Saturday, July 29, 2017

Rescinding Admissions

I'm not sure it's entirely justifiable for UC Irvine to rescind admissions for incoming freshmen because they didn't submit transcripts by a certain date--but for poor senior year grades?  Absolutely.  And yet people are complaining because they think they're entitled to admission.

Probably not the strongest argument for rescinding:
UCI’s stated reason for the rescission, Gonzalez said, was that the campus had not received one of two required transcripts on time — though she and her mother say they mailed out both documents in the same envelope two weeks before the July 1 deadline.
These are the snowflakes who need to suck it up, buttercup:
Yunek said UCI had revoked acceptances only for students who had not met the conditions of their admission contracts. Those conditions include receiving a high school diploma, maintaining a weighted 3.0 senior-year grade-point average with no Ds or Fs in UC-approved courses...

And then there's the overreaction:
A petition stating these demands had been signed by more than 640 students, relatives, alumni and community members as of Thursday afternoon.

“We are so sorry that UCI admin has decided to ruin students lives...."
The drama, the drama.

For those students from whom UCI didn't get the paperwork, just send them a notification that the document hasn't been received and give them one more week.  After one more week send a nastygram letting them know they have 3 more days or their admission will be rescinded.  Or, send out that first warning a week before July 1st reminding students.  Something.

For those students who got senioritis and bombed a class?  You don't belong at a university.  Full stop.  It's not because you couldn't succeed there, it's because you didn't meet the academic admissions requirements.  Your spot went to someone more deserving, someone who met the requirements. Deal with it.  Accept responsibility for your own shortcomings and move on from there.  Apply again next year.

Update, 8/5/17:  Irvine has rescinded some of the rescissions:
On Wednesday afternoon, Gillman announced that Irvine was reinstating the offers to almost 300 students whose acceptances had been rescinded because of a missed deadline (so long as their final high school transcripts don’t show problems, such as an F). Roughly another 200 students, whose senior-year grades fell too steeply or whose transcripts contain inconsistencies, will still have to win an appeal in order to enroll.

“We are a university recognized for advancing the American Dream, not impeding it,” Gillman wrote in a public letter. “This situation is rocking us to our core because it is fundamentally misaligned with our values.” He added: “The students and their families have my personal, sincerest apology. We should not have treated you this way over a missed deadline.”

1 comment:

Ellen K said...

I hate having seniors in level one or two classes in the Spring. Many of them are explicitly just taking the class for the credit. They often don't buy supplies, counting on my meager salary to make up the difference. In addition they are frequently late, disruptive and quite often they fail. Part of this is because transcripts for our school go out far too early. The students get college acceptance and then think their last grading period doesn't matter. I have heard of more students having admission qualified based on final transcripts or even denied based on failures. I wish that counselors would press the issue of final grades.