Fall 2014 Data 30 percent of first-year students had sophomore standing 34 percent of second-year students had junior standing 39 percent of third-year students had senior standing

All undergraduate students can no longer use Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate credit to advance their enrollment priority, a UCLA official announced Monday.

Enrollment priority will be determined by the number of units a student has taken at UCLA or other colleges, rather than a student’s class standing, which is determined by all units the university recognizes including AP and IB courses.

Patricia Turner, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education, said in an email statement the university made the change because enrollment by class standing has unfairly disadvantaged students who attended high schools that did not offer many AP or IB curriculum classes.

Corey Hollis, director of academic advising, said that students who have a higher class standing compared to others took advantage of the previous enrollment system by signing up for extra classes they did not need to take. This would hurt students who needed these classes but had a low class standing, Hollis added.

Hollis also added that seniors had a harder time getting the classes they needed to graduate because they were competing with second- and third-year students who were in senior standing.

Hollis said that the decision is part of a larger university plan to increase equity on campus.

“It is difficult to allow (nonunderrepresented students) to continue to benefit from a system that is inherently unfair and discriminatory,” Hollis added.

According to statistics published by the College Board, about 48 percent of public school students qualified for the free or reduced-price lunch program, but only about 28 percent of them took one or more AP exams.

Several students believe the changes to the enrollment system discredit the efforts they made in high school to take more challenging coursework.

Sarah Bazargan, a second-year bioengineering student who took both AP and IB courses, said she thinks the university already does a poor job of recognizing these courses.

“With all the AP and IB classes I took, I only opted out of a math and English class,” Bazargan said. “With this new change, I think future students will be discouraged even more from taking college-level classes.”

Tanvi Mamtora, a second-year biology student, said she took both AP and IB courses to help increase her class standing.

“I worked tirelessly in high school so I could have a better advantage coming to UCLA,” Mamtora said. “Now knowing that (the university) has changed their policy, why did I even bother to take so many classes?”

Vishesh Anand, a third-year economics and global studies student, said he believes this will make it more fair to students who come from schools that do not offer college-level classes.

“Some students can’t enroll for the courses they should be taking because of competition from underclassmen who have a high class standing,” Anand said.

Marin Yamaguchi, a third-year economics student, said that the changes would help international students who did not have the opportunity to take accredited college-level classes.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to take AP or IB classes as an international student, so this will give me a better advantage to sign up for classes without worrying about not getting in,” Yamaguchi said.

Contributing reports by Allison Ong, Bruin reporter.