Crazy year for UC admissions/rejections

[Bec5656]

I think people apply to so many UCs is that it is so easy with the click of a button to do that. Luckily for ms, and my pocketbook, son only applied to 3 schools (all UCs).

[Kathyc]

Actually, a lot of students around here apply to many UC's--given that UCLA and Cal are very quirky to get into and given how strange this year's acceptances for the other UC's are proving, I can understand where they're coming from.

[TerpDad]

Besides the budget cuts, the city recently implemented housing restrictions for off campus housing which may or may not have an effect on enrollment numbers.

[TerpDad]

I'm sorry that was for SDSU.

[Shrinkrap]

I feel the relatively early application date doesn't leave as much time to be sure about where to apply.

[noinspiration]

Hey Shrinkrap

Sadly I couldn't make it to the overnight (I visited a few weeks later). I would've liked to have met your D.

Is she still considering Mills?

[Shrinkrap]

^Afraid not.

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

Crazy year for UC admissions/rejections

The same was said last year when my one D entered and 5 years ago when my other D entered. And it was true then as well. It's sometimes hard to make sense of it given people with higher numeric stats being rejected than some with lower stats. Certainly there are an increasing number of applicants every year to most UC campuses though with UCLA receiving more apps than any college in the country. They've increased some capacity though by building a new campus (UC Merced) and increasing the size of several other campuses.

As to why to apply to the UCs in general and to multiple campuses when they really want a particular one - "reach, match, and safety" says it all. Also, one might be offered a Regents (full ride) scholarship at one of the campuses but not another which might be a factor in where they go.

[Christian2]

Very few UC's offer Regents as full ride (really full tuition) any more. For example, UCI offers $9000/yr. for Regents last year but only $2500 this year.

[jazzymom]

Yeah, I wanted to comment on that too. S1 was offered Regents Scholar for UCLA, but it was a very modest amount of money and no other real incentive. Believe me, a full-ride we would have noticed.

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

I guess Regents has changed then because a couple of years ago it was full tuition by at least a couple of UCs.

[vc08]

Why do people bother applying to any school that they don't like?

I'm one of those kids who applied to a UC school I had no intention of going to. But at the time I applied, I didn't know I was going to be admitted to every reach school I applied to. So, I thought it would be better to apply to some UCs/publics, even if I didn't think I'd end up there, bc you never know what will happen if a big ole' scholarship offer comes your way. That's why most people are applying to more and more schools these days. Because college admissions are such a crapshoot, you could get admitted to every school you apply to, or only your safeties. It's better to have options than to have regrets about not applying to as many schools as you could have.

coolweather: I live in San Diego. I have friends admitted to SDSU every year. Though it is a decent state school, it's not even the most competitive in CA (that honor would go to Cal-Poly SLO), and it takes a pretty numerical approach to its admissions process due to the large numbers of applicants.

From the SDSU webpage:

Applicants: 37,549 (15,499 male / 22,050 female)
Admitted: 16,484 (6,400 male / 10,084 female)
Admission rate: 44%

Unless applicants increased 2-fold in one year, I really doubt they received 61,000 applications.

For fall 2008, the average eligibility index of admitted freshmen who met the selective criteria was 4,182 (1,009 if based on ACT). The average high school grade point average was 3.77. The average SAT score was 1,165 on the Math and Critical Reading section; the average ACT composite score was 25.

The avg. ACT of those who enrolled was a 22, and the avg. GPA a 3.44. They admit 44%

San Diego State University Information, Academics, History, Financial Aid, Alumni, Campus, Students, Faculty, Address, Tuition, and Football - a StateUniversity.com profile

[GroovyGeek]

Originally Posted by vc08

But at the time I applied, I didn't know I was going to be admitted to every reach school I applied to.

If you got into most of your reach schools, you severely misjudged your credentials :-) At least in my book reach schools should be those where you have less than 50% chance of getting in.

I agree that the the single application and relatively low cost applying makes people apply to a bunch. If it was just safety/match/reach, people would apply to <=4. That is certainly true in our case. D applied OOS to SB (safety), SD (match), LA (reach). She got admitted to SD yesterday, so the SB decisions tomorrow are a "don't care". However, when we were submitting the application, we checked Berk just for the heck of it. There is no way she will choose Berk over LA if admitted to both, but $60 is not much money for us so we just encouraged her to "check the box"

[ellemenope]

Nope, SDSU got over 61,000 applications for the Fall of 2008!

SDSU Marketing & Communications - SDSU Receives 61,492 Applications for Fall 2008

[MarathonMan88]

Just so that students don't freak out: the 61,000 figure includes more than 11,000 transfer apps. The increases in the number of applicants at San Diego State were good, but not out of line with increases elsewhere, or out of line with past increases (have a look at the bar graph in ellemenope's link). It's also good to remember that increasing numbers of applications are likely "soft," caused by students applying to more schools. SDSU applicants . . . . relax.