Various AO who read for UC have announced that they are done reading apps and now the University is shaping the class based on institutional priorities one of which is first-gen status.
But how do they even work that out? The app did ask about parents education as I recall, but it didn’t specifically require them to enter parents education details did it?
It’d be a question to ask them. And it might be different campus by campus.
I’d assume that if not entered they’d assume not first gen. But my assumptions are just that. Only a school would know.
At this point you can overanalyze to death or you can wait and see results which is what’s gonna happen anyway. @Gumbymom put out a table before and there are some UCs with very high acceptance rates for certain GPAs.
From the Counselor Conference notes:
Parent education level is not strictly mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged on the UC application to provide context for an applicants home environment and to identify first-generation college students.
Not required as noted, but the UC application does ask for parent education, degrees earned and even university names (and maybe I’m imagining it, but possibly addresses?)
This includes international universities (which are populated into a drop down on the application.)
I know that some UC’s use counselor information and ZIP Codes. Many UC representatives know the local neighborhoods and the demographics of those neighborhoods.
So if the parent information is missing, do they just draw a conclusion from the zip code demographics?
Thanks. University names are in the common app not the UC.
So what happens if this information is left empty? Just curious.
The UC area representatives know their schools. Even though some counties are really large, the UC area representatives are extremely familiar with the demographics of the high school ZIP Codes.
The counselor packet information provides notes from the high school counselors. While working at my high school, I know that our high school counselors attended frequent area meetings with the regional UC representatives.
The counselors who I worked with knew exactly who the first GEN students were because those were the students that needed their hands held throughout the application process along with their parents.
Ah. So the high school counsellors designate in their letter/recommendation who are first gen students. That makes sense.
In general, there are no LOR for the UCs. Berkeley may ask for letters from a small percentage of students.
The UCs ask for parents level of education. Just like with any other portion of the application, if a student leaves a section empty, Admissions can’t take that information into account when making admission decisions.
If the method is the same as it was before, the “shaping of the class” is mostly just rank ordering the applicants by reading score within division or major applied to.
There will likely be a reading score that overlaps the threshold of admission to the specific division or major, where tie breaking procedures between the various applicants with that reading score are used to determine which subset of those applicants are admitted. First generation to college is reportedly one of the factors in tie breaking – presumably based on the idea that a less advantaged applicant with the same level of achievement is actually the higher achiever.
Ah yes, I stand corrected.
D23 received a LOR request from Berkeley, with guidelines for letter writers. They were essentially asked to provide information about the student that was not already understood from their application. There was nothing about their 1st gen status in the request, although I assume a savvy LOR writer would mention it, fwiw.
A writer may not know to do so. Or may not know the family educational background. Why would they…unless you tell them.
Tons of wealthy get into UCs as do many low income and first gen.
One can over analyze themselves to death - but the answer will come out soon enough.
Agree.
The info from the counselor “packet”/transcript may include 1st gen status. You really shouldn’t rely on that for admission purposes. You’ll find out next month.