This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's flagship university must walk a fine line when it comes to choosing which potential students to admit to each freshman class: set the bar too low and too few graduate; get too selective and enrollment drops.
So the University of Utah has slowly raised admission requirements over several years and rightly plans to consider more factors in choosing incoming freshmen. The traditional admissions "index," which considers ACT score and high school grade point average, helps predict success in college.
Now the U. intends to broaden the qualifying criteria for students whose index score is relatively low but who excel in non-core subjects such as art or music or who have served the community.
The new criteria will also put more emphasis on the difficulty of classes taken in high school and consider whether the student would be the first in his or her family to attend college.
Such a comprehensive look at applicants is similar to the process at top universities in other states. As the U. settles into the Pac-12 athletic conference, there is pressure to bring its academic standards in line with its sister institutions. That pressure and the results of a recent legislative audit, which show the U. with a graduation rate of only 58 percent, add urgency to the university's gradual raising of admission standards.
Parents and educators know that some high school students with average or even poor grades can be successful at a tough university such as the U. or Utah State University. Sometimes it's a matter of maturity, and a year or two at a community college are the answer. Other students' high school GPAs are relatively low because they have taken a rigorous curriculum through secondary school. Some of them earn high ACT scores that indicate their level of learning.
Still others are dedicated scholars but not good test-takers. High school counselors who understand that the U. will consider other accomplishments could direct those students to community service or extracurricular activities that would showcase their unique skills.
It should be the job of admissions officers at top universities to look beyond standardized admission tests and GPA. Doing so should, in the long term, raise the percentage of freshmen who earn degrees.
Just as important, broadening the criteria will encourage high school students to take rigorous courses without worrying that doing so might hurt their GPA.