Students Rejected From Ucs

The University of California has enacted a controversial entrance policy in admitting fewer applicants this year with lower SAT scores in comparison to the freshman class of 2003.

The following complaints from UC Regents Chairman John Moore accused the University of California of admitting students with lower test scores than other high-scoring applicants, which eventually lead to the recent change:

UC campuses were accepting too many students with below-average scores, which many critics have said to be a violation of the state's ban on affirmative action. Most campuses apparently rejected those applicants with higher SAT scores during the 2004 evaluations.

By being denied admission, students as well as critics were outraged by the entire ordeal. The officials claimed that the factors that led to certain acceptances were based on better academic preparation and state budget problems.

According to the Los Angeles Times, UC campuses in 2004 admitted 2,200 fewer applicants with scores of 1000 or below on the SAT entrance exam. Apparently there was a 26.6 percent drop from the year before. The national and state averages on the exam are currently about 1020 of a possible 1600.

Many Santa Monica College students feel it is unfair to characterize students based solely on their SAT scores rather than their grade point average.

"The recent change is unfair, it makes the competition harder if only a certain number of people can get in with certain SAT scores," said Michael Martinez, a former military veteran. The recent change is falling short of effective in that lower-achieving students are now more likely to drop out than higher achieving students because of the intense competition.

A decline in the overall pool of applicants could ultimately have a direct impact on a large percentage of students that might feel intimidated by the recent change of SAT acceptances in the UC system.

It might discourage students by raising the standards in denying admission to those students that might not have had as much preparation as others for the SAT's.

In reducing low SAT acceptances, the number of students who would be rejected would outweigh the number of students that would be accepted. In doing so, the community college system would be overcrowded with students directly transferring out of high schools. The first couple weeks of this spring semester brought forth a great number of fresh faces to the SMC campus.

Some of those students had come face to face with issues of rejection of their preferred UC colleges, after UC reduced low SAT acceptances.

The dropout rate to the new admissions policy will dramatically continue to increase by discouraging those with low entry scores.

Many students are more likely to quit because of the continual rise in competition.

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