UC Admissions Conflict Fails to Deter Applicants

Although a media frenzy has erupted around the spat between UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and UC Regents Chair John Moores over admissions, it's business as usual for Berkeley High School seniors who are prepping their college applications.

Just a week before UC's application filing period starts, students and counselors at the high school were scrambling yesterday afternoon with appointments, application-writing workshops and tutoring at the school's College Center.

While many counselors knew about the report, students were, for the most part, oblivious to it.

Written earlier this month, the report revealed that hundreds of students with SAT scores lower than 1000 were accepted, while hundreds more with near-perfect scores were turned away.

Senior Dominique Walker, who is applying to UC Berkeley, Howard University, Santa Clara University and Columbia University, signed up for the UC application workshop.

She cringed about her SAT score. "Very bad. 1000. My goal this year is to get a higher score."

But she is optimistic that she will get admitted to at least one of the schools because of her extra-curricular activities, which include African dance for the past 12 years, cheerleading for the past two and helping to restart the Black Student Union at her school.

Walker says she decided to apply to UC Berkeley because of recruiting programs and workshops. Many of these programs, such as Early Academic Outreach Program, are heavily involved at Berkeley High School. A large blue and gold banner hanging on the center's wall reads, "Blue and Gold, Kindergarten to College, UC Berkeley in the Schools."

Counselors say these outreach programs encourage capable and hardworking students who lack financial and academic resources to apply to the UC's.

Some live with abusive families, or have to work 30 hours per week to support their family income, impacting their numbers on paper, said Berkeley High School Counseling Department Chair Teri Goodman.

Counselors say that expanding and strengthening the outreach programs would help make the UC admissions pool more diverse. But that is a challenge with a 50 percent cut to UC Berkeley's outreach budget this year.

Goodman said the admissions process is so complex that the criteria are inevitably vague, because thousands apply with many qualifications.

Even students with the right numbers on paper are not guaranteed admission, a reality acknowledged by students.

Senior Noah Flessel, who has a 32 ACT score-equal to a 1420 SAT-and a 3.98 GPA, is on the lacrosse team and is part of an international student exchange program. He said he would feel disappointed if he knew someone with lower test scores was accepted instead of him.

"But at the same time I don't know what they had to overcome in their lives," he said.

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