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Your Chinese friend doesn't have the UC rules quite right -- which the stats for San Marino High School would show (typically it gets 40-50% of its graduating seniors admitted into at least one UC campus.)

There are three, largely unrelated, rules for UC admission, which need to be considered.

1. The Master Plan says that the UC should accomodate the top 10% >statewide<, and the UC eligibility thresholds have a floating GPA-SAT I&II chart (i.e., high SAT makes up for lower GPA) which can help you reach the UC eligibility threshhold if you are in a school where "A"s are hard to come by. Even though the thresholds are designed to produce 10% of California high school grads eligible, they actually apply equally to out of state and foreign students who are applying.

2. You can obtain UC eligibility in the "local context" by being in the top 4% of your California high school class.

3. BUT, "UC eligibility" whether obtained under Master Plan criteria, or local context criteria, only means that >some< UC will admit you, not any particular UC. As a general rule, hitting only the UC eligibility threshold will get one into Riverside and Santa Cruz only. Each other campus gets to draw a higher cutoff line based upon the competitiveness of their pool. They are permitted to take any factor they wish into account OTHER than race, sex, national origin, although the campuses routinely defy that by using metrics of "hardship overcome" which only black or hispanic students can satisfy. They are also given a limited number of exemptions to the UC eligibility threshold, most of which are consumed by athletes or children of donors. (There is not a legacy preference, per se, any more.)

Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea there were other ways to get in, I thought that was the "new" only way to get in. I don't use the UC system for my kids so I am woefully ignorant on the issues of acceptance. Perhaps he hoped to get his kids in under the top 10% rule since they do not qualify for the other rules. It could be his kids are in the lower 50% at San Marino High. It is a very Asian competitive school.

There's another way to get into California universities (and presumably universities in other states).....blow off high school altogether, take the required 55 or so units at your local community college (which does not require a high school diploma or any test scores) and assuming you got decent grades in those classes, transfer as a junior into the university, where they WILL accept you; it's part of the deal between the CCs and universities. At that point, the universities don't ask for high school transcripts or SATs - all they want to see is that you did well in college courses at the CC.

I wonder how many people realize that they are not slaves to diplomas and test scores. There are other ways to skin the cat.