Mission outdoes Lowell in UC admissions

Lowell High School is often seen as the crown jewel of San Francisco’s public high schools, an academically intense place that sends students to the best colleges and universities. And while it’s true that Lowell graduates go on to some of the nation’s top institutions of higher learning, a different San Francisco high school actually sees the highest admissions rate to a University of California campus among the city’s public schools.

That honor goes to Mission High, where 90% of seniors who applied to a UC — the top of California’s three-tier public university system — were admitted to at least one, according to a Chronicle data analysis.

Talking to students, it’s no surprise that the admissions rate is so high.

“Mission High School really supports students,” said senior Yixi Ou, who moved to the U.S. from China just before the ninth grade.

A new data tool from the Chronicle allows readers to look up any public high school in California and see the percentage of students who apply to a UC and, of those, the percentage who get in. A Chronicle analysis of data from the tool shows that several schools in San Francisco with a higher share of low-income students than Lowell have a higher admissions rate to the prestigious nine-campus UC system.

For instance, at Mission High School, more than half its students (55%) qualify for free or reduced-price meals — much higher than Lowell’s 27%. Galileo High School and Philip and Sala Burton Academic High School have similarly high rates of low-income students. Yet UC acceptance rates at each of the three schools exceed Lowell’s rate, including 84% of applicants at Burton and 78% at Galileo, compared with Lowell’s 74%.

Not only are Mission High seniors admitted to a UC school, they’re getting into the most competitive campuses at higher rates than the average public school.

Among in-state residents, UCLA and Berkeley are the hardest UC campuses to get into, with acceptance rates of 10% and 17%, respectively. Lowell’s admission rates closely match these statewide numbers, but Mission’s percentages are notably higher — 11 of the 52 students applying to UCLA (21%) and 23 of the 66 applications to Berkeley (35%) were accepted for the 2021 fall semester.

Lowell, however, has far more students applying to the UC system than Mission. Among Lowell’s 719 seniors, 600 (or 83%) applied to a UC in 2021, compared with 83 of 261 seniors (32%) from Mission High. So while Mission High’s students who do apply are more likely to get in, the number of all Lowell students who are accepted to a UC is much higher.

But even at the schools where more students apply, Black and Latino students aren’t necessarily admitted at higher rates.

At Lowell, which is predominantly Asian and white, 60 Latino students and 16 Black students applied to a UC. Of those, 38 Latino students and 7 Black students were admitted to at least one UC. At Mission High School, which is predominantly Latino and Black, 42 Latino students and 13 Black students applied to at least one UC. Of those, 40 Latino students and nine Black students were admitted — higher rates and absolute numbers than at Lowell.

The trend holds when looking at the two most selective UC schools — UCLA and UC Berkeley. From Lowell, 35 Latino students and 15 Black students applied to UCLA. Fewer than three students in each group got in. But at Mission, 23 Latino students and 10 Black students applied. Four of the Latino students got in, though fewer than three of the Black students did. The data does not give more specific numbers below three to protect students’ privacy.

For Berkeley, the numbers were similar. From Lowell, 47 Latino students and 12 Black students applied, and seven Latino students, but fewer than three Black students, got in. From Mission, 29 Latino students and 11 Black students applied, and 11 Latino students and 3 Black students got in.

SFUSD did not respond to specific questions about Black and Latino students at Lowell, instead providing a statement outlining their districtwide offerings to help students “at every stage,” including dedicated college admissions counselors and a range of college prep programs.

“At SFUSD we want all of our students to recognize their potential and abilities, and we are dedicated to opening doors for students, particularly those who might not otherwise view themselves as able to go to college,” said district spokesperson Laura Dudnick. “Our job as a school district is to help students realize their potential and their dreams. We are excited for all of our graduating seniors to pursue continued learning, whether in a four-year college, a local community college, a trade, internship, job or a certificate program.”

Additionally, the UC system has a program that guarantees admission to at least one UC to the top 9% of students at each participating California high school, and the “overwhelming majority” of high schools participate. The program is meant to recognize students who make the most of the opportunities available to them.

However, the program does not mean that if a top student applies only to UCLA, they are guaranteed admission to UCLA. If a student does not get into any of the UCs they applied to, they are offered a place at another campus where space is available.

Mission’s success has shown that lower-income high schools can overcome opportunity gaps, experts said.

“Economic disruption and inequality creates instability in the lives of young people that create a number of challenges,” said John Rogers, the director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, who has studied trends in higher education access for years. “Low resource schools can do a lot to address some of those challenges, but it really takes a lot of resources.”

That’s where Mission’s approach comes in.

At Mission, counselors stay with a class for all four years, before starting back at ninth grade once a class graduates. That system allows each counselor to get to know the students before they start applying to colleges. While not necessarily unique to Mission, counselors said it helps them get to know the students, their families, strengths and challenges early on.

“We’re better able to help students find the best fit for them because of those relationships,” said 11th-grade counselor Lena Rodriguez.

That also means counselors can help students find things like leadership opportunities and activities that are right for them throughout their high school careers.

“Some students might not take those opportunities without a little bit of a push,” said counselor Jennifer Soliz, who currently serves the senior class.

Many students at the school are first-generation college students, said ninth-grade counselor Maria Servellon Segovia. Some are also the first generation to even go to high school, especially a high school in the U.S. That means it’s critical to get families involved and help them see and understand the variety of options available for their children.

“Applying to college is a long and complicated process,” she said. “Getting families involved is a big piece of that.”

Beyond that, students are able to drop in at the counseling office, known as the Future Center, at any time, including during lunch and after school, to ask questions or get assistance.

For seniors, there’s a class called AVID, specifically designed to help students through the application and financial aid processes, said Dawn Woehl, the counselor for “newcomer” students, or recently arrived immigrant students. The AVID program is also available at eight other SFUSD high schools, including Lowell, though at Mission, aspects of the AVID program are integrated into required classes for each grade in addition to the optional senior class.

Karen Quartz, director of the UCLA Center for Community Schooling, who studies equity in education, said that many of these strategies — particularly involving families — are key to helping lower-income or first-generation students thrive.

“It definitely takes a village to get a young person into college,” she said. “It’s not one program or one reform. It’s a real community effort.”

According to several Mission students who spoke to The Chronicle, that variety of support made a huge difference.

Senior William HolderSoto, whose parents are both from Peru, hopes to attend UC Davis or Berkeley. He said that being in the AVID class was incredibly helpful in keeping him on top of his 10 college applications. In addition, he said, teachers and counselors always encouraged him to get involved in any activity he was interested in, as well as challenge himself academically.

“Junior year, (applying to college) felt intimidating,” he said. “But I definitely felt better about it with all of the support here.”

His classmate Tuvana Soronzonbold agreed. He was born in South Korea and grew up in Mongolia before moving to the U.S. in 2015.

“The counselors definitely made it easier to stay organized” during the application process, he said, and counselors and teachers made themselves available for help on essays as much as they could.

For him, that help was essential — he applied to 30 colleges, including California State University schools, UCs and other public and private universities across the country.

Now, he has dreams of studying political science at the University of Pennsylvania, opening his own business and one day running for public office, either in the U.S. or Mongolia.

And critically, the students each described how their counselors and teachers helped them learn about the intricacies of the college admission process — knowledge that is not evenly distributed across social classes, Rogers noted — and strategize about how best to stand out, from deciding which classes to take, which activities to join or start, and how best to tell their own unique stories.

“You’re going against everyone in the U.S.,” Soronzonbold said. “But Mission High School students are special and have great stories, and here we learn how to tell those.”

The counselors emphasized that their role is to find the right fit for a student, which in many cases isn’t a UC. Servellon Segovia, who was the counselor for last year’s senior class, said that many students opted not to go to a UC for a variety of reasons, many of which had to do with location or financial feasibility.

A previous Chronicle analysis found that Black and Latino students remain underrepresented in the number of accepted students who actually enroll at a UC, because they often opt for more affordable Cal State schools or selective private schools that can offer more scholarships and financial aid.

Ou said that early on, she really didn’t know her options outside of the UCs, but working with her counselors showed her the variety of schools available. Now, her top choice is Pomona College, she said.

“There’s lots of help for newcomers,” she said. “It helps students be more confident and comfortable.”