The University of California is offering 2,242 high school seniors guaranteed admission to a UC campus and is inviting them to apply this November even though they have not met all UC admissions requirements.

The new Dual Admissions Program offered by the UC identifies high school students whose GPA rank in the top 4 to 12.5 percent of their class but who may not have completed all the requirements for UC admission.

The students are notified of their eligibility in their senior year of high school and invited to apply to the UC. Those who do are required to enroll at a California community college as freshmen and complete their admissions and lower division requirements. Students are admitted to a particular UC campus and are then free to transfer to the school for their junior year of college.

“The DAP program is a great way to reach out to really high-performing students who are in the top of their class but may have missed a requirement,” said Hanan Eisenman, admissions coordinator of the UC Office of the President. “This is another great path they can take to get a UC education.”

In Fall 2002, UCSB enrolled 1,137 transfer students from California community colleges, with 28 percent of those transfers coming from Santa Barbara City College. The program’s first students to benefit will enroll as freshmen in various community colleges in Fall 2004.

“We get more transfers from [SBCC] than any other [community college],” said Christine Van Gieson, director of the Admissions and Outreach Office at UCSB. “But the impact [of the DAP] is likely to be relatively small the first year.” Van Gieson said. Because DAP is brand new, she is unsure of how many of the students contacted will take the UC up on its offer.

Eisenman said the program is an effort to broaden the pool of eligible UC students and is based on cooperation between the UC and community colleges.

“It’s a response to joint efforts from the UC and the [California community colleges] that have been made since 1997 to facilitate transfer students trying to get into the University of California,” Eisenman said.