In a shocking turn of events, SBCC is facing a huge crisis: too many people are applying with shockingly underwhelming transcripts. San Marcos applicants have left the City College in shambles and are trying to cope with this unprecedented situation.
SBCC is notoriously one of the best if not the best city college in the country and to keep this reputation they put a lot of effort into their education. Although previously Santa Barbara City College had a virtually 100% acceptance rate, to keep their spot as the best, they decided to be a bit more selective this year.
The root of this crisis can be traced back to the influx of High School students being afraid to leave their hometown as well as the increasing tuition of four-year universities. The popularity of attending SBCC has been on the rise for the past decade, but this year was when it really blew up. According to the SBCC admissions office they received 130% more applications this year than last school year.
However, the influx of applications was not the only thing affecting San Marcos students. In truth, San Marcos students’ applications and transcripts simply do not demonstrate a rigoureuse standard of education that SBCC has set. With poor standardized test scores as well as poorly written essays filled with grammatical and spelling errors, many San Marcos students just didn’t meet the mark.
Last Monday SBCC sent out an email to the San Marcos administration addressing the issue, “We are deeply saddened to say that the 2024 San Marcos students’ applications were so severely underwhelming that for many of them we won’t be able to offer a spot in this upcoming school year. This year we were really looking for students who went above and beyond, we will only be accepting people with a 2.3 gpa or higher.”
News of this letter got out to some San Marcos students and parents and since then, the beautiful campus of SBCC has been transformed into a lawless battle ground with SBCC administrators struggling to process all the applications they have received. Reports say that admissions officers are stuck in their office, hurried in applications. The quad on the other hand has been taken over by outraged students and parents brandishing pitchforks and protest signs.
“This is completely unjust, my kid has kept straight A’s, held a full time job and played six varsity sports throughout highschool. She has even had an internship with Elon musk since the age of 3,” said an upset San Marcos parent.
“Honestly, I think that I deserved to get into SBCC. I had a 4.9 GPA as well as 18 extra curriculers, but I guess that wasn’t enough for them,” said SBCC reject senior Claire Gamble.
As SBCC is rushing to try and fix this problem, many people are saying that this crisis is just a small part of a much bigger issue: The flaws in our education systems. San Marcos students have been complaining that although on average they have 12 hours of homework a day, they are actually losing knowledge at a rapid rate.
“This whole fiasco just shows how the education system has failed us as students, I didn’t even apply to SBCC but this is absurd! I’ve taken 15 APs every year and I doubt I would’ve been accepted.” said senior Jordan Kowlewski.
