<p>I was admitted as a freshman at UCLA for the fall 2012 quarter, and my original plan was to attend, but problems came up and I wasn’t able to attend for the first quarter. I didn’t have housing at UCLA, so I couldn’t move in and to top it off I had a family issue. My grandparents were in bad health at the time. I won’t get into detail about their health, but both their conditions made them weak. I had to help them in everything I could since neither grandparent is in good condition. So what I did was I attempted to get readmitted to UC Merced since it’s the campus closest to home. I talked to an admissions advisor because I had met him a few months back, and he told me to email the dean of admissions, but not mention the fact that I was a UCLA student without housing or else he wouldn’t readmit me. The advisor told me that I would be able to withdraw from UC Merced after the
fall term and go back to UCLA for the next term. Then I emailed the dean and did as I was told and the dean approved my request and I took classes at UCM for the fall term. I called UCLA admissions several times to let them know what I was doing, and the operators told me that it was okay. Yet I was signed up for classes at UCLA because I thought I was going to be able to attend at some point in the fall. I didn’t cancel my classes there for that reason (nor did I know how to). In December, I had to call UCLA so they could send my Cal Grant to UC Merced, and I had also sent a formal letter to UCLA to also inform the registrar’s office of my situation and why I was signed up at 2 UC’s. That’s when all the college problems happened. UCLA had an advisor from the College of Letters and Science call me to try to work things out. A few weeks later he informed me that UCLA had decided to revoke my admission because I had started school at another campus. He said that it is possible to challenge their decision but that it would be very difficult to get readmitted despite being in good standing with grades at UCM (2 A’s and 2 B’s for the semester). He told me that if I challenge their decision, it would be through officials at UC Merced because they misadvised me by telling me that I could withdraw from UC Merced after the fall term and then go back to UCLA for the winter quarter. So I want to know this: what should I do to challenge their decision? I told them everything I put in here and explained why I wasn’t able to attend, but according to them, that wasn’t a valid reason. What officials at UCM do I go to? Is there an organization somewhere that could help me? Something for admissions, a petition org, a Hispanic support group? If everything else fails, should I sue UCLA for being irrational and unjust? Is my situation justified to make this a legal issue? They didn’t care that I’m a first-generation college student and the first person in my family to get admitted to such a university. I’d greatly appreciate any advice from a college official.</p>
<p>Make an appointment with the Director or Associate Director of Admissions at Merced. Contact info is at [Admissions</a> at UC Merced](<a href=“http://ucma.ucmerced.edu/about]Admissions”>http://ucma.ucmerced.edu/about) Explain briefly why you want the appt, but don’t do the app’t over the phone. Insist on meeting in person. Its a lot easier to blow people off over the phone than when they’re sitting in front of you, and you don’t want that.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
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<p>You likely have no legal grounds for a lawsuit. They’re not being irrational or unjust. They have certain rules in place, and you mistakenly violated those rules. You were misadvised. That sucks, but they are not obligated to admit you, and you are not entitled to attend the university.</p>
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<p>UCLA has anywhere from 30-40% first generation college students in its freshman class (which is like 10k I think.) And since Hispanics (which you noted you were above) make up 20% of the undergraduate class, I don’t see any Hispanic support groups helping you out (I, personally, fall into both categories.) </p>
<p>Best of luck on sorting things out. Worst case scenario you could always try transferring in after a few semesters at CC.</p>
<p>Thanks, this is resolved now so no further comments are needed.</p>
<p>rramos - It would be helpful to others facing the same (or similar) situations if you could tell us HOW the situation was resolved, and what you ended up needing to do to make that happen.</p>