Which college in the United States gets the most applicants? It’s not Harvard or Yale; it’s the University of California, Los Angeles.
The urban campus, the most selective in the 10-campus system, received 57,578 freshman applications for fall 2010, though less than a quarter of those got in. Systemwide, a record 100,000 students applied as freshmen this year, according to a new admissions report presented by the university this week.
But for a public school in a state that faces significant challenges in financing higher education, numbers like U.C.L.A.’s are a mixed blessing. The sheer volume of applicants creates real roadblocks in maintaining what the university sees as a diverse undergraduate population, as well as giving each applicant a fair and holistic review in the admissions process, according to the report.
Ideally, the university system aims for its student body to reflect the racial and socioeconomic makeup of the state of California. Yet the comprehensive seven-year report revealed that admit rates for African-American freshmen has fallen by about 5 percent since the 2003-4 academic year, and while the state’s Latino population has vastly increased, its representation at the university has remained fairly flat.
This is a problem that needs mending, according to the university.
Professor Sylvia Hurtado, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the university and the author of the report, emphasized the importance of halting the “disturbing trend” of minority students being slighted in an increasingly selective admissions pool.
“I do think we need a strategic intervention to stop the decline,” she said.
That intervention would consist of more vigorous outreach to underserved communities, as well as a different weighting system for admissions. Ms. Hurtado, who was previously an admissions officer at Princeton and M.I.T., is advocating that the university weigh applicants’ academic accomplishments and personal achievements on equal levels, that outstanding freshman achievements are documented and reported by the university and that all applications are read through in their entirety (currently, about 72 percent undergo guaranteed full review).
As enrollment constricts and admission becomes more selective, it has been more difficult to ensure that all students the University of California believes deserve a spot are admitted. While the university is meticulous in the amount of data it compiles on the state’s high schools in an effort to understand each applicant’s background and learning context, it still has few venues to single out students who have overcome significant obstacles in their lives, Ms. Hurtado said.
And even the steps that have been taken successfully have not been that reassuring, she added. At the University of California, San Diego, home of the notorious “Compton Cookout” and other racially-tense moments earlier this year, many minority students who were admitted for the fall received personal congratulatory phone calls from the campus’s chancellor and the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to help sway their choice. The result was an increase in African-Americans who accepted their offers of admission, to 68 students from 51 students.
After examining the numbers, the university president, Mark Yudof agreed that despite the economic climate some reform in the realm of admissions was necessary.
“It’s flat-out worth it,” he said. “We just need to bite the bullet and do it.”
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