<p>THE STATE
A Startling Statistic at UCLA
At the school whose alumni include Jackie Robinson and Tom Bradley, only 96 blacks are expected in this fall's freshman class.
By Rebecca Trounson, Times Staff Writer
June 3, 2006 </p>
<p>This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at UCLA, but only 96, or 2%, are African American the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern at the Westwood campus.</p>
<p>For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released this week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis....</p>
<p>I'm white. Do you see the big drop off for whites over the past 20 years?</p>
<p>UCLA's mostly in-state and there has been a huge influx of Asians coming into Southern California. At the risk of offending someone, a greater percentage of Asian parents really put pressure on their kids to succeed academically and a lot of these kids really perform.</p>
<p>Last year, my eight-grader placed well enough in a regional math competition (SG Valley) to qualify to go to the state competition. All the other qualifiers from the region were of Asian descent, although they still make up a minority (albiet sizeable) in the region. At state, they still had a majority although as a smaller percentage.</p>
<p>I may be taking a shot in the dark here, but I'm going to guess that this difference in demographics alone has made admission into UCLA much harder than it was 20 years ago. We've had a big influx of students who work harder than anyone else and everyone else has performed about where they always have been and have lost ground.</p>
<p>xiggi i'm hoping you are joking. why comment in the 1st place if that's what you were going to say?</p>
<p>I'm pretty surprised by that information though, I always imagined UCLA to be this extremely diverse school. I guess being from the east coast and knowing what a prestigious and popular school it is, I just assumed that. Wow, my high school wasn't that diverse and we still had at least 100 black kids (and thats out of 3,500 students)!</p>
<p>I wouldn't underestimate the impact of cost. With in-state residential costs of $23k/year, and the median African-American family having an income of $49k (and paying California rents), the possibility of a middle-income African-American student being able to afford UCLA (or Berkeley, or UCSD) is at best iffy (and that's being charitable). And for those below the median, multiply the iffyness. </p>
<p>Academic competitiveness is just the tip of the iceberg. Does UCLA reward applicants for taking AP courses, or higher level math, or science? Try to find same in high schools in East L.A. or Compton.</p>
<p>The percentage of African-American students at H. or P. receiving financial aid is very, very small (way, WAY under 8%); those that do can count on very significant financial help. USC has the highest percentage of Pell Grant recipients (low-income students) of any private college or university in the U.S., so most of their African-Amercan students are getting close to a full ride. </p>
<p>But if you want to find highly competitive, academically talented, lower-income African-American students in California, the most likely place to find them is at the community colleges.</p>
<p>"xiggi i'm hoping you are joking. why comment in the 1st place if that's what you were going to say?"</p>
<p>My comment was made in jest. However, the underlying fact that the UC admission policies have allowed gamesmanship through the abuse of SAT-II foreign languages is NOT a joke.</p>