Making College Admissions a Snap

The nervous teenagers shuffling through a Pasadena church this week were eager to avoid what has long been a rite of passage for most college applicants.

They wanted nothing to do with mailing off those hopeful applications--or the months of anxious waiting for a reply. They wanted no part of the glory of seeing a fat acceptance envelope stuffed into the mailbox or the dull pang of pulling out a wafer-thin rejection letter.

No, they wanted it over in 20 minutes.

They got their wish through the California State University system’s Instant Admissions program. About 180 high school students queued up for a real-time read on whether they could get into the freshman classes at the Long Beach, Northridge, Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles campuses.

Although some Cal State schools have offered Instant Admissions for years, Tuesday night’s academic roll call at the New Revelation Baptist Church represented the first time that several campuses combined forces to give aspiring students a quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

University officials said it was also part of a new recruiting drive in areas where high numbers of youths seek admission to state schools.

In addition, they said the program will help them gear up for the so-called Tidal Wave II, a massive demographic swell expected over the next 10 years as children of baby boomers reach college age.

The students who came to Pasadena this week said they had no regrets about missing the old-fashioned method of notification.

“It’s convenient and quick,” said Stanley Shen, 17, of San Gabriel. “There’s not the anxiety of waiting for the mail.”

And this praise came from a student who was told by counselors that he wouldn’t be accepted to college until he took some night classes--to make up for the year he was a self-proclaimed goof-off and botched his grades.

Nearby, 17-year-old Maritza Tobo, her mother in tow, nervously approached a Cal State Long Beach admissions analyst.

He looked at her papers and then looked at her.

“Welcome to the family,” the school official said in an instant, and shook her hand. “Congratulations.”

She clutched her hands together and with a gushing smile said, “This is a dream come true.” The counselor then warned her not to slack off with “senioritis,” and she promised not to, thanked him effusively and was on her way out the door.

Like many of the students, Tobo said Instant Admissions offers participants a practical advantage. Hearing yes or no immediately allowed her to gauge whether she had to apply to a back-up school. Meanwhile, she said the news will give her the confidence to apply to the more difficult University of California campuses.

About 80% of those who go through the Instant Admissions program are accepted on the spot, said Britt Ortiz, assistant director of student outreach for Cal State Northridge. Acceptance follows a strict formula based on SAT scores and grades, and most students can tell if they will make the cut by calculating their numbers before they come in. The cost of instant admission is $65, he said.

On Tuesday, even some of those who didn’t get accepted left the church with advice on how to improve their transcripts.

“I’m finding out stuff I didn’t know,” said Leslie Alcala, 17, adding that she was told to apply to a program for disadvantaged youth and retake the SAT.

Alcala, of West Los Angeles, would be the first in her family to go to college, and her father, Gerardo, came along to learn everything he could about the admissions process. Both listened intently as the admissions analyst advised them.

Gerardo said he married as a teenager in Guadalajara, soon had several children and had to take on two jobs to support his family. He now works at a cafeteria for KNBC-TV Channel 4 and wants his daughter’s life to be easier.

Michael Trujillo, 17, of Pasadena was a little cockier about the process. He knew he should get into the schools he was applying to, and just wanted to get it over with quickly so he could reserve his worrying for top choices such as UC Irvine and the University of Michigan.

Within a minute of sitting down in front of the analyst, he was being told to apply for scholarships and handed some fliers about Cal State Northridge.

“I’m going to go tell my parents now,” he said with a grin.