NEW
YORK
The City University of New York is going to make it tougher
for students to get into its senior colleges.
The CUNY chancellor said the school will raise math
test-score requirements for fall 2008 admissions at its 11 four-year colleges.
The changes won’t affect community colleges with open admissions policies.
The change follows complaints by some teachers that too many
students entering the school were poorly prepared for college work, especially
in math.
In the fall of 2005, more than 40 percent of students in
introductory math courses either failed or dropped out of the classes.
For CUNY’s senior colleges, applicants will now need at
least a 500 on the math SAT test to get in.
And they’ll need a 510 for the five most selective colleges, including Baruch,
Hunter, Brooklyn and Queens.
The university-wide requirement now is 480, though some
colleges have set higher standards on their own.
Students can also take other standardized tests to qualify,
and requirements for those will also rise.
The change is the university’s first major admissions standards
revision since trustees voted to bar students needing remedial instruction from
bachelor’s degree programs nine years ago.
“We are very serious in taking a group of our
institutions and placing them in the top segment of universities and colleges,”
Matthew Goldstein, the university chancellor, told The New York Times.
“That is the kind of profile we want for our students.”
Some professors worry that the new requirements may
disproportionately exclude poor and minority students.
The CUNY chancellor said English test requirements will rise
later.
Information from: The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/
– Associated Press
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