Thank you for posting this link. I think students with AP and/or IB units, need to read this article so they are aware of UCLA’s change to when students will be allowed to register for courses. Students will not have their enrollment passes based on those credits. As of yesterday, Patricia Turner made the decision to disregard all those students’ work and time invested in high school in those courses, as well as their costs for those exams. It will now be more difficult to enroll in courses they need, because enrollment passes will no longer take those units into account at UCLA. Their chance to get the courses they need will be more difficult. Passes are assigned randomly, based on unit standings. Having an early enrollment pass does not guarantee space in the courses the student needs, nor does wait listing the class, if there is room. I understand athletes are not impacted and will have priority pass times allowing them to select classes before the rest of the student body is even eligible to register.
Patricia Turner did not contact the student body, who it directly negatively affects. I am a parent of two UCLA students, now in the middle of the fall quarter; I was not notified. I read it in the online DailyBruin. This decision does not “increase equity on campus”. It is unfair to the current students. Those students without APor IB courses compete with students with similar eligibilities. For example, students who may enter as sophomores, compete with sophomores with more units than they, for class spots. The advanced placement students are eligible for more advanced courses. Those without the courses are not. Students without AP and/or IB units can follow the course schedule laid out for their majors, and graduate in four years. Those students with AP courses do not follow that course catalog example to attain their degree. They have already completed some of those requirements. Now the pass time rule has changed and they no longer have the chance to attain a competitive pass time. They will face more full courses they need, before their first pass.
Patricia Turner has made it more difficult for students with APs and IBs to get a spot in classes they need, and in turn made it more difficult for students without them to get their classes. It is illogical to think that incoming students who did not have the opportunity to take APs or IBs are being helped by this change. They do not compete for the same classes as those students from high schools that offer them. If those students with more units cannot get their classes due to a later pass time, they will be enrolling in classes they don’t need, so they can remain a full time student. It will increase competition for space in those general ed courses, not decrease it.
Implementing this on current UCLA students is no different than changing the rules on them, after they accepted to abide by them. This change places more stress on students. Affecting current students is illogical, extremely unfair and discriminatory to thousands of current UCLA students.
UC Davis will also be implementing this change for Winter 2016. It looks like it is heading toward a UC wide policy.
Actually their chances will be the same as their classmates who didn’t have the ability to take AP/IB classes, which is the whole point of UCLA doing this.
As far as south campus majors/pre-meds go, that isn’t exactly true. I took AP Chem/AP Bio while several of my friends did not, yet all of us took the 14 series, the 6 series, and the LS classes at roughly the same time. You can’t pass out of chemistry or physics or LS. You can pass out of some of the math classes and English Comp 3, but that is basically it. Kids who took the AP classes are usually competing for the same classes as those who didn’t, at least for the first ~2 years of undergrad which is completing a lot of prerequisites. The difference is that because of AP credits, some had higher standing and either had a better chance of getting into a class, or of getting a better discussion time, which is not a fair system. Just because somebody had the opportunity to take AP classes in highschool doesn’t mean they deserve better access to classes.
I do think it’s unfair that they are implementing this in the middle of the school year rather than starting it with the next incoming class, as some people were probably counting on those extra units to help them graduate.
Those units still count towards graduation. They just don’t give a preference in signing up for classes.
So, dual enrollment credits would probably still count toward enrollment priority? Perhaps that makes dual enrollment classes slightly more attractive than AP?
Since college units will still be counted, that means Turner and Gene Block who must have signed off on this, decided that Unitrac is better than AP courses. That is nonsense. The Unitrac credits are awarded from taking AP courses. Chancellor Block needs to rethink this. Current students should not be affected by this rule change.
I don’t see why this is such a big deal to be honest, I mean, a little over 90% of UCLA freshmen admitted in the fall of 2014 had over 8 semesters of Honors or AP classes, and I’d guess a large percentage of them probably earned AP credit too–with such a large number of people getting to register early, it seems like registering early wouldn’t do you much good. Idk.
I’m in my first year at UC Davis and am potentially going to be greatly affected by this change. I currently have 72 unit of cc credits plus 16 units of AP credit. I was planning to graduate in 3 years because of my advanced standing, but it’s starting to look doubtful now. For the winter quarter none of my units will count towards advanced standing, so I will have to hope that I can get the classes I need. There’s one class in particular that is offered once a year in winter that is both a core class for my major as well as a prerequisite for several other required classes. Basically, if I can’t get into that class this quarter then it will be impossible for me to graduate in three years. Unfortunately, my pass time is the very last day. All I can do is wait and hope. Pass 1 started today and my pass day is the 13th.
I’m a little surprised that so many people think this is simply the worst decision (I just hope I can graduate on time! Why did I even bother to take AP?)
Here’s why you took AP:
(1) Without the AP you probably would not have gotten admitted. Fact.
(2) You get subject credit, as applicable
(3) You still get the units
There are still a lot of positives and I believe it’s an extremely fair policy and levels the playing field, so the haves are not always getting extra consideration. Now, regarding graduating on time, I think the hand-wringing will be seen as an over-reaction. If you are set to graduate and need one class, while I certainly am not a mind-reader, it’s rather hard to believe you will not get that one class and will be forced to do another quarter at UCLA. UCLA wants you outta there. Worst case scenario, a prof will sign you into the class. Again, I don’t know. Maybe there some real jacka**es over there, but it’s hard to imagine getting screwed over like that.
Yes. Dual enrollment still counts.
lindyk8 “There are still a lot of positives and I believe it’s an extremely fair policy and levels the playing field, so the haves are not always getting extra consideration.”
That being the case, there was no reason to change students’ standing. They still use the same 1st and 2nd pass routine. Each pass allows up to 10 units at UCLA, 17 at UC Davis. It was supposedly already randomly assigned time blocks, giving students with 0, zero units the same chance to register during the first hours, as students with 44.9 units, etc. up to 160 units. This has not changed.
There was and is nothing in place to prevent students from being assigned a time in the last hour of these time blocks. That can mean registering 3 days after the next 44.9 unit block students. I know a student who this happened to twice within 4 quarters.
UCLA is not increasing equity; they are simply saying they are. If students have 0, zero units, they do not need to compete with upper classmen in the next unit block for courses. If students without APs cannot get their courses, then UCLA should be adding more lower division and GEs, not seeking to increase their freshmen enrollment.
UCLA attracted high achieving students under false pretenses. They have now made it impossible for some students to continue in their sequence of increasing course difficulty. This won’t get those students off campus on time or early, but they will need to sit in unneeded courses to remain full time. I did not find numbers for 2015, but for 2014*, these students are 87.30% of that enrolled freshmen class. They came in with gpas of 4.0 & above. The average UCLA gpa for admitted: 4.39, enrolled 4.31.)
*https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14.htm
To further bloat the course demand, on Oct.21, UC Pres. Janet Napolitano announced she plans to “significantly increase” undergrad enrollment on UC campuses in 2016-17. UCLA can’t accommodate existing students.
Lets be honest here. The primary beneficiaries of the old plan were frosh taking frosh-level courses, soph’s taking sophomore courses, etc. Post #3 had it right, which explains a lot of the anger by those who used to benefit at the expense of others
mikemac- “Lets be honest here. The primary beneficiaries of the old plan were frosh taking frosh-level courses, soph’s taking sophomore courses, etc. Post #3 had it right, which explains a lot of the anger by those who used to benefit at the expense of others”
Stay in the dark if you like, but this hasn’t changed. 0-44.9 units etc. all have the equal chances for each pass time. http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/soc/enrollappt.htm
As someone who graduated from one of the most affluent schools in the state, I can personally say that from my experience those who are fortunate enough to go to a school offering many resources like AP classes tend to take advantage of these resources more than those who weren’t handed these resources to them on a silver platter. My neighbor’s admission to my high school was denied, yet she worked extremely hard with what her school had to offer. To me, it doesn’t seem fair that I would get priority over her when it comes to registration. This policy helps upperclassmen competing with lowerclassmen for classes, which when you think about it is quite fair. “Oh no! I won’t be able to graduate early after being surrounded by abundant resources since the start of my education” is a weak argument against why seniors – who by the way also worked their butts off the get into UCLA-- should have to compete for classes that they need in order to graduate.