Rejected: San Jose State U Says ‘No’ to 4,400 Qualified Students

Published 31 March 09 03:43 PM | Student Loan Girl

For the first time, San Jose State University has turned away qualified students from its freshmen class — 4,400 students who live outside the county, to be exact — saying that budget cutbacks have forced the university to scale back enrollment, reports the San Jose Mercury News (“San Jose State University Rejects 4,400 Prospective Freshmen,” March 25, 2009).

Transfer students who had just completed their first year at a community college or applicants who were seeking their second bachelor’s degree were among those denied admission.

“The situation is unprecedented,” said Veril Phillips, vice president for student affairs at San Jose State. “We’ve never had a situation where there were so many applicants and we were not able to accommodate them.”

School administrators were told on Nov. 20 by California State University system chancellor Charles Reed to cap enrollment since funding hadn’t kept pace with the growing number of applications. The CSU system received approximately 10 percent less funding than it needed to meet current demand, the Mercury News reported.

As a result, San Jose State was forced to accept only 29,750 students for the upcoming 2009-10 school year — a 9 percent dip from the 32,750 students the school enrolled last school year. Qualified students who applied prior to Nov. 20 were accepted, regardless of where they lived. After that date, however, only qualified Santa Clara County residents were admitted.

“Some students didn’t get in that applied. But most of them made other plans, to Cal State University-Monterey Bay or Cabrillo Community College,” said Julie Edwards Levy, manager of career services at Scotts Valley High School.

“They’re working with what they have to work with,” she added. “They’re not happy but they’re figuring it out.”