Future applicants to the University of California will have many changes to face on their road to a UC campus after the Board of Regents approved changes to admissions test policies on July 17 and more recently decided to ask for all applications to be completed online.
The admissions test policy change goes hand in hand with national testing agencies’ decision to change the content of their tests. Freshmen hoping to enter a UC campus in 2006 will be required to take a new S.A.T. I that includes a writing exam, or the A.C.T. with a new writing component and additionally take two S.A.T. II tests instead of three as they do now, since one of these three is required to be a writing test.
According to UC officials, these changes were made so that the admissions tests would be more closely aligned to high school college-preparatory curriculum.
“”This sends a positive message to California students, saying, Œstay in school, take challenging classes in high school, we’ll test you on this subject matter,”” UC Spokesperson Hanan Eisenman said.
Eisenman also noted the importance of the new writing components.
“”Writing is very important and provides us with a good sense of how well a student is going to do at the university level,”” he said.
Mae Brown, assistant vice chancellor of admissions and enrollment at UCSD, agreed.
“”Faculty at UCSD really expect you to know how to write,”” Brown said. “”I think adding a writing component will benefit students.””
San Diego Senior High School college counselor Nirit Vardi said she believed students she counsels are looking forward to it.
“”It’s one less test they have to take which makes them feel better,”” she said.
The move to online applications will be required sooner, starting with the incoming class of fall 2005. The California State University system will be moving to online applications as well.
In 2003-04, over 70 percent of UC and CSU applications were completed online.
According to Vardi, the majority of her past students have found the online application to be more convenient than the paper one, due to electronic error checks that don’t let students submit the application if any part of it is missing.
“”Our students in that year will definitely be dealing with a lot,”” Vardi said.
