Feb. 14, 2003

Chancellor Issues Statement Regarding NC State's Admission Decision Process

By Chancellor Marye Anne Fox

It is important for everyone in the NC State community to understand the admissions decision process, especially in light of the misleading and frequently inaccurate article in the February 14, 2003 News and Observer.

I must refute two particularly stark inaccuracies in the News and Observer story. I did not "quietly and quickly" approve the change. According to reports to me from the Provost, the undergraduate admissions committee, deans, and the faculty athletics representative all had input in the change proposed by the Director of Admissions and then approved by the Provost. Second, the students who were admitted as "admissions exceptions" were all full NCAA qualifiers, and were enrolled because we are convinced that with academic support they can and will succeed and graduate. We admit only those students whom we believe will meet the academic challenges of an NC State education.

Let me place NC State's process in context. In the course of our ongoing statewide "Listening Tour," and in conversations with citizens from my very first days in North Carolina in 1998, one message has been clear: NC State has a responsibility to provide access to higher education - and a better life - for the diverse spectrum of our state's children. Parents, educators, government and business leaders have made that very clear to me.

NC State is the state's land-grant university with a fundamental mission to educate the sons and daughters of North Carolinians from all backgrounds, no matter how privileged or disadvantaged. Our admissions policy, therefore, must serve to select a diverse and intellectually vibrant student body. That student body must and does include academically gifted students, as well as students who bring special talents, skills, and interests and who have demonstrated exceptional community leadership.

Because of the success of our graduates, increasingly more students want to attend NC State. Admissions pressure has resulted in an increase of several statistical averages of numerical indicators of academic strength. For example, in Fall 2002, over 12,000 students applied for 3,500 freshman openings. This incoming class had a 4.01 high-school grade point average and an 1193 combined verbal and quantitative average SAT score. If our admissions process considered only these statistics, some talented students would be at a disadvantage. Students from small, rural high schools might not have easy access to advanced placement courses or international baccalaureate classes that could raise their GPAs, or students from urban areas that do not offer advanced mathematics or multiyear language courses might do less well on the SAT. And yet these are exactly the students who can bring a rich background to key university programs. Some of these students might wish to pursue degrees in under-enrolled programs vital to the future of North Carolina agriculture, or may be excellent participants in NC State's arts programs or intercollegiate athletics.

With rigid adherence to only these quantitative measures - and without special attention to the reality of the challenges and deficiencies of local K-12 preparation - there is a danger that we would develop a student body that excludes many students with diverse strengths and interests, many from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented.

Over time and across several NC State administrations, our university decision-makers, the Director of Admissions, guided by the Provost and our faculty, have devised methods for making difficult admissions decisions. The principle guiding these decisions is: We will admit only those students who can benefit uniquely from an NC State education and can build the quality of our diverse student body. We will admit no student whom we judge incapable of succeeding and graduating. To that end, the University has provided, and will continue to provide, academic support and assistance to all students - especially with special needs - to enable their success.

So how do NC State's admissions professionals choose among the many deserving students? Undergraduate Admissions, a function of the Provost's Office, calculates an academic index (AI) for each applicant. The AI is used as an initial sorting tool. It is a mathematical algorithm that calculates a value based on numerical input of high-school GPA, verbal and quantitative SAT scores, and class rank. AI is not - and never has been - a quantitative individual ranking; rather, it has been a means for broad categorization of applicant files that are then reviewed in detail by admissions professionals.

For some years, our attempts to correlate AI with expected student performance have met with mixed success, and the detailed form of the algorithm typically changed from one year to the next. As a preliminary sorting tool, the AI does have proven merit in identifying both stellar academic achievers whose admissibility is absolutely clear, and those whose leadership or special abilities make them excellent candidates, if provided with appropriate academic support, especially during the first year or two of attendance. One example of such support is the Transitions program, where non-student-athletes identified as "at risk" by the AI, voluntarily participate in an active first-year intervention, including tutoring and study hall sessions four nights a week. Through the Office of the Provost's Academic Support Program for Student Athletes, NC State provides a valuable, active support program.

Students who actively participate in these programs do, in fact, often succeed under circumstances where the AI alone would have predicted difficulty. Dr. Thomas Conway, the interim vice provost for enrollment management, reports that one-half of the "at-risk" students admitted to the Transitions program in Fall 2002 ended their first semester with a NC State GPA greater than 3.0. And, Phil Moses of the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes, reports that in Fall 2002, a total of 208 of our 550 student-athletes had a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

While the use of the AI is valuable as a preliminary sorting tool, our ongoing tracking of student success strongly suggests that its utility for individual admissions decisions is seriously flawed. The Office of University Planning and Analysis has calculated that the R2 value, a statistical measure of the precision and accuracy of the algorithm for predicting individual student success, is unacceptably low. Late last spring, therefore, NC State's Provost and our Director of Admissions proposed a change. In emails to me, the Provost said they had conferred with the academic deans, the undergraduate admissions committee, and with the university's faculty athletics representative. They proposed to restrict the use of the AI to initial sorting. The director of admissions would review individual applicant files with AIs suggesting the need. This director would be empowered to make all admissions decisions, including those for special talent students, such as those in arts or athletics.

In Spring 2002, Dr. George Dixon, vice provost for enrollment management and director of undergraduate admissions, recommended to Provost Stuart Cooper, after similar consultation with concerned groups, that a broader range of admission criteria (rather than the AI) be used by the Director of Admissions to identify at-risk students, including those referred to as "admissions exceptions" among student-athletes. Provost Cooper endorsed and approved it and asked Dr. Dixon to use it in categorizing admissions exceptions. The Provost and Dr. Dixon briefed the Director of Athletics, Director of University Planning and Analysis, and me on May 27, 2002 about their decision. In response to my query about the procedure for publishing the changes to our admissions process, the Provost informed me on August 29, 2002 that "the new exception policy has already been discussed with the undergraduate admissions committee, the Deans, and Donn Ward, the faculty athletics representative." The new policy was therefore used in deriving the admissions exceptions list sent to the University of North Carolina Office of the President. By these criteria, six student-athletes were so designated in Fall 2002.

The statement in the News and Observer article that I "quietly and quickly approved the change" in the admissions policy is absolutely false.

There is no one definition of an "admissions exception;" each UNC campus sets its own definition. NC State's definition for student-athletes, for example, includes not only NCAA certification, but also minimum course requirements, minimum cumulative high-school GPA, proof of acceptable standardized test scores and, of course, completion of a high-school diploma. Our admissions professionals review each and every applicant's record and file.

Of the six NC State students identified as "admissions exceptions," all are fully NCAA qualified and, at many other institutions that have a weaker emphasis on academic values, none would be listed as an exception.

We are proud of the strong academic qualifications of our students (both regular admits and those recognized as having special talents), and we fully expect each to succeed. As a land-grant university, we are pledged to educate a diverse cross-section of this state's children. To achieve this goal, it is critical that our Provost and Admissions Office staff have full flexibility to use their professional judgment - both in admissions decisions and in identifying internally those students for whom academic intervention might be most helpful.

One of the key challenges to be addressed by our new Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs will be to continue discussions with faculty, students and other concerned groups, and to monitor our admissions policies - and identify and help our special qualification students. Dr. Conway began that process in November 2002, a process that has always anticipated full participation by our faculty.

By working together, we are building a strong, focused, and representative student body at NC State that include all those who can best benefit from the education we provide.

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