Plan for admission of top students flawed

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For good students in low-performing high schools, the UC’s
Eligibility in the Local Context plan has opened otherwise closed
doors. The ELC guarantees admission to students in the top 4
percent of their school, regardless of its quality. As a result,
the number of rural and minority students, who are often from low
performing schools, has increased at the UC again this year.

The ELC plan is just one of many new policies ““ including
dual admissions and comprehensive review ““ that have made an
effort to acknowledge a student’s life circumstances in
admission. The shift toward a more holistic admissions policy and a
redefining of “merit” will benefit the university over
time, since a student’s worth almost always entails more than
just numbers. But the drawback of the ELC is a perpetuation of
overcrowding problems.

By mandating how many students the university has to admit,
constraints are placed on university resources. There are ways
around this, such as expanding the definition of merit so students
in low-performing schools are considered in the general applicant
pool. Another way is to allow the university to employ affirmative
action in admissions. Since many of the students at low-performing
schools are minorities, they could be admitted in the general pool
through affirmative action instead ““ but Prop. 209 prohibits
this.

If both expansion in the definition of “merit” and
the return of affirmative action could take place, the university
wouldn’t have to face overcrowding from the ELC policy.
Instead, circumstances like socioeconomic class and race would be
considered in merit as equally important factors ““ as they
should be.