This commentary was published on Sunday, April 12, 2015, in the San Francisco Chronicle.
High school seniors across the state are just now hearing if they will be accepted into the college of their choice. Most of those students have applied to one or more of the state’s public four-year universities and, despite meeting eligibility criteria, many will be disappointed. While this is certainly distressing for individual students and their families, this problem points to larger, troubling issues of access to and student success in California’s higher education system. The state’s public universities are not able to accommodate all of the qualified students who apply.