I was just at my gf’s younger sister’s hs graduation where the salutorian shared she got rejected from every UC she applied to. Lots of laughs and nods from the crowd. She was in the schools advanced program too!
NMF scholarships for top schools is almost gone and is being reduced significantly at middle of the road schools, so I wouldn’t count on it to mean much in the future (except for what the foundation gives out on its own). Testing overall is being marginalized due to its questionable correlation to academic success.
If we don’t base admittence on things like grades and SAT scores and community service what do we base it on. My daughter had a 4.25 GPA, 10 AP courses, 6 honors courses, tons of community service. We thought she was a shoe in for UC Irvine, Davis, San Diego and Santa Barbara. She was rejected from all those schools. I was very puzzled and upset by this because as a parent it is more important for my child to succeed than it is for me. I was a first generation college student from a family with two parents on government assistance. Drugs were very ubundent. I have worked very hard to give my daughter a better life than I had by living in a community that has a very high preforming school. Based on the discussions I have had
it appears that there is a sterotype at the UC schools that kids that come from high performing schools and more affluent communities are bad people. My daughter is a very harworking morrally bound person. I have seen her take the side of people she feels are not being treated fairly. But based on my discussions with people over the past few months including admissions advisors I am convinced that the reason she did not get into these schools is because she is from a high preforming school in an affluent community and was desriminated against. I have heard every reason why this is acceptable. For example one person that graduated from UCLA told me a story that she was from a poor family that could not afford the $200 that her friends family could afford to pay for an ACT prep course so her freind was able to get a higher score on the ACT. When I asked how her parents were able to pay for the private school she went to she suddenly became silent. Another person told me that it was fair because it was payback for certain minorities who were desrminated against in the past. But isn’t this supposed to be about equality for all. As a jew should I have a leg up on anyone of German decent. And as a tax payer in California I think it is fair to think that my tax dollars are paying for California residents. We don’t use tax payer dollars to fund highways in other states do we. While I would be the first to vote for more funding for the school system I think they need to make it work with what they have. Not fund things by admitting out of state and out of country students. I am always being asked to do more with less in my job. That doesn’t give me the right to cheat. I do believe that we have an obligation to help people from out of state and out of country but in moderation. All freshman classes should be limited to 10% out of state and out of country. Let’s open the community colleges to out of country and out of state. If they want to go to the UC schools so bad then they will sacrafice and go there. They can go under the TAG program and Honors program if they gailify. It appears to me that we have to many people that feel they are entitled. When they don’t get what they want they back into reasons why they were unfairly treated. Oh and by the way, life is not always fair.
@UCBUSCalum Lamorinda?
@Parent90278 you didn’t list UCgpa, SAT/ACT scores, and if in an impacted major? Based on your user name, Redondo Beach, I never heard of high schools in the South Bay being discriminated against. The UCs are extremely competitive to get into nowadays and many qualified applicants are getting rejected, unfortunately. Many students i know rejected from their preferred UC, attend community college and transfer. Not ideal but workable.
This is factually incorrect. Here is a talk by one of the leading authorities in the field:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_Cr1a6rj4
Here are some of the highlights: What does standardized test measure (2:43), Real world application too? (5:20), job performance (5:55), relationship with creativity and leadership (6:40), effect leveling off beyond a certain level?(8:55) , testing at 13 of the truly gifted (9:35), social class (11:15), (comparing to gpa) effect on diversity(13:00).
A few weeks ago my D19 and I went on a UCLA tour. There was a question by a student in attendance directed at the admissions officer on what the stats of the OOS needed to be in comparison to an in-state student. The AO stated that the stats for the in-state student needed to be higher because the yield was higher in-state. I was shocked. I had never heard this before. While I understand that more students applying to UCLA in-state were more likely to attend I didn’t know that the admissions department was targeting a number to perhaps hit some budget balance. I think this was the first time I have been upset about the this question. I had always accepted that students like parent90278’s child with the 4.25 GPA didn’t get her spot because some other factor of the holistic review and that the students who been her out had other characteristics the school needed. I think it would be extremely unfair for that applicant to actually be passed by for a lower qualified student who just happen to live out of state…
@SC Anteater :San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
@19parent. Take a look at UCLA’s Freshman profile which shows higher stats for admitted OOS applicants last year. Probably misinformation given. There is a higher rate of OOS acceptances since the applicant pool is smaller but the UC’s now have a cap on the number of OOS/International students they can accept.
https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof17.htm
@19parent This came to light (OOS admissions advantage over In-state students) in the 2016 state auditors report.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-audit-admissions-20160328-story.html
This is the opposite of UM-Michigan, UVA and UNC, where admissions standards are much higher for OOS students. The UC’s on the other hand, has far more in-state demand (California is far larger than these other states), The UC’s also have a much higher net cost for OOS students (they don’t offer need/merit based aid to OOS students). Yet, the UC’s feel they need a set % of OOS to meet their financial goals.
You can search the forum for more discussion on the state auditors report (and the UC response).
@UCBUSCalum I was close. I’m just a little north.
We have 2 going to USC from our H.S. this year. That seems to be about the norm. Don’t know how many were admitted and chose elsewhere. 7 to Cal, 8 to UCLA & UCSB.
@SC Anteater Our numbers are also similar. Over the past few years, it appears that the top 3 to 5% will get into UCB, UCLA, USC. Others in that group may get into Ivies, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, etc. Others in the top 18% or so will get into a UC and CPSLO. We have a higher proportion getting into UC’s than the statewide 9% for UC’s.
@Canuckguy You should read the statement by the President of the University of Chicago regarding standardised testing. He was rather scathing. Their Dean of Admissions was even more emphatic.I agree with the previous post as test scores aren’t as important as they used to be.
As I read these posts, I am frankly puzzled why some students I have worked with were admitted to UCLA, UCSD, UCB and UCSB. They are all OOS, Americans attending international schools in England, and while their grades and test scores were very good they weren’t stellar. No known hooks. A couple did get supplemental questionnaires from two campuses. In the end several wound up going elsewhere because of the FA situation for OOS students, but our school did see significant numbers of acceptances the past few years. Indeed, for the past two years, UC has sent admissions officers to visit international schools in England and Dubai, so they are looking for these students and it wasn’t crushingly difficult to be admitted.
@exlibris97 I’d say attending an international school overseas was his hook.
@SC Anteater I corrected my post because it wasn’t limited to just one student. I think the school I work with have five or six acceptances to UCLA and Berkeley this year. I wonder if it is the “international school” thing that does it because certainly American students attending international schools do seem to be having an easier time gaining admission than many students mentioned on these pages.
Standardized testing is the crown jewel of the social sciences. There is nothing else with comparable reliability and validity. The president and the dean are politicians with PHDs. I much rather trust recognized authorities.
@Canuckguy As a trained PhD economist and social scientist, I don’t have that degree of faith in standardized testing as you do. Indeed, ETS was even forced to drop the word “aptitude” from the SAT when research showed that it didn’t test aptitude. I’ll go with the opinions of university admissions officers and deans. And in any event, standardized testing is no longer considered the holy grail in American college admissions. Too easy to coach people and game the tests.
@HSP2019 I was thinking precisely the same thing. I also have noticed that other Ivy League and highly selective colleges have begun to de-emphasize the importance of tests and to highlight their holistic approach. I suspect we will see much more of this in the future.
Do you have a link? (I went searching several sites and could not find much.)