Model Policy

UCLA’s new admission policy wisely recognizes that standardized test scores and grade-point averages are not the only measures of student potential. Beginning with the incoming freshmen class, two faculty members or admission officers will go beyond grades in evaluating every application. Such a thorough review will broaden the decision process by which freshmen are admitted. The policy, standard on most private campuses, should become a model for the UC system and for other public universities.

Under the new policy, no applicant will be treated simply as an objective numerical score. The record of each applicant will get the same sort of review that has been applied only to those who were considered borderline students under the strict criteria of grade averages and test scores.

The comprehensive approach will allow faculty members or admission officers to consider the difficulty of an applicant’s high-school program. Did the student take advanced placement classes, extra mathematics and additional laboratory sciences? The review will benefit students who take more challenging courses despite the risk of getting a B. That single grade can make the difference between a 3.92 and a 3.85 grade-point average, and between getting in and getting rejected when numbers alone determine admissions.

Is it fair, however, for a public university to reject candidates who have achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point? UCLA administrators believe that, when confronted by an overwhelming number of candidates who have similarly outstanding grades and test scores, it is fair to consider factors like quality of course work, how the applicant has taken advantage of time in high school and strengths that cannot be measured by the two narrow categories of grades and test scores.

The admission review, for which faculty members will volunteer, represents a monumental task because UCLA typically receives more than 20,000 applications for 4,200 places in the freshman class. It is important because it gets the faculty more involved and because seasoned instructors, unlike computers, can apply experience to judging whether one student will succeed on campus where another might not.

UCLA’s evolutionary comprehensive approach to admissions will benefit students who are more independent, more willing to take risks, more willing to embrace challenges and more likely to enliven intellectual life on a campus. Administrators who grind applications through the computers and admit by the numbers should take notes.