A Newly-Revealed Transfer Problem

UC (and UCLA in particular) are under pressure from the legislature and governor to accept more transfer students from community colleges. One problem - apart from the mechanisms for transfering - is that community college enrollment has fallen. Now comes the revelation that a fifth of community college applicants are scams to obtain cash from Pell grants and the like. 

Presumably, at least some of these fake students make their way into enrollment data for the community colleges. (The revelation may remind some readers of the scams that obtained billions in fake California pandemic-related unemployment insurance claims.) From the San Francisco Chronicle: 

...Fake enrollments...  crowd out legitimate students and create hours of work for colleges trying to eliminate “ghost students.” Colleges that disburse grants to fraudsters are on the hook to repay the feds. Today, about 20% of California’s community college applications are scams: more than 460,000 of the 2.3 million requests to the state’s online application system since July alone, says the state Chancellor’s Office, which oversees the 116 campuses. Community colleges are required to accept any student in the state with a high school diploma, and a Social Security number is not required to apply...

The system’s screening software blocked just half of the fraudsters, while the rest slipped through to try to enroll in online classes, then use their bogus student status to seek financial aid — at which point they must provide valid identification...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/college-aid-scam-18119117.php.

The fact that there are a significant number of fake community college students means that enrollment at the colleges is actually below recorded levels, making it that much more difficult for UC to obtain the transfer students the legislature wants.