Students who don't meet the strict academic requirements to get into the University of California system could get a second look under a proposed change to the UC admissions policy.

Under the proposal, UC admissions officers would review applications from a pool of students they believe could succeed in the highly regarded system but otherwise would not qualify for admission.

"We're doing this to be more fair," said Mark Rashid, professor of civil engineering at UC Davis and chairman of the faculty committee that developed the proposal. "We want to make sure we're not arbitrarily excluding some

high-achieving students who deserve to make their case."

University regents could consider the proposal as early as next month when they meet at UC Irvine.

The regents originally took up the proposal in July but didn't vote on it, saying it warranted more study because it represented a significant change.

"The president is clear we need a broader consultation," said Sue Wilbur, UC director of undergraduate admissions. "We need to ascertain the views of students, parents and schools in the next few months."

Common at private schools

The proposal essentially means that some applicants would get a more holistic review, one that focuses on the whole student and less on grades and test scores, although those would still carry significant weight.

Holistic admissions are common at small private schools, which generally can devote more time to applicants — their essays, recommendations and interviews — because they have fewer people applying.

"We want to see what motivates them, to learn a little bit more about them as a person," said Margaret Miller, assistant director of admission at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. "A larger school using a system like ours would need a very large staff."

Still, the approach has been used successfully in big state university systems, including Oregon State University and the University of Michigan.

"We're seeing great results in retention," said Michele Sandlin, director of admission at OSU. "We're better at finding students who have other ways of demonstrating they can come and be successful here."

UC's current policy promises admission to the top 12.5 percent of the state's high school graduates. The proposal would reduce that number to about 10 percent, opening the remaining spots to students who don't meet basic eligibility requirements.

Those basic requirements include:

- Completing a specific number of classes in English, math, laboratory science, social studies, foreign language, the visual arts and electives. These are the so-called A-G requirements.

- Earning a minimum 3.0 grade-point average for California residents, or 3.4 for non-residents.

- Scoring well on the SAT or ACT college entrance exam as well as three SAT II subject tests. UC combines an applicant's test scores with his or her GPA to come up with an "eligibility index."

If a student meets those requirements, admissions officers then review the rest of the application, which includes essays and lists of activities. If the basic requirements are not met, the application generally is rejected. About 15 percent of applicants each year are ineligible because they don't meet the requirements, Rashid said.

Compared to affirmative action

The proposal's supporters argue that some of those ineligible applicants might thrive at a UC campus and should get a second, more careful review, including a look at extracurricular activities, family income and whether the student's high school offered a full range of honors and Advanced Placement classes.

Critics, however, believe that the proposal gets too close to affirmative action. California law says colleges cannot consider race or ethnicity in college admissions.

With holistic admissions, "what you gain in comprehensiveness you lose in transparency," said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. "You have more questions on how decisions are made."

The proposal also could present logistical problems. The UC system had about 95,200 freshmen applicants this year, with each applying to three or four campuses. By comparison, CLU had 2,800.

It's not clear how many more applicants UC might get under the proposal or how many might get a second look. But Rashid said he believes that the extra effort would be worth it.

"We make better admissions decisions the more information we have," he said.

The regents are scheduled to meet Sept. 16-18 in Irvine. The agenda is not yet available. If the proposal is approved, it would take effect in 2012.