Last year, while a lot of people were waiting to get acceptances, I complied a list of people who applied to the various UCs, their stats, and their date of acceptance/rejection. What I found was both surprising and informative.
Berkeley:
This is the only UC that only informs both admits/rejects punctually on March 31th. They DO NOT send any letters to your home unless if you are accepted. That’s right. Everything is on the computer at 7:00 sharp. Pretty scary… In my school, about 90% of UCB acceptees were accepted to UCLA and 100% were accepted to at least one lower UC. The acceptance came with a few pretty nice accessories that I don’t want to reveal now.
Note: The vice chancellor stated to me that 40% of the factor for deciding whether one should be admitted came from the EC’s and essays.
Davis:
They informed admits/rejectees through a period of about a week, in no particular order, informing both acceptees and rejectees with a letter. The basis of their decisions are the LEAST mysterious since they have a publicly revealed rubric that is supposedly totally objective. The rubric makes it clear that being admitted is a numbers game.
Irvine:
They informed acceptees with high grades/SATI first, at about March 2. Then the rejections came after March 15. I am mildly curious how they did this, but I’m guessing that they didnt have enough time to read through all the apps, and quickly accepted everyone with a 4.00+ AND 1400+ SATI. Anyone not meeting both criteria then probably had their EC’s examined. The e-mail address that the admission staff sends to you is very weird, and you can only check your status by using a long number that they send you.
Los Angeles:
Very mysterious. They informed engineering majors first on march 1st, including a letter that all but explicitely stated they were admitted. Then, they informed just about everyone else on the 15th. A few people had their decisions come out later than the 15th, to the 30th and beyond. UCLA informed everyone with a typed letter and a good sized catalog. The basis for their decisions are definitely the murkiest of any other UC.
San Diego:
They informed everyone punctually at about March 21th, with letters. You are first admitted to the university, then to your major if it is something like Pre-med or bio engineering. SD is probably the best looking campus around, but there is little to do on campus sometimes because SD is far away (SD is the only UC that is not in the city it is named after. It is in La Jolla)
Santa Barbara:
They informed everyone at about March 18th. You will get a letter whether or not you were accepted. SB is pretty hard to get into now. It seems that it is even harder to get into than Davis.
Santa Cruz:
Same as above, but the letter arrived sooner. SC’s acceptance plunged last year.
Riverside:
Riverside informed all acceptees very quickly, somewhere around March 1st or 2nd. Their acceptance’s conditions were the weakest, since even though my friend cheated and got 2 F’s in 12th grade, Riverside still decided to accept him.