UNC Governors Approve Tougher Admission Standards - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 11, 2000

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Students seeking admission to the University of North Carolina will have to meet stricter standards for math and foreign language skills beginning in 2004.

The UNC Board of Governors voted last month to increase the minimum course requirements for the first time in 10 years.

Under the new rules, students will have to take at least four years of high-school math instead of three, and at least two years of a foreign language to be considered for admission to one of the 16 UNC campuses.

The foreign-language requirement begins in the fall semester of 2004, and the math requirement in 2006.

"It became very important as we looked at retention data that those students who had taken foreign language and those who had taken more than three years of math had higher SAT scores, higher GPAs and a higher retention rate in the university," says Charles Coble, vice president for university-school programs.

"We want a more diversified student body and the way you get that is to set your standards, and it has been our experience in the past that schools will respond, students will respond, parents will respond," Coble says.

The only school exempted from the tougher math requirement is the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. School officials argued that students at the conservatory had different admissions requirements to meet and should be given special consideration.

In approving the tougher standards, the board allowed for the possibility that schools might need more time to prepare.

"We're not going to abandon the schools and say, 'We raised our admission standards, good luck," Coble says. "We'll be part of the solution."