Cuts at UC Force Many to Consider Their ‘Option’

The letter had finally arrived. Months of worrying -- what seemed like an eternity -- were over.

It sat on the kitchen counter, already opened by an impatient mother. But neither the expression on her face nor the thin size of the envelope looked right.

“Dear Arman,” the letter began. “I am delighted to offer you future admission to UCLA through our new Guaranteed Transfer Option.”

Maybe it’s a typo, Arman Matevosyan told himself. So the senior at Glendale’s Herbert Hoover High School kept reading.

“By accepting this offer, you agree to start your college education this fall at a California community college and transfer to our campus when you reach junior standing.”

Matevosyan was confused. Who said anything about a community college?

Then the 17-year-old remembered what his high school counselor told him a few weeks earlier.

Because of the state’s budget crisis and a request from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce enrollment, the UC system is admitting 7% fewer students for the school year beginning this fall than it did last year.

As a result, nearly 7,600 have received similar offers to attend a community college, where they must complete required courses before transferring, though not necessarily to a UC campus to which they had applied.

This is the first time the UC system has turned away eligible students since statewide standards for the university were established four decades ago, said Hanan Eisenman, a spokesman for the UC system.

However, he said all California residents who met eligibility requirements but were not admitted were given alternatives, including winter or spring admission or the guaranteed transfer option from a community college.

Still, changes are tough for young people who wanted the extra academic prestige, the large student bodies from all over the nation, the big name sports teams and the more lively on-campus social lives that they feel UC schools offer compared with community colleges.

“It just completely knocked the pride out of me,” Matevosyan said. “I did really well in school. It’s kind of a blow to your pride that you’re going to a school that pretty much anyone who graduates can go to.”

High school counselors say students offered the guaranteed transfer alternative this year would have been accepted directly into a UC school any other year.

“These students are able and ready for a four-year college,” said Kory Combs, the counselor at Hoover. “Now they’re not able to partake in that. Many of them are devastated.”

Matevosyan said he had felt sure that at least one of the three UC schools he applied to -- UC San Diego, UCLA and UC Berkeley -- would admit him.

He thought he deserved as much: top 5% of his class, 1220 on his SATs and an extracurricular list that includes membership in the school’s track team, countless beach clean-ups and a part-time job.

Instead, all three sent him similar letters as did the still-unfinished UC Merced campus, to which he never applied.

“In my head what that told me is that I was actually qualified to get in now, but it was exterior factors. It wasn’t anything I had done,” he said.

Now, Matevosyan was trying to adjust. He was scrambling to meet last week’s registration deadline at Glendale Community College

UC officials say they are not blind to how this new measure has affected students.

“We realize that some students are disappointed by this year’s outcomes,” Eisenman said.

“This has not been a terrific year for students. We have worked with the community colleges to create a seamless path to a UC degree. We regret that we cannot take all eligible applicants.”

In some cases, students received guaranteed transfer letters from multiple campuses.

UC Merced, which is set to open in fall 2005, is eager to attract students and sent letters to all 7,600 students in the potential transfer group.

Students have until June 1 to commit to one UC school under the transfer plan. They will then be paired with counselors to advise them on which community college courses fulfill UC requirements. Then the students will have to maintain minimum grade point averages, which vary depending on their major and the UC campus to which they will transfer.

In a somewhat similar program last year, applicants who were near but still below the minimum grades and test scores required for freshman admission were redirected to two-year colleges with the promise of transfers to UC later. That program, which attracted fewer than 500 students, has been discontinued.

In the San Fernando Valley, Birmingham High School senior Christina Goschin had long thought UC Davis was the place to go to achieve her dreams of becoming a veterinarian. Earlier this month, the transfer offer arrived in the mail.

“I was kind of upset about it, that I was in that percentage,” said Goschin, 18.

During her four years in high school, she managed to earn a 3.49 GPA and volunteered in blood drives and for AIDS Walk.

“I still hate the idea that I’m going to a community college,” Goschin said. “I kind of get annoyed thinking about it, so I don’t want to think about it too much.”

Beyond academic reputation, most disappointed students said the main reason they wanted to attend a UC was for the experience of living on campus, which is not usually found at community colleges.

“It kind of scares me, but I need to live life without my parents helping me out,” Goschin said. She now plans to stay at home with her parents and attend Pierce College.

Linda Serra Hagedorn, a professor of higher education policy at USC, said community colleges will benefit from the influx of UC-bound students.

“Having high ability students in a community college is a good thing,” she said. “The colleges become labeled by the students who populate them. This may help the image of the college.”

Still, Hagedorn said, researchers are unsure what will happen to these students.

While she said only 20% of community college students go on to a four-year institution, no research has been done on what may happen to students already guaranteed a transfer.

“What we have done is put an big obstacle in the paths of these students. Some of them will be lost along the way,” she said.

At UCLA, some officials say they, too, are wondering how many of the 1,750 students offered the option by the Westwood campus this year will accept it. And of those, how many will actually follow through and transfer?

“A generous estimate might be that 20% would take it,” said Thomas Lifka, UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor for student academic services. “These are kids who are all UC-eligible so it stands to reason that they have other choices.”

For many of the affected students, such alternatives may include the Cal State system, private schools or public, out-of-state universities, Lifka said.

However, some students who received the redirection letters say they will not be deterred from their goal of a UC degree -- even if they land at a UC two years later than expected.

“I know I’m going to do well,” said Denise Manalang, 17, of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. “It’s what I make out of it. It’s not really the reputation of the school.”

Manalang, who was on her school’s tennis and volleyball teams while earning a 3.8 GPA, received transfer offers from UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. She will enroll at Pierce College later this month and then plans to transfer to UCLA to pursue a career in nursing.

And Mashael Majid, 17, of Taft High School in Woodland Hills said her aspirations of becoming a pediatrician are far from crushed.

Majid will be attending Moorpark College in Ventura County until she transfers to UCLA.

“I know I can do it,” she said. “It’s not resentment or bitterness. You kind of have to live with it. I think it’s fine.”

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Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.