Makes sense. I should have quoted tamagotchis response since my intent was to contextualize for the UCs.
small nit: it was a settlement. UC chose not to appeal presumably bcos they agreed with the policy. (Yes, an appeal would cost time, but UC has plenty of in-house lawyers who are already on payroll.)
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I don’t but if that its the case you better be able to explain exactly why a group of very high performing kids are being denied while excelling. I’m not sure that ‘there are too many of you who are performing too well so you don’t get a shot’ is going to go over very well. Neither is ‘your school does so much better than average that we’re going to give you less than average’.
When you look at the ethnic composition of the school it becomes especially tough. I would not be surprised if a group like SFFA decides to take a run at admissions into the top UCs, yet another reason that transparency is key.
I like to pull up Lynbrook because people in the Bay area traditionally think of Paly and Gunn as the ‘meat grinders’ but Lynbrook easily puts both to shame in that department. It’s just an interesting example. I pointed out that the below average acceptance percentages hold pretty well across a bunch of schools on the peninsula both public and private. I took a very superficial look at surface data using schools that I could name off of the top of my head but it wasn’t hard to see a pattern. And, I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be this way what I am saying is that it needs to be transparent as to how and why the process works as it does.
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Because there aren’t enough spots for every high achieving kid in California at UCB and UCLA and I would think because one of the criteria the UCs use is Geographic location, so they can’t cluster all the high achievers from San Jose while denying all the kids from Fresno even if the San Jose kids look better on paper (with higher stats and more APs or whatever). In addition, they also take into consider things like being first generation: many families (not all of course) in Silicon Valley tend to be college-educated, so that might be another reason one is rejected in favor of another. Again, these things are all part of holistic review.
Since UCs don’t consider race/ethnicity in admissions, how is this relevant?
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Some people suspect that entire high schools or neighborhoods are discriminated against, on the basis of demographics in that school or neighborhood. (both ethnic / racial, and socioeconomic)
Even though that might seem to sound like a crazy conspiracy theory… I don’t think people would argue that UCs would be intentionally REDUCING admits from certain schools. But a similar effect could occur due to INCREASING admits from other schools that have more of the demographics that UCs want to add, for the purpose of diversity, in a race blind admissions context.
It is only relevant because so many people believe that they do.
I could believe in the tooth fairy, but when I lose a tooth my dentist only leaves a bill under my pillow.
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This assumes that the students who were admitted in their stead weren’t also fully capable of doing well at these colleges.
It doesn’t have to go over well. Not a single High School student deserves a spot at UCB or UCLA. They all work hard and throw their hats in the ring. That’s it.
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Of course, if a Texas-style rank-based admission process were implemented (as suggested by the thread title), a school like Lynbrook would not be a pleasant place to be, since huge numbers of high achieving students will be competing for the precious few rank slots that give automatic admission.
Also, since UCs do not use SATs now, and had de-emphasized them before when they did use them, that aspect of those students’ college admission credentials is not relevant for UC admissions.
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I believe the point is that there is no objectivity in admitting 25-40. Are they the top 25-40 among the class of 2024?
Here is our fundamental disagreement. When you have a cohort of 400+ kids from one school – how do you define “high performing?” GPA? Test scores?
It is my contention all along for this process: there are a set of rules for college admissions and they are different from when I was a kid. I don’t have to like it, but I can optimize my kids’ chances. UC “holistic review” is about what makes a kid stand out measured by 13+ parameters (+ because I still believe there are hidden biases and transferences from AO readers).
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I can’t tell if you are agreeing with me or disagreeing. Nonetheless, when you have 400 applicants from a single school, I do not believe they are all top students who excel at all 13 UC parameters. Or may be they are. But if someone is arguing about adopting a UT model, I doubt Austin is going to admit 400 kids from a single school.
Wow! Thank you for this link. I continue to be amazed at the amount of information provided by the UCs.
Am I reading this correctly that they offered no one from Kansas admission in 2023? Color me skeptical if my reading of this is correct.
Regardless, thank you for this tool.
I see 83 acceptances from KS and 9 enrolled. Are you looking university wide or at a particular campus?
Lynbrook’s school profile has 435 in the most recent senior class, of whom 60%, or 261, have unweighted GPA 3.75-4.00. If it were in Texas, then 26 of them would be auto-admit to UT Austin, and they and another 17 (total 43) would be auto-admit to other Texas public universities.
That scenario would likely result in lots of complaining about how unfair class rank based admission is.
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That’s crazy! 60% have an unweighted GPA that high? My D has an unweighted 3.8 and is in the top 4% at her school.
Here is Lynbrook’s school profile: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1695936378/fuhsdorg/u0gdhbrlbwmchkyd0ofw/SchoolProfile23_24final.pdf
Note: out of those going to 4-year colleges, 40% to UC, 10% to CSU, 8% to CA private, and 42% to out-of-state colleges.
Well, that would help! I was looking at Berkeley. Sorry for lack of clarity on my part. I’ll look at system wide to see if I get your results.
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It helps to reframe the outcome as state schools admitting adequate, but not necessarily the best, students to their class. That may be a fine purpose for a flagship, and more accurately represents admissions.
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Is it common for schools to post their profiles? Our high school doesn’t have it posted anywhere on their website, but I like to see it out of curiosity. I’m sure it’s not as detailed or fancy as that one!