Undergraduate College Admissions Primer for California Parents

When we were growing up in India, college admission was a straightforward process. It was typically based on your Physics, Chemistry, Math scores of your finals of 12th grade for Engineering and Physics, Chemistry, Biology scores for Medicine. This exam was held at the state or national level. Some colleges had an entrance exam. The criterion was objective. Life was simpler; you had till 12th grade to mature before your grades started counting towards admissions.

Fast forward to admissions in the US. It is amazing how intricate the process is. Every grade of every subject counts from 9th grade for the most part and then you add ACT/SAT, Essays, Activities, AP, Honors, College Courses and Subject Tests to the mix. Parents start putting pressure, and teenagers start feeling the pressure from 9th grade onwards for every test and every assignment. The GPA is the most important criteria for admissions but is non-standard. It’s easier to get a higher GPA in some high schools as compared to others. The ACT/SAT score is supposed to be the normalizing factor but is generally not with its focus on basic math and language. This system is not going to change anytime soon. Parents and students going through it for the first time have to learn to navigate it. The following is an undergraduate college admissions primer which some parents have found useful: https://www.tinyurl.com/university-admissions-readme.