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UCLA undergrad admissions probed
The Daily Bruin, UCLA's student newspaper, is reporting UCLA undergraduate admissons statistics showing much the same pattern as was observed at UC Berkeley:
UCLA turned away over 1,000 students with high SAT scores in 2002 and admitted several hundred students with comparatively low SAT scores that same year, according to a report compiled by the university and released on Tuesday.
The Berkeley data generated considerable controversy, of course, as some critics inferred from it that UC was violating Prop. 209. There are many reasons why a University would admit students with relatively low SATs: scholarship athletes, legacies, political favors, donations, and so on. The problem is that the UC system's comprehensive review admissions policy -- under which admissions officers consider not only academic achievement but also other factors such as community service, special talents, and socio-economic background -- is insufficiently transparent. In theory, comprehensive review is much fairer. In practice, however, it is almost impossible for outside observers to tell if the university is in compliance with 209, which encourages the sorts of accusations UC is now facing. Because even these recent reports on Berkeley and UCLA did not provide racial data, moreover, we still don't know whether comprehensive review is being used to bypass Prop. 209. All we know for sure is that if admissions officers are motivated to cheat on 209, comprehensive review provides a much greater opportunity to do so than would a purely numbers-based system. The university therefore needs to figure out a way to ensure that comprehensive review is transparent and accountable.
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