Yours truly confesses he missed an August 1 article in the NY Times concerning the UC-Berkeley admissions process (which undoubtedly applies to UCLA as well). The article gets into the sensitive area of admissions in the post-Prop 209 era. [Prop 209 bans affirmative action in admissions.] Since you may also have missed it, here is an excerpt below with a link to the full article:
A HIGHLY qualified student, with a 3.95 unweighted grade point average
and 2300 on the SAT, was not among the top-ranked engineering applicants
to the University of California, Berkeley. He had perfect 800s on his
subject tests in math and chemistry, a score of 5 on five Advanced
Placement exams, musical talent and, in one of two personal statements,
had written a loving tribute to his parents, who had emigrated from
India... The reason our budding engineer was a 2 on a 1-to-5 scale (1 being
highest) has to do with Berkeley’s holistic, or comprehensive, review,
an admissions policy adopted by most selective colleges and
universities. In holistic review, institutions look beyond grades and
scores to determine academic potential, drive and leadership abilities.
Apparently, our Indian-American student needed more extracurricular
activities and engineering awards to be ranked a 1... when I asked about an Asian student who I thought was a 2 but had
only received a 3, the officer noted: “Oh, you’ll get a lot of them.”
She said the same when I asked why a low-income student with top grades
and scores, and who had served in the Israeli army, was a 3. Which them?
I had wondered. Did she mean I’d see a lot of 4.0 G.P.A.’s, or a lot of
applicants whose bigger picture would fail to advance them, or a lot of
Jewish and Asian applicants (Berkeley is 43 percent Asian, 11 percent
Latino and 3 percent black)? ...
Full article at mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/education/edlife/lifting-the-veil-on-the-holistic-process-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley.html
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