SDSU to guarantee admission to college

Will team up with program that helps low-income students

San Diego State University has become harder to get into even for local students due to budget cuts and enrollment caps.

But the university is making an exception for students from the college-prep program Reality Changers.

SDSU is guaranteeing admission to the four-year university for Reality Changers students who have been with the after-school program for at least three years and meet all entrance requirements. Twenty-seven seniors in the nonprofit program have applied for fall 2011 admission and meet the requirements, said spokeswoman Marshela Salgado.

SDSU is also requiring Reality Changers students who are accepted to perform community service while they are attending college.

The program prepares participants to meet California State University and University of California admissions requirements. Students must also maintain a B average in their classes, perform 50 hours of community service and pass a random drug test.

The academic requirements are also known as "A-G standards." Only 33 percent of Latino students in the San Diego Unified School District are meeting these requirements, compared to 59 percent of white students and 58 percent of Asian students, according to a Union-Tribune report published last year.

Latinos are well represented at SDSU, making up 25 percent of the enrollment last fall. The university was recently designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

But getting into SDSU has become increasingly difficult in recent years. The university has reduced its enrollment by nearly 11 percent over the past two years because of state funding reductions. The university expects to receive more than 60,000 applications for fall enrollment in 2011, spokeswoman Gina Jacobs said.

The university does not know how many students it will accept yet because of the funding situation, she said.

SDSU has similar guarantee admission agreements with the Sweetwater Union High School District and the Sweetwater Education Foundation, and at Hoover High School in the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Education Foundation, Jacobs said.

Nearly 200 inner-city students, mostly Latinos, from dozens of schools across San Diego County, participate in Reality Changers, which has offices in City Heights and Solana Beach.

Participants are 8th to 12th grade students who receive academic help, assistance filling out college applications and other support from dozens of volunteers, including college students, and a small paid staff.

Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com

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