In any case, "more than nine out of 10 [low-scoring students] are being rejected on both the UCLA and the Berkeley campuses," said Alexander W. Astin, director of the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
One UC regent who favors "comprehensive review" said it is not surprising that the two most competitive campuses admit low-scoring underrepresented minorities at a greater rate. At such campuses, Judith Hopkinson said, students must demonstrate "multiple compound disadvantages" to get accepted with lower scores. And often, she said, these students are minorities.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday November 07, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 55 words Type of Material: Correction
UCLA admissions -- An article in Monday's Section A incorrectly reported that black and Latino students with SAT scores of 1,000 or less were about one-quarter more likely to be admitted to UCLA than Asian or white students with similar scores. The correct figure is 53%, as shown in the chart that accompanied the article.
College counselor John Mandell of Locke High School near Watts deals with such students all the time.
On Friday, he remembered several African American students with SAT scores below 1000 who were rejected by USC for a few years but accepted by UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and other UC campuses.
He said the students' extracurricular activities, community involvement and personal experiences made the difference.
The students who made it to the UC system either played in the Locke school band, he said, participated in student government, tutored others, volunteered in the community or faced hardships at home.
"The public's thinking is that if a kid has a 1400 SAT score and a 4.0 grade point average, they should be admitted to the UC, " Mandell said. "I think that's bull."
He tells his students that the UCs "are looking for people who will contribute to society."
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Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.
