Regents Approve Admissions Process Change

Last month, the University of California Board of Regents modified the freshman admissions' selection process to foster a more thorough and complete review of the qualifications of an applicant, according to UC officials. Called "comprehensive review," the process will continue to ensure the admission of highly qualified students by allowing UC campuses to consider the broad variety of academic and personal qualifications that all applicants present on the application. It replaces the previous two-tiered process in which each campus was required to admit 50 to 75 percent of its freshman students solely on the basis of academic factors. Students applying to UC for fall 2002-who filed applications last month-did not need to approach the application process any differently. The regents voted 15-4 to endorse the comprehensive review policy, which was proposed by the Academic Senate, the representative body of the UC faculty. The comprehensive review process will take effect for students applying to UC for fall 2002. "We expect comprehensive review to enhance our campuses' ability to select each year a class of thoroughly qualified students who demonstrate the promise to make great contributions to the university community and to the larger society beyond," said President Richard C. Atkinson. "We believe this policy sends a strong signal that UC is looking for students who have achieved at high levels and, in doing so, have challenged themselves to the greatest extent possible." "Academic performance is at the heart of the admissions process, and that fact will not change," added Chand R. Viswana-than, chair of the systemwide Academic Council. "Preserving and strengthening the academic quality of the university is a crucial concern for the UC faculty." Comprehensive review means that students' records will be analyzed not only for their grades and test scores-important baseline indicators of academic potential-but for additional qualities such as motivation, leadership, intellectual curiosity, and initiative. The change is that UC campuses are now able to select the full freshman class on the basis of 14 academic and nonacademic criteria instead of being required to admit the majority of the class on the basis of the academic criteria alone. The Regents endorsed comprehensive review with the understanding that the board will receive an annual report on the effects of the new process and that comprehensive review "shall be used fairly, shall not use racial preferences of any kind, and shall comply with Proposition 209." Additional information about comprehensive review can be found at http://www.ucop.edu/news/cr/.
-Brad Hayward/UCOP