<p>Any suggestions as to what to say in this area outside of mentioning AP credits? </p>
<p>I have a high GPA, but I’m taking a lot of units (19+) to meet the 60 unit requirement. Also, 3 core IGETC requirements are IP for Spring 2012. Lab, final math, and one English is IP. </p>
<p>Two of my classes that I am technically enrolled in but haven’t decided if I really want to take is a late start class. Do I need to say that the class starts late and even if I were to withdrawal from it I would still meet the 60 unit requirement?</p>
<p>I also restated a few attributes from my essays about challenges I faced, is this a positive or a negative approach? I’m applying to UCSB and UCD but my school of choice is UCSB.</p>
<p>I’m really a borderline applicant here. Decent GPA, but only a semester and a half of having a full load and dropping two courses in the process. How many kids are taking almost 20 units to meet the 60 unit requirement?</p>
<p>I’m literally killing it this semester but I would be totally crushed to see a rejection letter while finals would be less than a month away. </p>
<p>Thoughts? Anyone willing to share their A.C section or tips on what to say?</p>
<p>Neither UCSB nor UCD do holistic reviews for transfer applicants, so your personal statements, ECs, volunteer work, awards and achievements, or “grade trend” all don’t factor into their admissions decision. On TAU, the academic additional comment section is to explain things like AP courses, repeated courses, course availability at your CC, or any possible changes in planned or in progress courses. Anything that isn’t specific to your coursework is going to be disregarded. They are not looking for a repeat of your PS or any elaboration. </p>
<p>For admission, they’re going to focus on your UC transferable GPA and your progress in your pre-reqs on whether or not to admit you. From what you’ve said the one thing you may need to be worried about is the fact that you’re completing both the core Math and English requirements in Spring and your grades won’t come in until after they make their decision. I can say from experience that if you’ve had poor grades in the past or any withdraws from any math or english classes they’re going to flag your application as not being in favorable standing to complete those requirements and you will most likely be rejected from UCSB. UCD is a little more lenient in that regard, but generally the UCs hold the math and English requirement as highly important because they’re one of the absolute requirements for admission. Also the fact that you’re completing or intend to complete nearly one-third of your transferable units in your very last semester can be an issue. From the sounds of it you really don’t have that strong of an academic history for them to make a decision. If your GPA is pretty high and you haven’t had to repeat any courses then that can be compensated for; however, they generally don’t want to have to speculate about your grades and whether or not you’re going to complete everything for spring.</p>
<p>In regard to your late start class if it’s not a pre-req or core requirement just mark it as planned and inform them in TAU additional comments section that you may drop/withdraw. If it doesn’t affect your 60 units, dropping it likely won’t have any impact on your decision. Just be sure to inform admissions if you drop it before they send your decision out.</p>
<p>One of the reasons why I didn’t have a full course load in the pass was medical-related. I spoke about that in my essay. Also, should I mention my progress on my Spring classes? I.e, I’m doing well…etc. </p>
<p>Also, do I need to use complete sentences or just bullet points?</p>
<p>edit: Also, I don’t have poor grades in the past, I’ve only had one B but I just never had the chance to take a full load because of RL issues. I explained that in my essay but as you say UCSB doesn’t pay too much attention to that. I also mistakenly took a few non-transferable classes as the result of bad advice from my counselor. Should I enumerate which classes are not transferable or they already know? </p>
<p>So bringing up anything from my essay in additional comments wouldn’t be a good idea? 20 units is not a problem for me. I just had a lot of issues last year. Response soon, academic update is almost up.</p>
<p>It’s not that I’m just taking a lot of units, but I’m taking most of the core required classes for Spring. I had a lot of medical issues last year that really prevented me from simply being on campus. I briefly described that history in my essay but from what I understand UCSB doesn’t really take the essays into consideration. So I am unsure if I should at least mention it in the additional comments section.</p>
<p>I have 7 A’s and one B. Then two AP classes completed with a 4 or above. I withdrew from one required class a semester ago. </p>
<p>I don’t know my exact GPA or how UC calculates it. Do I need to mention my GPA in the box or they already can tell? I know my GPA which includes failed non-transferable classes (retaken) and classes I passed years ago that ended up not being UC transferable. Total GPA is like 3.4 if I include ALL courses listed on app, the ones that are not transferable.</p>
<p>@SanFrancisco
You do not need to mention your overall GPA or which classes you believe to be transferable or not transferable. The admissions officers will determine those things themselves when they go over your application. You can re-iterate things from your PS in the additional comment section of TAU if you want, but it’s just not what that section is intended for. I doubt it would hurt you in any way so it’s probably worth a shot, if you do just keep it short and sweet. The additional comment section on TAU isn’t the same as the additional comment section at the end of your original application, which was where that kind of information was supposed to go. That section was really to clarify anything about you or in your personal life that you thought wasn’t conveyed yet in the application. In TAU the academic additional comments section is just to clarify any specifics on your transcript. Effectively, it’ll update the same section that came after the end of you transcript on the original application. For TAU you should be fine using bullet points, just be sure your thoughts are complete and understandable. From what it sounds like, you’ve been doing pretty well and your UC transferable GPA should be relatively high ~3.8+. It’s just hard to predict though, the core requirements and major pre-reqs are really really important to have completed or nearly completed. It seems like you have a perfectly valid reason for not completing them, I just don’t know how that would be interpreted by an admissions officer. I just think finishing 20 units of courses your last possible semester really puts you at a disadvantage. Especially, because you still have the Math and English requirement left, that’s going to be hard for them to ignore.</p>
<p>thanks for the response. do officers compare your major to the core requirements? My major is totally non-competitive, not business or science related. </p>
<p>I devoted a sentence to my medical issues, you are positive an officer won’t see that as a negative sign? Since they clearly read the additional comments section, but apparently don’t read or don’t care about the essays though I put a lot of thought into them. I used the third essay to explain my medical issues and the one class required class that I dropped in the Fall. Do I need to restate why the W for that class in the additional comment section or is the third essay fine? I’m told again and again officers don’t even read the essays. </p>
<p>english really isn’t a problem for me, I actually have nearly half of the class finished (we get assignments for the semester ahead of time) and it’s only the second week. I imagine this is not something officers want to hear.</p>
<p>I’m just devoting so much time to this semester, especially with my lab to fulfill IGETC even though it is not a UC requirement. </p>
<p>one thing I don’t understand, UCSB released info saying that there were 14,000ish transfer applicants for 1,400 spots. I thought the acceptance rate was something like 45-50%? </p>
<p>Do they just anticipate students who won’t enroll the school??</p>
<p>With regard to your last question, universities admit more students than they enroll. I think that there is a significant difference between the number admitted and the number enrolled. You can google the actual stats if you want - the information is available on the UC website.</p>
<p>I feel pretty anxious. After sending in my original application I came on these boards and gradually came to realize that the Additional Comments section was only intended to explain things not otherwise explained about academic history and such.</p>
<p>Though not very long, I tacked on a kind of “conclusion” if you will. Basically I summed up my PS. I hope this won’t rub admissions the wrong way. Some have said that it will as it shows an inability to follow directions and keep the PS within the word limit. The truth is my personal statements weren’t even that long, below the word limit even with the additional comments part I think…</p>
<p>I am applying to UCLA, UCI, UCR.
I am hoping that worse case scenario they just stop reading it and disregard it like it never happened. UCLA uses the holistic approach so I hope this does not negatively affect my chance at admission, especially when I am on the border and it can go either way :/</p>
<p>The ADC only has a 500 character limit so I’m not sure what kind of “conclusion” you can add. I simply put a single sentence, a brief reiteration to possibly explain a lack of core-classes done because of x, y and z reason. i didnt explicitly refer to my PS, and my PS is very clear.</p>
<p>i just know UCSB/UCD don’t pay too much attention to essays so i figure if there is some hint in the ADC it might draw them to the essays? I don’t know. I have no idea how they review applications.</p>
<p>i also didn’t use up all my essay limit, not even close, largely because the Fall semester didn’t end yet and I wasn’t certain how my grades would pan out or if I would drop a class.</p>
<p>more thoughts in this thread would be helpful. you can still update till the 31st. ive probably updated my app 3 or 4 times.</p>