Brandon Reilly seemed like the perfect college candidate. He had
a 4.2 GPA, he was the opinions editor of his high school newspaper,
and he was a leader in his church youth group. His ACT score was
the equivalent of a 1340 on the SAT.
And although he did get into other prestigious universities,
such as the University of Southern California and Pepperdine, his
résumé wasn’t good enough for UCLA.
Reilly was just one applicant among over 1,000 with similar
scores who were not admitted to UCLA this year. And although
admitted students typically do have strong SATs and GPAs, the
average SAT scores for enrolled freshmen have remained relatively
stagnant over the past several years, a fact which may be
preventing UCLA’s standing from increasing.
“What is happening, is (UCLA) is excluding a lot of people
with big numbers,” said David Gruenbaum, president of Ahead
of the Class, a private education company in Irvine that helps
students with SAT preparation.
Gruenbaum referred to a recent report released by UCLA that
showed the university denied over 1,000 applicants with high SAT
scores, and admitted several hundred applicants with comparatively
low SAT scores.
“What I feel is happening at UCLA is they are making bad
errors at this point. I don’t really think there was any
reason for it,” he said, referring to the number of students
denied admission who had high SAT scores.
But while UCLA’s test scores and ranking may not
necessarily be increasing, some noted it is still ranked fourth out
of all public research universities in the country.
“I would say there are numeric differences like in the SAT
and GPA,” said Jonathan Brown, president of the Association
of Independent California Colleges and Universities. “Does it
say that UCLA is declining? Absolutely not.”
Gruenbaum suggested high-scoring students who are denied from
UCLA are being picked up by the university’s crosstown rival,
USC.
The median score for the enrolled freshman class at UCLA in 2003
is 1333. At USC, the median is 1342. Since 1998, USC’s median
incoming freshman SAT score has increased steadily from 1243 to
1342 this year. UCLA, meanwhile, has maintained a relatively stable
median, fluctuating from 1320 to 1333.
USC’s increasing average SAT scores may help them close
the rankings gap between USC and UCLA. This year in the U.S. News
& World Report college rankings, UCLA was ranked 26 and USC at
30 out of national universities with doctorate programs.
The rankings are based on seven categories that include peer
assessment, student selectivity, financial resources and graduation
rate performance.
The SAT and ACT account for 50 percent of the student
selectivity rating, which accounts for 7.5 percent of the overall
ranking.
However, many cautioned against putting too much faith in
college rankings or average SAT scores.
“I view (rankings) all with a grain of salt,” said
Murray Haberman, a senior policy analyst from the California
Postsecondary Education Commission.
“I wouldn’t say that SAT is anything that determines
the quality of education at a university,” he said. “It
is only one among a variety of factors that goes into assessing how
one institution compares against other institutions.”
Keith Stolzenbach, chairman of the UCLA faculty admissions
committee, said the reason UCLA’s average scores were not
increasing was because the admissions office did not focus on
overall scores.
“We do not consider SAT scores in terms of trying to
increase our average SAT,” Stolzenbach said. “We want
the best students to attend our school, not simply have high
rankings from accepting students with high SAT scores.”
UCLA’s admission process, comprehensive review, looks not
only at academic performance and test scores, but also at
extracurriculars, background and life challenges.
However, comprehensive review has come under fire from students
and parents for its perceived lack of transparency.
Ann Beshai, a first-year broadcast journalism student at USC,
said she scored well on her SATs, had a high GPA, and participated
in a variety of extracurricular activities, but was not accepted to
UCLA.
“I think the admission process at UCLA is
ridiculous,” Beshai said. “I have no idea why I
didn’t get in.”
Beshai said when she compared her résumé to those of
other students who were admitted to UCLA, she didn’t
understand what set theirs apart from her own.
Likewise, Reilly said he was surprised when he wasn’t
accepted, but understood the difficulty in selecting all of the
most qualified students from such a large pool.
“I’m always not a big fan of raising an issue and
not offering a solution,” Reilly said. “With the sheer
number of people, it’s pretty tough to admit everyone that
should be admitted. I’m not really sure how it could be
changed.”