Advice from current ucsc student

Colleges & Universities University of California - Santa Cruz
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<p>Hello all incoming freshman, I am currently a first year student here at UC Santa Cruz and I know that decisions will be posted electronically tonight. I hope to enlighten you guys with advice and some of my wisdom having gone through the admissions process. First off, do not be discouraged if you are waitlisted/rejected. I can not stress that enough. Just because you did not get into a school, it doesn’t mean that you are not good enough nor smart enough, rather it means that there were simply not enough spots to offer you admission. I know a couple people that were rejected here (or at other UC’s) but were accepted into UC Berkeley or UCLA. Nonetheless, do not lose hope and do not put yourself down. Second, I was accepted into the department of Psychology at UC Santa Cruz with a gpa of 3.11, 1490 sat scores but extensive amounts of community service. If the decisions were holistic like they were last year, your entire packet was weighed out when making a decision. Last of all, there is a facebook page for the class of 2017 which was made for those who were accepted and want to get to know more about the school before making the decision. There is also Ms. Sun’s UC Admissions Blog which is essentially a blog specifically for those who applied to the UC schools and want to know more. I will provide the links. Anyways, good luck to all those who applied. If there are any questions respond to this post and I will be happy to answer them.</p>

<p>[Ms</a>. Sun’s UC Admissions Blog](<a href=“http://askmssun.livejournal.com/]Ms”>http://askmssun.livejournal.com/)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.facebook.com/groups/347911525315631/[/url]”>http://www.facebook.com/groups/347911525315631/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The holistic part is entirely true. I can’t say too too much, but my boyfriend told me a lot about the admissions process. Over the summer he worked in the admissions office for a bit, and learned a lot about the process. But yes, it’s painstaking, and hard! They can immediately chop a small number of people due to them missing entrance requirements, but they will even make exceptions for some of those. Every application is read by a human being, and weighed extremely carefully. </p>

<p>UCSC is also nice in that if their enrollment numbers for a specific department end up lower than expected, they will extend admission to students who were initially rejected.</p>

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<p>Liesel do you know what the interface looks like when they review an applicant? I have it in my head that they have folders upon folders but everything is done electronically now so I have no idea. Do they have previous/next buttons haha</p>

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<p>I have no idea. o_O Only employees were allowed in that building (and with good reason!) so I never saw it myself.</p>

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<p>:( Oh well, thanks though~</p>