Cal State Lowers Its Admission Standards

The grades and test scores needed for freshman admission to the Cal State system are being lowered slightly and, as a result, several thousand more high schools seniors may be accepted this fall than would have under previous rules, officials announced Wednesday.

The changes are necessary if the 19 Cal State campuses are to meet the goal of potentially serving the academic top one-third of graduating high school seniors in California, administrators said. According to a recent state report, the Cal State system is falling short of that target because students’ high school grades statewide have dropped as they have taken increasingly rigorous curriculum required for high school graduation and Cal State admission over the last few years.

“Kids are taking tougher classes in high school,” Lee Kerschner, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said Wednesday at a meeting in Long Beach of the California State University Board of Trustees.

The changes include the lowering of the minimum high school grade point average needed for admissions without any results from a college entrance examination. That was dropped from 3.11 to 3.0, or a flat B average.

Students with high school averages just below 3.0 and down to 2.0 are still required to present test scores but the sliding scale of those scores was lowered. For example, a student with a 2.0, or a C, grade point average had been required to present a combined verbal and math total of 1,400 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and will now need a 1,200 SAT score. A student with a 2.5 average needed 1,000 in combined SATs last year, compared to 800 under the new policy.

1,600 Is a Perfect Score

The lowest possible combined SAT score is 400 and 1,600 is perfect.

The changes will affect the current review of applications for this fall’s freshmen classes. Cal State officials estimate that about 11,000 more students will be eligible for admission because of the changes and that up to 2,000 more will enroll this fall. Last fall’s freshmen enrollment at all 19 campuses totaled 30,408.

“One of our main concerns about the changed numbers is that the public will interpret it as a lowering of our standards. That is not the case,” said Ralph Bigelow, the Cal State system’s director of analytic studies. “We have higher standards for course requirements. And requiring more academic courses results in lower grades. We have to adjust our index to that.”

As part of the national education reform movement, the Cal State system four years ago began phasing in requirements that applicants take high school courses in certain academic areas and receive at least a C grade in each of those classes. An applicant will need 10 of those courses for admission this fall, compared to six last year. In 1992, an applicant will need 15--four years of English, three of mathematics, one of science, two of a foreign language, one of history, one of arts and three electives.

However, Cal State officials said they are worried that Latino and black applicants appear to have more trouble than other students in finishing those high school courses. University administrators have decided to keep the 1992 requirement for 15 courses, but to slow down somewhat the schedule of courses required over the next three years. They hope that will give high schools with large minority populations more time to help students become eligible for Cal State.

Originally, the course requirements were supposed to increase to 12 courses in 1989, 14 in 1990 and 15 in 1992. That has been changed to 12 in 1989, 13 in 1991 and 15 in 1992.

Cal State Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds said that promising students will be admitted case by case, even if they fall short by a course or two over the next few years.

In addition, the mixture among the 10 required courses this year was changed. Originally, six were to be mathematics and English. That was lowered to five English and mathematics courses, with at least two of each, although the total of 10 was maintained.

Fewer Eligible

A recent study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission was the main impetus to the Cal State admissions changes. That study showed that only 27.5% of 1986 high school graduates were eligible for Cal State admissions even though the goal under the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education calls for Cal State to accept students from the top 33.3%.

The study, released last month, showed a wide range of Cal State eligibility among ethnic groups. Fifty percent of Asian high school seniors were eligible, 31.6% of whites, 13.3% of Latinos, and 10.8% of blacks.

The University of California system is under pressure to tighten its admissions standards as a result of the study, according to William Pickens, executive director of the Postsecondary Education Commission. In 1986, 14.1% of high school seniors were eligible for UC admission although the master plan calls for UC to serve the top 12.5%.

“My sense is that the UC regents are probably going to do something, perhaps add another course requirement,” Pickens said. UC officials said they have no plans to change this fall’s admissions requirements.

Reynolds also announced the formation of a commission to study the problems facing older, part-time students. Part-time students over the age of 25 now constitute 41% of all Cal State students, compared to 33% in 1967.

In another matter Wednesday, Cal State officials said they would begin negotiations to purchase part of a scenic oceanside ranch in Ventura County for a branch campus. The 550-acre parcel, located just west of Ventura, would initially be home to a about 2,500 third- and fourth-year college students, and might eventually house a four-year university, Cal State officials said. The university system began searching for a site in the county more than two years ago, after a statewide study predicted substantial growth for the region. About $8 million was allocated for the project in the 1987-88 state budget.