UC Berkeley, the University of California’s oldest and most prestigious campus, admitted hundreds of freshmen in 2002 who were “marginally academically qualified” at the expense of many more highly qualified applicants, according to a confidential report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

The preliminary analysis of UC Berkeley admissions, prepared for the UC Board of Regents, showed that nearly 400 students were admitted to the campus in 2002 with scores of 600 to 1000 on the SAT entrance exam, far below the 1337 average SAT score for last year’s admitted class. Sixteen hundred on the test is considered a perfect score.

The report also shows that more than 600 applicants with scores on the SAT of 1500 or above were not admitted, along with nearly 2,600 others with scores from 1400 to 1500. Berkeley officials say many of the rejected students with high SATs had relatively low grade-point averages.

Overall, the document finds, the admissions process at UC Berkeley “might not be compatible with (the school’s) goal of maintaining academic excellence.”

The report was prepared at the request of regents chairman John Moores. It is based on university data but contains extensive analysis that primarily was written by Moores. The report does not attempt to explain the reasons for UC Berkeley’s admissions patterns. It does not break down admissions by race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, nor does it measure changes over time.

But it urges a more comprehensive study of admissions — including some of these factors — at Berkeley and the university’s seven other undergraduate campuses.

Some regents stood by UC Berkeley’s approach to admissions.

“I can see why people would have reasons to be concerned, I suppose, and I don’t begrudge them for that,” said Matt Murray, a senior at UC Berkeley who is a student member of the UC Board of Regents. “But I would not say, based on this report, that somehow there’s something terribly wrong with what the university is doing.”

“The admissions process is a horribly complicated thing,” he said. “The SAT is not the end-all and be-all. . . . There are all of these other factors that go into the admissions process.”