“Students in San Diego want to stay in San Diego,” said Marie Sandoval of Grossmont’s Student Transfer Center. The program was first intended for students attending two-year colleges in San Diego and Imperial Counties, but has since grown to 112 statewide colleges. Five years ago there were 443 applicants seeking UCSD admission under the TAG program, this semester there were 8,715.

“It’s all about money,” said Sandoval. UCSD is facing a possible $500 million budget reduction and wants to separate the pretenders from the contenders. The announcement came late enough to enable 100 Grossmont students to eke in as the last group with less than 3.5 GPA’s. There will be no more exceptions going forward.

Now students who are in the second year of the TAG program will have a tough time raising their GPA’s up over the 3.5 mark. “Students need to use all their resources,” said Sandoval, who was concerned that some students won’t be aware of the change.

There have been whispers of the TAG program being eliminated all together. UCSD’s admissions department could look at other factors for admissions such as extracurricular activities including community involvement, athletic ability, and student leadership programs. But until that becomes a reality, for Grossmont students to have guaranteed admission to UCSD the standard now is a 3.5 GPA combined with the TAG program.

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Hurst is a student in Media Comm 132. He may be contacted at [email protected]