Topeka — The Kansas Board of Regents today gave Kansas University permission to go ahead with the process of putting in place tougher admission standards.
"We have an aspiration to increase the graduation rate. We have an aspiration to increase the retention rate," said KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.
But Gray-Little said the school wasn't trying to discourage applicants to the school. "I want every student who can come to KU and have a good experience, to be at KU," she said.
The board voted 8-1 to approve KU's request. If new regulations supporting the request are approved by December, then KU will start using the new standards in August 2016.
Currently, admission criteria are the same for all six regents universities. A Kansas high school graduate can be admitted if he or she:
— Has an ACT score of at least 21 or SAT score of at least 980, or
— Ranks in the top one-third of the high school class, or
— Has a 2.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale in the Kansas Qualified Precollege Admissions curriculum.
Under the proposed standards, to be automatically admitted to KU, graduating high school students would have to complete the pre-college curriculum along with one of the following:
— A minimum 3.0 GPA and an ACT score of at least 24 or 1090 SAT, or
— A minimum 3.25 GPA and an ACT score of 21 or 980 SAT.
Students would also have to apply by Feb. 1 prior to their freshman year at KU to be considered for automatic application.
Students who don't meet the criteria will have their applications reviewed by a committee that will look at numerous considerations, including whether the applying student would be a first generation college student, or is the child or grandchild of KU graduates, and has the potential to succeed academically.
Comments
toe 11 months, 1 week ago
Pretty weak requirements, but I guess it is an improvement.
Jane 11 months, 1 week ago
Smarter students may equal better results on the field and court.
Phillbert 11 months, 1 week ago
Guess you missed this:
KU men’s basketball team records 6th straight perfect APR score http://www2.kusports.com/news/2012/ju...
always_correct 11 months, 1 week ago
these requirements only pertain to automatic admittance for Kansas high school graduates. Not really going to have an effect on sports programs... 1) if you don't get in automatically, you can still be admitted with general applications; 2) there aren't that many star athletes on our sports teams coming out of Kansas high schools.
yourworstnightmare 11 months, 1 week ago
This is a good start to improving the quality and retention of students at KU.
Who was the one "no" vote?
LJD230 11 months, 1 week ago
BGL may well do what her predecessor could not: vault KU into the top 25 public universities.
The biggest challenge is improving the reputations of the postgraduate professional schools: law, business and medicine.
konzahawk 11 months, 1 week ago
These aren't real tough requirements. However, it is a start.
JackMcKee 11 months, 1 week ago
I wonder what percentage of the current student body fail to meet these standards.
irtnog2001 11 months, 1 week ago
If this is really about improving retention rates for undergraduates this won't help much. They need to reduce class size and provide instruction from professors not TA's. These large research univerities treat undergraduates as second class cannon fodder and that is not going to change. Unless you are a national merit scholar my advice is go to juco for two years and then finish up at one of the smaller state or private universities. KU is not the place to be unless you can get into a graduate program there.
thinkinganalytically 11 months ago
@irtnog2001
Do you know what percentage of KU undergraduates are taught by graduate students? Could you let us now about the class size? Without that sort if information, we really can't take this comment seriously.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.