Youth Opinion : UC’s Favors: ‘One Word--Hypocritical’ : In the eyes of L.A. high school students, manipulation of admissions looks ‘disgusting’ next to the decision to eliminate affirmative action.

TERESA VILLASEOR

17, senior, Eagle Rock High School

I only applied to three colleges and they’re all UC--Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Davis. I want to major in English and see how far that takes me--hopefully to be a professor--and I understood that the UCs are the best schools to do that.

I’m not surprised, but I’m disappointed [by The Times’ stories revealing string-pulling on behalf of rejected applicants]. Disgusted. I come in contact with that phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” but I didn’t think it would be integrated even into our educational system.

I did an affirmative action research project, so I’ve read article after article about what regents said and how they thought preferences were a bad idea.

I just think of one word--hypocritical, because special privileges, whether they be given racially or this way, socially, they’re still special treatment. And they’re two very different types of special treatment.

I’m for affirmative action, which takes into account a lot of things students have put up against them, whether it be economic, racial or where they live. I go to a high school where a lot of things aren’t offered, so I may not have the same classes on my schedule or the same opportunities as someone that goes to a high school in Palisades.

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YUMI HORI

18, senior, Reseda High School

I have always wanted to go to UCLA, so I found it really hard to understand how, when I’ve been working all these years, that people are getting in with lower qualifications because of [who they know]. It was just really incredible.

It is really difficult today to get into college and I understand how taking the easy way out would seem like the right choice, but personally, I think it’s the wrong way to go. I’ve always worked hard and believed in working hard.

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MICHALLENE HOOPER

17, senior, King-Drew High School of Medicine and Science

I applied to UCLA and that’s where I really want to go. I’m undeclared as a major, but I would like to go into biology and then go on to UC San Francisco to complete my M.D.-Ph.D and [eventually] be a professor at a UC school.

I was listening and reading [about this]. If we all were judged on merit, if everything was on merit, it would be so much easier.

I don’t have that kind of pull for someone to write me a letter and just get [me] in because they’re a donor or something. I feel kind of cheated because there might be someone getting my spot.

The letters [of acceptance] went out last week and I worry that someone who has pull or has got someone to call the chancellor got in before me. I just hope that everything is on merit.

Would I use that kind of influence if I had it? I don’t think I would even ask, because I’ve been brought up in a family that is all about what you deserve. I’ve worked hard over my high school career so that when it came time to apply to college, I was prepared and qualified without anyone else’s help.

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SOPHIA ESPINOZA

18, senior, Franklin High School

It was shocking. There were UC campuses that I did get accepted to, but there were campuses that I didn’t. And I was [wondering] if those were the campuses that were giving this preferential treatment to individuals that weren’t qualified to go.

People are always saying that that’s reality and that’s the society we’re living in. But it seems like we’re not moving in any direction to change it.

I was raised to have pride in myself. My culture especially stresses individual pride. To demean myself [by getting] something that I didn’t earn--that’s something that I’m against. I wouldn’t do that. To do something and to earn it, that’s the best feeling in the world.

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CHARLES MENZIES

17, senior, Crenshaw High School

My plans are to go to either UC Berkeley or UC Davis to be a chemical engineer.

Obviously, it’s unfair. Students who have over 1,000 [on the SATs] and good grades don’t get accepted, but other students who have little or no community service at all, low SAT scores and grade-point averages get accepted--I mean it’s obviously not fair.

[The people who used influence] should be removed or reprimanded. Something should happen, because students who work hard don’t get the opportunities that they should. In the newspaper I saw one student who had an SAT score below 900, a GPA of only 3.4 and no community service and was accepted over a student who was superior in all three areas.

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WENDY GONZALEZ

17, senior, John Marshall High School

I hope to go to either UCLA or USC and one day become a pediatrician. My reaction is that it’s truly unfair because I have worked really hard for my grades and for what I think I deserve as a good college education. For these people, just because they have power [and] money, to bring in somebody who’s not even qualified to go? It’s hard enough to get into colleges already because of all the competition. Just sliding them by gets me mad; they’re getting the college education that maybe I deserve more than they do.

The Board of Regents wants to cancel affirmative action completely, [but not] when it comes to their relatives, to their people.