I’ve been meaning to reply to this thread, because those of us in California whose kiddos applied only to California public colleges (UCs and CSUs) were in a unique category/circle of hell - since the systems do not have early action/early decision and have become a total crapshoot since they went SAT/ACT test-free and volume of applications sky rocketed.
S24 did 2 applications (UC Apply and Cal State Apply) for 12 schools. March is an agonizingly long wait for the “average, excellent California students” waiting for UC decisions.
S24 did receive surprise early admittance to SDSU before the Christmas break. If that hadn’t come through, S24 would’ve applied to 3rd application for his true safety (100% acceptance rates) California Community College (CCC), see Backdoor way into UCSB thread. Public Policy Institute of California explains: “In particular, it specifies that UC maintain at least a 60:40 ratio of junior and senior students to freshman and sophomore students to ensure adequate upper‐division spaces for CCC transfers. To do so, UC aims to enroll one new California resident transfer student for every two new California resident freshmen.”
UC & CSU stats below
Major: Physics
CA public HS; Local to Cal Poly SLO
Not 1st Gen / URM / Need-Based
No Supplemental/Augmented Review for UCs
ACADEMIC:
UC - ELC yes
4.00 UC/CSU UWGPA / 4.33 Capped WGPA / 4.46 Fully WGPA for 10th-11th
4.17 Cal Poly SLO Capped WGA for 9th-11th
National Merit Commended Scholar; AP Scholar with Distinction
a-g courses 9th-12th in Years
4 English
5 Math (including Middle School math)
6 Science
3 Foreign Language
3 Social Science/History
1.5 Visual/Performing Arts
2.5 College Prep Elective
—
25 years for CSU, but considered only as 48 a-g semester courses for UC, because the 2 DE courses only count as 1 course each for UCs vs. 2 year long courses for CSUs
UC/CSU approved Honors/AP [17 courses] + 2 DE classes = 19 for UC or 21 for CSU
Completed in 10th-11th
5 year long AP Euro (5), US History (5), Calc AB (5), Biology (4), Physics 1 (4)
1 DE - POLS 202 Government w 3.0 credits - A
In Process/Planned in 12th & planning to take AP exams May 2024
3 year long AP in process/planned: Calc BC, Chemistry, English Lang;
1 semester AP Microeconomics
1 DE - ENVS 200 Environmental Science w 3.0 credits
UC NON ACADEMIC FACTORS - limited due to family obligations
Extracurriculars included sports at school and outside and steady work during summer and school year
A reader could glean evidence of teamwork, humility, collaboration, empathy from PIQ and EC/Work descriptions.
Thank you to the College Confidential community @Gumbymom @lkg4answers @tamagotchi @eyemgh & much more! I’ve learned so much from you all.
S24 was prepared to receive at least 2-3 rejections and 2-3 waitlists from the 12 schools, based on data from acceptance % by major/college per threads UCs, Cal Poly MCA circa 2013 + Cal Poly enrollment projections, SDSU, SJSU Impaction Index
0 of 2 Lottery < 15%: UC Berkeley (rejected), UCLA (rejected)
2 of 3 Reach 15%-30%: UC Irvine (waitlisted), UC Santa Barbara (accepted), UC San Diego (accepted)
2 of 2 Target 30%-45%: Cal Poly SLO (local) (accepted*), UC Davis (accepted)
2 of 2 Likely 45%-60%: San Diego State (not local) (accepted*), UC Santa Cruz (accepted)
3 of 3 Safety >60%: UC Riverside (accepted*), UC Merced (accepted**), San Jose State (not local)(accepted)
*Invitation to apply for honors and ** Invitation to apply for honors & Chancellor’s scholarship
Overall, S24 is happy he has good options and visiting UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara and opting into UC Irvine waitlist. Cal Poly SLO is just too close to home. UC San Diego Eleanor Roosevelt College was not a fit.
We’ll be back for S27!