Some UC’s say that the Level of Applicant’s Interest is “Very Important” in the college admissions process.
Is there a place where people can put their first school on their college list on the Common App?
Sorry, I’m a bit confused by your question.
Are you asking if there’s a specific way to indicate that a school is your first choice (on CA)?
If so, then the answer is no.
Also, it doesn’t seem like most of the UCs use the common app anyways.
You’ll need to demonstrate interest through other means, ex. college visits, interviews, etc.
Where did you find that UCs care about level of interest @ItsHydro ?
Also, UCs don’t use the common app.
The http://www.collegedata.com entries for various UCs indicate that most do not use “level of applicant’s interest”, but a few do.
UCs use their own application, not The Common Application.
You can list the “level of applicant’s interest” schools at the top of your FAFSA list, and do other typical things to show interest.
@luckie1367 @noemii http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=730#selectionOfStudents
I meant to add “and other schools” that’s why i put common app, sorry >.<
@ucbalumnus What sort of typical things do you mean?
And, if you visit a UC (which are big schools), how do they remember your name?
Interesting, I wonder if this is freshman as well as transfer?
If you check the common dataset for each UC here are the results for the level of interest:
UCSB/UCI/UCM: Considered
UCLA/UCB/UCD/UCSC/UCSD/UCR: Not considered
On the UC application, there is no where to indicate your first choice.
Thanks @ucbalumnus
@ucbalumnus Thanks.
Indeed interesting thread of yours.
To answer the question about how they know you’ve visited a school: you either make an appointment for a tour, or to attend an open house, or at least stop by the admissions office and sign in. Aside from the information you’ll get from a tour (as opposed to wandering around alone), they should also know that you cared enough to tour their school.
Interesting to see UCI on that list. I took my DD for a tour and they didn’t even take down the names of the students that were touring. Every other school we have visited had us sign up ahead of time and sign in upon arrival.
UCI seemed to have more of a “this is our school, feel free to try to get in if you can,” kind of approach.
Note that Leve of Interest can be Very Important, Important, or Considered. So Considered is the lowest level.
Make sure you sign up for emails from the college.
Visit if you can.
If they send emails, open them, look at them, and click on the links.
If you get some kind of student portal, log in at some point.