BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff

Comprehensive review is being fairly and consistently applied throughout the UC system, and academic criteria and standards remain the predominant factors determining acceptance to the top campuses, says a faculty progress report on the year-old admissions policy.

“Comprehensive review presents a better, though not yet perfect, admissions process,” said Barbara Sawrey, a UC San Diego chemistry professor and chair of the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS). “Further studies and clearer communication with the public will improve it.”

Sawrey presented the report, which was based on months of interviews with faculty and admissions directors, as well as reviews of all campus documents and outcome data, to the UC Board of Regents Nov. 14 in San Francisco.

Under comprehensive review, campus admissions officers use 14 criteria, the same criteria used to admit 25-50% of each campus’ freshman class before the policy was implemented, to evaluate all applicants.

This approach helps facilitate decision-making in the highly competitive UC admissions environment, where differences among students’ quantitative academic records are often very fine.

The report found that readers of applicant files were carefully selected and trained, with appropriate checks and balances in the scoring system. In addition, the policy allowing for a broader review of an applicant’s merits, including personal achievements and adversities, preserved access for students of all demographic backgrounds, including theeducationally disadvantaged and low-income students.

But to refine comprehensive review further and to maintain the highest level of public confidence, Sawrey suggested that UC needs to better explain the process to the public.

BOARS also is encouraging campuses to conduct a broader review of how “hardship” is considered in the admissions process, an issue also raised by Regent Ward Connerly. “How do you verify hardships, for example, if someone talks about the nature of their family?” Connerly asked.

So-called hardship information is taken into account as part of the whole picture, Sawrey said, but “a student who is not academically superior will not even be in the ballpark for including that as another factor.”

Vu Tran, UCLA’s admissions director, is chairing a systemwide task force looking at the entire verification issue. While there’s not yet any information to release on the work of the committee, Tran said UC “will soon be adopting such a policy.” That process is scheduled to begin with fall 2003 admissions.

Many regents said they were satisfied with the faculty’s evaluation of comprehensive review.

“Anybody who’s objective, and clearly BOARS has been, would conclude the system works,” said Chairman John Moores.

“The best qualified students at the most selective campuses continue to be admitted. But the objective here is to make sure comprehensive review isn’t static, that we continue to try to make it better.”

For the complete report, go to www.ucop.edu/regents/regmeet/nov02/302attach.pdf.