State Schools Getting Harder to get Into

This article was in the Palm Beach Post yesterday.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Florida's public universities may inch up their minimum admission standards, restricting high school graduates with C-averages who now make the cut if they earn top SAT scores.

The change, which will be voted on Sept. 24 by the Board of Governors, eliminates a sliding admissions scale for students who have below a 3.0 GPA, or B-average. Students with a 3.0 automatically meet admission standards.

A student earning a 2.0 GPA, must score a combined 1680 on the SAT to currently qualify.

Under the proposed plan, only students with a 2.5 GPA or above will be considered for admission.

Also, a student with between a 2.5 and 3.0 GPA will have to earn a specific number of points on each section of the SAT, not a composite score as is the case now.

If approved, the new standards would go into effect beginning with students applying for admission in summer 2011.

University officials said the change would have little impact on most schools' enrollments.

In fall 2007, just 490 students statewide who were entering college for the first time had below a 2.5 GPA. That's just 1.8 percent of the total 26,380 first-time-in-college students enrolled that year.

At Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, 123 students were admitted in fall 2007 with below a 2.5 GPA.

But an increasing demand for university seats has allowed schools to be more selective, including FAU, which this year admitted just six students with below a 2.5 GPA.

"Admission is really determined by how competitive the applicant pool is and that's a moving measure that changes every year," said Michael Armstrong, FAU's associate provost for academic affairs. "That's important because some people think making the minimum requirement means you are automatically in."

The regulation change is aimed at ensuring students can complete college-level courses and won't need remediation.

While universities may see little effect because of the change, some students will find themselves locked out from a college education, said Christie Ragsdale, Palm Beach County School District's high school guidance specialist.

"Students with the minimum standards aren't applying to the University of Florida, The Florida State University, or the University of Central Florida," Ragsdale said. "But they could be applying to other schools and a change will affect those 200 or 400 students who got in before."

There are exceptions to the statewide admissions regulation which allow universities to admit students under alternative standards.

For example, a student who experienced hardship, has incredible musical talent, or served in the military, could still be considered for admission.

The proposed regulation actually gives individual universities more leeway in making those kinds of decisions, Armstrong said.

"If you get someone with a perfect math score and no verbal skills, the science college might say, 'Hey, we can work with that person,' " he said. "We just want to make sure we admit people who have the best chance of taking advantage of what really is a subsidized education."

Florda AP and SAT info from last year.

This is from The Core, a newsletter sent out to private schools from the Florida Dept. of Education

Florida’s AP and SAT Participation on the Rise
Florida saw increases in both participation and performance on the SAT this year according to information released on Aug. 25 by the College Board. The state’s combined SAT reading and math score climbed two points to 995 in 2009, with a record 100,179 students taking the college entrance exam.

The results also indicate that Florida’s Hispanic and African-American students are outperforming their national counterparts on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT by 42 points and seven points, respectively. Florida’s participation on the SAT continues to outpace the nation with 58 percent of graduates having taken the test compared to 46 percent nationally. Minority student participation also continues to be high, representing 48 percent of all test takers, compared to 40 percent for the nation.

For the fourth year in a row, Florida had the greatest one-year increase in the number of public school Advanced Placement (AP) exam-takers when compared to all other states. In addition to large increases in the number of test takers, the state also experienced a 13.7 percent increase in the number of AP exams being scored 3-5 (passing range) compared to a 9.4 increase for the nation, according to the College Board.

Minority student participation has helped to fuel our state’s growing AP success. Florida continues to have the greatest number of African-American AP test takers and the greatest number of AP exams scored 3-5 when compared to all other states. Florida also ranks third among all states in the number of Hispanic AP test takers and the number of test takers scoring a 3-5.

For more details on Florida’s performance on the SAT and AP, visitwww.fldoe.org/evaluation.