In the seventh post in the series, Put Down Your #2 Pencils: The University of California Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores, Comprehensive Review, where each of the 14 Comprehensive Review points which UC admissions officers use as a guide for their application evaluations are analyzed, high school students can understand how they’ll be assessed during the admissions process.
The sixth Comprehensive Review point is:
Quality of a student’s senior-year program, as measured by the type and number of academic courses in progress or planned.
Since senior year grades will not be reported by the UC application deadline of November 30, admissions officers will only consider the planned course schedule in their evaluations. UC admissions officers are trying to forecast if a student is adequately prepared, given their high school academic experiences, to benefit from a UC education, if admitted.
Additionally, since every first year applicant lists their senior year courses in their application, UC admissions officers are assessing a student’s academic commitment as it extends over the entire four years of high school. In other words, when students take a set of challenging academic courses during the first three years of high school, then the senior year should be similarly rigorous academically.
Furthermore, an acceptance to the UC, like every other four-year university, is conditional on the completion of senior year courses with a C or better, and for UC Berkeley completion of courses with B’s or better. Once again, admissions officers are emphasizing the importance of the total academic performance during all four years of high school.
To underscore the importance of academic preparation, read our two earlier posts in the UC Comprehensive Review series, two different criteria both pertaining to the rigor of a student’s academic experience were analyzed:
In Part 4:
Number of, content of and performance in academic courses beyond the minimum A-G requirements.
And, in Part 5:
Number of and performance in UC-approved honors and Advanced Placement courses.
Jill Yoshikawa, Ed M, is Educational Partner at Creative Marbles Consultancy. She combines educational theory with experience to advise families, schools and educators, helping nurture the next generation. You can contact Jill at jill@creativemarbles.com
