Effective Fall 2011, UCSD will begin using a new admissions process that allows each applicant to be evaluated based on the opportunities given to the student during high school.

Last Wednesday, the UC Regents endorsed the holistic review process that will be adopted by UCSD and UC Irvine. This admissions process is already used by UC Berkeley and UCLA.

“The expectation is [that] other campuses will move along,” UCOP spokesperson Ricardo Vázquez said.

Student Regent Jesse Cheng said he supported the holistic review.

“[It’s] something that the UC students have been fighting for a very long time,” Cheng said. “So holistic admissions was kind of a way to deal with that.”

UC Regents strongly urged the other campuses using a comprehensive evaluation to change to holistic review in hopes of reeling in a more qualified student population. But the new review process isn’t mandatory for all UC campuses.

Vázquez said the UC system has data about each California school provided to their students.

“We can look at the average SAT scores, how many AP and honors courses are available, class rank, if the school has the A through G UC requirements,” Vázquez said. “We can view the challenges and opportunities that each school has and how peers of that particular school performed.”

Before, UCSD used a system called comprehensive review, based primarily on GPA, test scores and extracurricular activities. It did not take into account socioeconomic circumstances that may have provided more opportunities.

“[The new process] improves upon these approaches in that it relies on a wealth of data about a students’ schools and personal circumstances and their performance relative to peers who have experienced similar opportunities or challenges,” UC President Mark G. Yudof said at the meeting.

A.S. President Wafa Ben Hassine said she approved of the new process.

“What I like most is that it contextualizes the quality of an applicant to the level of opportunity that a student had in their high school career, especially with schools that are in the lower quintile,” Ben Hassine said.

But the holistic review process will yield controversy as well.

“The main counterpoint given is that we’re going to have students that don’t qualify, which is such a big flaw,” Ben Hassine said.  “That we’re going to have students who aren’t eligible or that didn’t work as hard as others.”

Ben Hassine pointed out some may believe that holistic review may be a way of getting around the affirmative action ban.  But the regents said this represents greater equality for students.

“I’m just excited how the campus will respond to this,” Ben Hassine said. “I hope to see fresh faces that come from all walks of life.”

The new process is one of the Black Student Union’s demands in response to Winter Quarter 2010’s “Compton Cookout.”

Cheng said the Regents weren’t familiar with the new admissions process before.

“Many UC Regents didn’t know what holistic admissions was,” Cheng said. “It’s kind of a policy that just came to their table. It used to be a campus-by-campus conversation. And [it’s] the first time we’re dealing with admissions on the systemwide level.”

Additional reporting by Chris McCoy.