LAist: Number of Black Freshmen at UCLA Doubles

harryo

Sun, 13 May 2007 09:04:44 -0800

amando, why is it that USC, Stanford, USF, the Claremount Colleges, Harvard, Yale and MIT have far more Black Students that UCLA, CAL and the other UC schools...it's because, as Cindy said, private schools, and public schools with affirmative action programs like North Carolina can treat smart Black students the way UCLA and Cal wines and dines Black kids who can play football or basketball? Also if admission to UC was based solely on meritoricy, the entire UC system would be Asian because California Asians, Asians from other parts of the United States and overseas Asians score the highest on the test and have the best GPAs, and far more Asians qualify for admission to the 10 UC undergrad schools than can be admitted. A big factor in UC's admission policy is extracurricular activities such as participation in athletics, the arts, music, service and community groups, a factor that insures diversity. Kids who are involved in these activities are often given an edge over most Asian kids who aren't involved in sports or other extracurricular activity. A kid with a 4.5 and a perfect test score who is turned down at UCLA in favor of the next Michael Jordan will have no problem getting into Caltech, where extracurricular activity or California high school football or basketball player of the year honors have on impact on admissions.

tony

Sat, 12 May 2007 18:16:13 -0800

why do you insist on avoiding the questions that were posed to you? what exactly are you afraid of?

amadeo

Sat, 12 May 2007 18:12:15 -0800

that was an awfully short concession post. feel free to go ahead and change your user name, "tony" :/ happy mother's day!!

tony

Sat, 12 May 2007 16:28:48 -0800

you didnt answer the questions nor do you deserve proper punctuation

amadeo

Sat, 12 May 2007 15:54:06 -0800

You are proof that our school systems need improvement. You lack the ability to use commas, apostrophes, or reason rationally. It's victicrats like yourself that prevent minorities from making improvements. People like you just want hand outs. UCLA is for those who deserve it and can manage to graduate. For many blacks, a lower UC, a Cal State, or a community college is a better alternative. If affirmative action truly worked, it would end at the undergraduate level. But favorable treatment for blacks has seeped into graduate admissions and to the work force: all proof that blacks can't survive with a subsidized existence. I'll spare you the same "insults" that you have so childishly posted. :)

tony

Sat, 12 May 2007 14:13:11 -0800

amadeo have you ever considered that the quality (or lack thereof) of the K-12 schools in most black neighborhoods might be part of the reasons that they dont "merit" acceptance in UCs? and have you ever considered that keeping them out of our best public universities will only perpetuate this bad situation? you are proof that our school systems need improvement since youre clearly lacking any common sense or the ability to critically think.

amadeo

Sat, 12 May 2007 13:35:53 -0800

Accepting students by merit is segregation? And accepting less qualified black students is not segregation? Why are graduation statistics for Blacks so low? Maybe they can't compete against qualified students. Perhaps it is better for blacks to attend schools where they can COMPETE (i.e. lower UCs, cal states, and communtiy colleges). What a brain-washed AZN you are.

cindylu

Sat, 12 May 2007 12:36:37 -0800

UC has a process called Eligibility in the Local Context which takes the top 4% of students. Amadeo, There are plenty of highly competitive black students in the state of California. However, UC can't compete when it comes to private colleges and universities who can offer those students coveted scholarships. I guess what you're proposing is a segregated public university system. And no, I've never considered it because it went out of fashion in the 1950s. William, Go to Google and you'll easily find the number of African American students who applied to UCLA (a press release from January says 2,444). Since it's May, the press releases right now are about how many students sent in their statement of intent to register.

amadeo

Sat, 12 May 2007 12:20:45 -0800

blacks are under-represented because they aren't as qualified as the general population. even at 4.5%, they are over-represented if you take into account their merit. perhaps blacks should be sent to lower UC campuses because that is where they belong, and not at ucla or berkeley. ever consider that?!?!

malingering

Sat, 12 May 2007 11:49:58 -0800

Dan, I'm pretty sure that's the case at UC Riverside and one of the others (I can't remember right now), guaranteed admission for the top 3% maybe? You know, I've looked at the racial composition of some of the top schools in the country: Harvard, Yale, etc and they generally have about 10% of the entering class identifying themselves as Black/African American. Compare that to the less than 5% at a public school, you really have to wonder what the hell is going on.

William

Sat, 12 May 2007 08:28:42 -0800

I went to UCLA and I myself would like to see more diversity at the school - although, compared to most schools in the country, it is probably a thousand times more diverse. Seriously, rather than getting on UCLA's case about how many blacks or Latinos they admit, perhaps the ire should be directed toward the school districts in charge of these students for the 12 years prior to their application. There should be no "minimum". Don't treat this as a system of quotas because the university is there to accept the best possible students. If they have nothing to gauge that student's prospects on besides the fact that they are black, it doesn't help. Do you expect them to say "oh, they're black, it is very likely that they are super-smart but they just had a hard time in the neighborhood they grew up in so let's admit them and they'll blossom"? If there are borderline black candidates, then they should definitely be admitted if their backgrounds tell of a difficult situation throughout their youth. What's funny is that no one mentions how many black students APPLIED. Also, the California Community College system allows for a great deal of flexibility to get into the UCs if it doesn't work out the first time around. If one is committed to getting into UCLA, there are numerous avenues. Seriously, I'd love to see more, studious black students at UCLA because let me tell you, the athletes aren't improving their image much (of course, that holds true for almost all athletes).

dan b

Fri, 11 May 2007 19:12:47 -0800

I think the best way to combat the lack of diversity (racial and socio-economic) is to guarantee admission to UC for the top 5 or 10 % of every high school's graduating class, along with guaranteed financial assistance. It'll probably go much further than the current system.