Holistic Approach to College Admissions

* In “Dropping the SAT Is an Excuse to Drop Standards” (Commentary, Feb. 25), Virginia Postrel claims that UC President Richard C. Atkinson’s alternative proposal of admitting students based on their available opportunities would reduce UC standards. As a former admission officer of a highly selective private university with a similar approach, I was never given license to abandon standards or place the highest premium on character.

Rather, when we identified a student who maximized limited opportunities, we took that as an indicator she would do the same at the university level. With overall retention rates and graduation rates hovering above 90% at my college, the qualitative, holistic method worked. Moreover, it allowed us to evaluate academic credentials alongside factors such as intellectual curiosity, citizenship and one’s impact on the school community. The SAT could never measure these things. That’s why even Cal needs people to make admission decisions, not a machine that picks up circles made by a No. 2 pencil.

RYAN TACORDA

Santa Monica

* I still don’t understand all the hand-wringing over the SAT exams. I attended UCLA from 1995 to 1998, and I never even took the SAT. I attended Santa Monica College for two years and took a specific curriculum that, upon completion, guarantees admission to UCLA. Why is there such an emphasis on kids going to a four-year university straight out of high school? Most young adults aren’t ready for the responsibility and demands that being at university require. Two years at a junior college provide a perfect transition period. And admission at junior college is not the hair-pulling, stressful experience that admission to university is. So stop your whining; there is more than one way to get a university education.

KAREN ANDRUS

Santa Monica