At UC San Diego, one out of every eight incoming freshman do not meet middle school math standards

[mtmind]

@Ohno2

So here you are accusing people of wanting to intentionally keep low SES, non-suburban kids out of UC’s. This is a wildly offensive accusation. I have not seen this opinion voiced in any of the comments.

Not offense intended. But your own approach would result in exactly what I describe. Keeping out the kids at the top of their class who scored in the 1200 in favor of the kids from the high performing school in a high performing area who scored 1500 would further concentrate admissions on a relatively small number of high schools, and exclude kids from a relatively large number of high schools who don’t fit the description. This is because the factors parents of high performing kids want the UCs to value are directly correlated to income and opportunity.

@Ohno2

But now you move the goalposts. Yes, some of the posts, including mine, absolutely think that one UC school in particular that has itself identified a problem - UCSD - is admitting “supposedly less qualified students at the expense of supposedly more qualified students.” This is very different than saying UC schools should keep out low SES kids.

It isn’t different at all. Favor the kids with 1500 and there will be little room for top kids from less well performing schools in lower SES neighborhoods. The kids with the 1500s are bunched at high performing high schools in high performing areas with high achieving parents, etc.

Thank you again, though, for demonstrating what this thread is really about. As @tamagotchi explained, it is a different issue than the UCSD report.

It most certainly isn’t about whether those kids who start out behind can catch up, or whether they are capable of attaining a quality UC education.

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@Crapshooter

What about the students best interest?

I don’t give a lot of credence to arguments that claim to be helping people by denying them opportunities, especially when they aren’t accompanied by significant evidence. I am sure you didn’t mean it could be construed as extremely patronizing.

Again, I’m sure some of these kids who come from under powered / under resourced schools do succeed at the top tier flagships, but at what cost to those who truly need the remedial courses - and end up getting walloped in first series exams.

I don’t buy the notion that the UCs are letting in kids who aren’t capable of catching up. These are kids who finished at the top of their class, and who have met the admissions requirements. And last I checked, UCSD’s graduation rate was 88%. And numerous studies indicate that when kids fail out of college, it most often because of non academic reasons. I’d love see evidence backing up your opinion.

Also, See the NYT article I linked above for an approach that has worked well at bringing kids along despite different starting points.

@Crapshooter

As far as the state is concerned - is it 'better to have a kids come from an under powered school and perform poorly or drop out,

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@blossom

So this is my skepticism on remediation at the university level. Kids from poorly resourced school systems who never got the “good teachers” are STILL not getting the “good teachers” now that they are in college

Seems to be an aside, and one that the universities could address. See the NYT link above, for example.