hugoftrees

Hey guys- I've been stressing about something and I'm wondering if anyone's dealing with the same issue.

I started receiving phone calls about the Summer Bridge program about a week ago. I told them I wasn't interested, but they told me that I needed to enroll in Summer Bridge in order to be a "fully-enrolled student" (although they couldn't tell me WHY I needed to do Summer Bridge).

I checked my account online and it said that yes, I do need to sign up for Summer Bridge before committing to Cal.

I started e-mailing the representative they assigned to me and she isn't telling me WHY this is a condition of my enrollment. She asked if I'm a part of a program I've never even heard of, and when I said I'm not, she started telling me about how great Summer Bridge is and how it will ease my transition into Cal.

Now I'm telling her that I've already made plans to leave the country this summer, but it doesn't look like she's budging.

I've gotten good grades and scores in high school, I have done everything that's asked of me, I got into Cal Fall Semester, so why is this a condition of my enrollment?

Has anyone else had the same experience? Or know of anyone else who has?

rider730

It may have to do with the track record of students accepted from your HS to Cal - if a number have struggled, they may judge that something the HS is doing (or not doing) is an issue. They may have found that adding Summer Bridge will materially improve the success of incoming students from that HS.

Another possibility is that the review of your application flagged something they believe will be corrected or completed or aided by Summer Bridge, that with the completion of that program they want you as a student.

No way to tell, as the adcom doesn't typically explain why they accepted or rejected individual candidates.

However, you are negotiating with the wrong person if you are talking with the Summer Bridge person about a waiver on the requirement. The condition was placed by Undergraduate Admissions, not by Summer Bridge. Contact the admissions officer (or admissions in general), tell them about the summer plans and see if you can work out somethign with them. They would be able to waive the requirement, remove it as a condition, thus allowing you to ignore Summer Bridge and show up this Fall.

hugoftrees

Another possibility is that the review of your application flagged something they believe will be corrected or completed or aided by Summer Bridge, that with the completion of that program they want you as a student.

^ This is helpful! Thank you. I am still working on a course that needs to be completed. Maybe the representative assigned to me hasn't considered this possibility, but it's good to hear that it could be the case.