Revised Eligibility Requirements for Freshman
Applicants
July 6, 2006
The University of California has increased the
minimum high school grade point average (GPA) required for UC freshman
eligibility from 2.8 to 3.0, effective with the fall 2007 entering
class.
The GPA change was made as part of the University's efforts to keep the pool of UC-eligible
students consistent with the target set out in the California
Master Plan for Higher Education. That plan specifies that only
the top 12.5 percent of California high school graduates should
be considered eligible for UC admission. The minimum GPA required for nonresident applicants remains 3.4.
The University's Board of Regents adopted the GPA change in 2004, when it also tightened two rules for determining whether students are eligible for freshman admission. The two rules changes, which took effect with students entering in fall 2005, standardized the way the University calculates GPA for eligibility and clarified when students are considered fully eligible through the Eligibility in the Local Context program. Specifically:
1
| UC calculates a student's GPA based on all UC-required "a-g" courses taken in the 10th and 11th grades. This change made the GPA used to determine eligibility consistent with the GPA campuses use when they are selecting students and with the GPA students are advised to calculate themselves when they estimate their eligibility.
2
| UC requires ELC students to complete all course and
testing requirements in order to be considered eligible. Students who are notified at the beginning of their senior year
that they are in the top 4 percent of their high school's graduating
class (known as being "eligible in the local context,"
or ELC) must complete the required "a-g" courses
and standardized tests before they enroll at UC in order to be considered fully eligible. Fully eligible students are guaranteed a place in the UC system, though not necessarily at their campus of choice.
Last year, the regents delayed implementing the higher GPA until 2007 to allow prospective freshmen sufficient time to earn the minimum GPA needed in their UC-required "a-g" courses in the 10th and 11th grades.
Taken together, the revised eligibility requirements will mean that fewer students will be considered UC-eligible. It does not, however, change the nature of how students should prepare for UC. Students should continue to take challenging college prep courses and earn the best grades they can.
About 75 percent of UC-eligible freshman applicants earn GPAs of 3.5 or higher, and many competitive majors and programs require a GPA higher than 3.0 for selection.
Questions and
Answers
How does UC determine eligibility?
Why revise the eligibility requirements?
Why are the revisions taking effect in different
years?
Why did UC raise high school GPA instead of minimum
test-score requirements?
What impact will increasing the minimum GPA have
on which students become UC-eligible?
How does UC determine eligibility?
Students must meet certain minimum academic requirements
to be considered eligible for admission to the University of California
system. For most prospective freshmen, eligibility is determined
by:
- Completion of the required
"a-g" college prep courses in high school;
- The GPA earned in "a-g" courses taken in the 10th and 11th grades;
- Scores on standardized tests. Students who graduated in spring 2005 or later should take the ACT Assessment plus Writing or the SAT Reasoning Test, plus two SAT Subject Tests. Students who graduated from high school before spring 2005 should have taken the ACT or SAT, plus three SAT Subject Tests.
The Eligibility Index defines the combination of these grades
and test scores required for UC eligibility. Students also can become
UC-eligible by being in the top 4 percent of their own school's
graduating class, based on their grades in the "a-g" courses (a process known as Eligibility in the Local Context, or
ELC), or by achieving high scores on required admission tests (known as
Eligibility by Examination Alone).
UC guarantees a place at one of its campuses for all eligible California residents, although not necessarily
at a student's campus of choice. Campuses select their incoming
students from among eligible applicants using a process called comprehensive review that considers multiple indicators of
academic and personal achievement.
Why revise the eligibility requirements?
Every few years, the California Postsecondary Education
Commission (CPEC) assesses where UC stands in relation to the provision
in the California Master Plan for Higher Education that the top
12.5 percent of the state's graduating public high school
students be considered eligible for UC. In May 2004, CPEC issued
a new report estimating that, in the class of 2003, 14.4 percent
of the graduating public high school class had met UC's eligibility
requirements, up from 11.1 percent in 1996. The revisions were designed
to return UC to the 12.5 percent target in state policy.
Why did the revisions take effect in different years?
The process-oriented changes approved for fall 2005
(#1 and 2 above) were expected to bring UC's eligibility level
to roughly 13 percent. The GPA revision was implemented for fall 2007 to provide adequate notice to students
and schools of the increased minimum GPA requirement. Phasing in the changes also reflected the fact that new standardized tests would be introduced for fall 2006 and the Eligibility Index would need to be adjusted to reflect the impact of those new tests.
Why did UC raise high school GPA instead of minimum test-score
requirements?
Simulations show that adjusting GPA is the most
effective way to increase the expected UC academic performance of
the eligibility pool, with the least negative impact on populations
that are now underserved at UC.
What impact will increasing the minimum GPA have on which students
become UC-eligible?
It is estimated that increasing the minimum GPA
from 2.8 to 3.0 would remove 700 to 750 students from the UC eligibility
pool. However, the impact is expected to be spread across all demographic
groups, so no single group of students is disproportionately impacted.
For more information
Regents
increase minimum GPA required for UC eligibility from 2.8 to 3.0
Regents'
Item 304 [PDF] (September 2004)
Regents'
Item 302 [PDF] (July 2004)
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