAs while taking classes at UCLA, USC, or community college for free. This is all the work of California by the way. I used this to my advantage during my years in high school. It’s free community college courses! Anyone can do it =].

collegemom16

ELC % of CA. admits

UCB 58.2
UCLA 57.0
UCSD 42.4
UCD 32.6
UCSB 29.8
UCI 27.4
UCR 11.1
UCSC 8.9
UCM 8.5

http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/...ofile_2008.pdf
"If schools were to accept students for the sole reason of them being in a disadvantage, that portion would definitely drag them down in rankings. How do you think private universities do such a good job in rankings?"

I agree, BUT UC's do things differently than private schools and always will. As public institutions they have a different mandate. The disadvantaged students who gain admissions have proven themselves to be motivated and successful within the context of their opportunities.

Your volunteer work with MESA is very admirable Jason. AVID is also a fantastic program.

jas0n

Collegemom16:

I would like to point out a discrepancy in the way information has been provided. Looking at the footnote below the ELC charts, one can read:

“Represents the proportion of ELC applicants in the total admitted pool.”

This footnote explains that the percentages listed in the ELC table of the Fall 2008 California Freshman Admit Profile represent the percent of admitted students who are ELC students. For example, UCI’s Fall 2008 stats lists 27.4%. This means that 27.4% of the 20,000 students admitted into UCI are ELC students. Please refer to the following table below for more information.

ELC % of CA. admits || # of Apps Admitted || # of ELC Students Admitted

UCB 58.2 || 10387 || 6045
UCLA 57.0 || 12574 || 7167
UCSD 42.4 || 19010 || 8060
UCD 32.6 || 21256 || 6929
UCSB 29.8 || 23166 || 6903
UCI 27.4 || 20587 || 5640
UCR 11.1 || 16816 || 1866
UCSC 8.9 || 20267 || 1803
UCM 8.5 || 8544 || 726

(In case one does not believe this correction, I would like to emphasize the choice of words in the footnote and in the Introducing the University PDF files. In the PDF files, it specifically says "ELC Student Admit Rate." This obviously means the admit rate of ELC student applicants. Please refer to the following link for the ITU PDF file. http://www.universityofcalifornia.ed...ssions/ITU.pdf)

It is true that the University of California have a goal of trying to accept students from various socio-economic backgrounds since it is a public institution. All of the UCs are still under one office and try to create an equal field for all students when it comes to admissions. It is a goal of America to provide everyone with equal opportunity hence disability programs and such, although not all are perfect. In fact, there are many projects inside each school trying to reach out to certain communities. I’ve personally glanced at documents of strategies and plans to recruit applicants from certain areas. (There are even comprehensive plans for recruiting NorCal UCI admits since there is a noticeable difference in socal and norcal students!) If you Google and search around, you can find the plans for any UC.

jmilton90

UCI and UCSB (great school btw) have basically one reason why their acceptance is a bit lower than UCD:

The population density in SoCal is hugely different from NorCal. Most SoCal children stay in SoCal for college, and same for NorCal.

No arguments needed here. Diversity/ELC/ etc has really nothing to do with it. The SoCal schools are just receiving more applications because simply there are more people there.

I mean that's basically the same reason why UCLA can have a lower acceptance rate than Berkeley (even though Cal is arguably higher ranked)...

So same reasoning.. even if acceptance is lower for UCI by a bit, UCD is also arguably higher ranked.

imdad

when my 1st D went to UCB in 2004, we had a tuition/fee increase of 7%...now UC is talking about another 7% increase and it will affect my 2nd D. Nice going-(...so we have a case where the middle class becomes poorer and the poor becomes more amd more desparate.

Pretty soon ranking doesn't matter because the price to attend becomes unreachable and you folks can debate about ranking all you want.

what is the point about debating ranking?.... so someone feels superior.

IMHO, I say all UC campuses can provide a quality education. Please end this unproductive debate. Thanks.

nschuchert

Compare the price of a UC to a private school and you're still getting a great education at a great price.

MrBoba

Why is AVID seen as something nice to have on your transcript? Nearly every student I know believes that AVID is for 'tards. Yeah, that sounds really blunt, but it's true. Who would have known taking something as obscure as AVID would actually help you?

It doesn't make sense, really. Even with a 7 period schedule, the most determined kids will take all AP and Honors courses with subjects that actually matter. I think AVID should not be taken in high regard by the UCs.