Grades and standardized test scores increasingly are having to share the spotlight with other factors in determining admission to colleges and universities.
The University of California system’s new comprehensive review admissions policy is causing a stir among some circles but is not rare in the world of higher education, officials say.
Comprehensive review considers applicants’ home lives, as well as their classroom performances.
The policy went into effect in the UC system this fall and is one of many operating at selective universities nationwide.
Hannan Eisenman, media coordinator for admissions for the UC system, said the policy is “designed to improve the quality and fairness of admissions decisions.”
Rather than just seeing a computer printout of scores, system administrators want to look at the full range of achievement — the “whole student,” he said.
Comprehensive review takes into account the opportunities, or lack thereof, available to a student.
One student might have a higher grade point average than another because he had access to advanced placement courses, Eisenman said.
Eisenman said he is not worried that students will embellish their personal circumstances because admissions officers will be able to verify information.
Race, gender and ethnicity are not part of the equation and will not not be taken into account, he said.
If a student chooses to indicate one of these on an application, that detail will be masked before the application is sent to the admissions review board.
Eisenman said that of the 14 criteria used in determining admittance status of a student, 10 are purely based on academics, which will remain “the heart of the application process.”
Legally, universities have the right to choose their admissions criteria.
In the 1957 Supreme Court case Sweezy vs. New Hampshire, Justice Felix Frankfurter made the landmark statement that there are “four essential freedoms of a university — to determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught and who may be admitted to study.”
Jim Coleman, senior associate dean at Duke University Law School, also said there are no apparent legal issues at stake.
Coleman said comprehensive review is a “defensible system” and is not unfair.
To exemplify the fairness of this policy, he compared two “B” average students. On paper, they look the same, he said. In reality, one might live under severe economic constraints and the other might not. Coleman said this new policy allows institutions to “measure the performance of a student given the adversities he or she has had to overcome.”
Many selective institutions , including UNC, use similar tactics as those in the UC system for reviewing students.
Jerry Lucido, UNC director of undergraduate admissions, said the University uses a form of comprehensive review when deciding which applicants to accept.
Lucido said that he firmly agrees with the policy and that it allows admissions officers to take into account the differences in “educational opportunities and personal circumstances” of each student.
Lucido cited grades and standardized test scores as “a narrow set of factors to indicate academic success and potential.”
He said, “It’s important to have an admissions policy that takes everything into consideration.”
The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
