SAN FRANCISCO -- For high school students competing for college admission, advanced placement courses can often help determine who gets in and who gets left behind.

The University of California College Prep Initiative attempts to level the playing field for students in poor urban and rural areas by offering honors or AP courses online to high schools around the state that might not otherwise provide them. But after a pilot year, the program has gotten mixed reviews.

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"This is a slice of the whole high school experience and a slice of the AP experience, but for students who don't have a teacher in a traditional setting, this is the slice that might fill the gap," said Elaine Wheeler, UCCP's project director.

The initiative is part of a stepped-up attempt by state officials to broaden access to California's public universities, where affirmative action was banned two years ago.

The program, introduced in 1998, now offers courses to students in 35 high schools. It will expand to approximately 50 schools by fall.

Project directors say that the program has been successful, with the percentage of students who complete courses increasing each term.

Between 67 and 70 percent of the enrolled students in the last term completed their courses, Wheeler said. Around a third dropped out.

"That's about as good or better than many education programs," she said.

For students at San Francisco's McAteer High School, who were limited to a small selection of AP classes, the UCCP program was the "next best thing" to traditional classroom instruction, said Julie Coghlan, coordinator of the school's college preparatory program.

An in-class instructor provided additional support for McAteer's students, making them feel more included in the online course, Coghlan said.

"The coursework was very challenging for them but all five students completed the course," she said.

But online instruction was not as successful for students at the city's Balboa High School. Only one student out of the 15 who originally signed up completed the course to take the AP test. The school does not intend to participate in the UCCP program next year.

"Our experience was not good," said Ted Barone, assistant principal at Balboa. "We did it as an add-on, rather than as an integral part of the students' schedule and that kind of load turned out to be way too much."

Balboa students complained that they didn't develop a connection with their online instructors, Barone said. Without resources to devote to an in-class teacher or coach, the school was unable to provide those crucial relationships.

"We could not provide the support that they needed," Barone said.