Rethinking Admissions: US Public Universities in the Post-Affirmative Action Age

In the aftermath of SP-1 and Proposition 209, the University of California has adopted several strategies in order to maintain access. In the long term, the university seeks to work with individual students to improve their academic preparation and to expand partnerships with the K-12 public sector. The state’s need to educate more of its minority citizens is urgent, however, so in the shorter term the University has focused on three strategies in its admissions process: comprehensive review, Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC), and the Dual Admissions Program (DAP). The paper also discusses the use of standardized tests in judging students’ readiness for university-level work, and especially changes to the SAT tests that have come about partly in response to UC policies. The paper concludes by assessing the ongoing debates over racial preferences in college admissions.