S24 accepted
Economics
4.0/4.9
11 AP/IB
NMS
(SAT 1590, valedictorian, for reference only, unknown by UC admission)
CA public school
Decent EC
Accepted: UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UC Davis, FSU, UT Dallas, USC
Waitlisted: UChicago, Vanderbilt
Rejected: Harvard, Princeton
Awaiting: Stanford
S24
Decision: Accepted
Merit scholarships awarded (if any): No, but invited to apply for Seeds (not too familiar with it at this point)
Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Chemical Engineering
UC Unweighted GPA: 4.0
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.33
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.92
ELC (top 9% CA HS): Y
Comments about course load (including senior year): All classes in 10th and 11th were UC Honors or APs except Spanish 3. 15 APs, including 6 senior year. 5s on all APs except one 4.
DE courses: 2 including Multivariable.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Honors at one of the science olympiad competitions (not Scioly), Scioly medals, and several other county and school level awards. NM Finalist, 1590 SAT (not that it matters for UCs)
SUBJECTIVE::
Extracurriculars:
Job/Work Experience: VP and President of Scioloy & Math Club, Academic Decathlon, mock trial trial attorney (4 years) and some other clubs. Eagle Scout.
Volunteer/Community service: Tutoring and volunteer at a niche service that he wrote about a lot in his essays but I don’t want to out him. Research at UCI in a lab for 1.5 years (more limited than we’d like though).
Summer Activities: COSMOS and substantive research at a university through a pretty competitive summer program. But no published paper (yet).
DEMOGRAPHICS:: Asian
State/location of HS (if domestic applicant): OC
Other acceptances/waitlists/denials:
Denied at Caltech
Accepted: UCLA, UCI,UCSD UCD, UCSB (Regents), Carnegie Mellon, Yale, Cornell & Penn.
WL: MIT
Waiting: Michigan.
Congrats to all admitted!
To those who didn’t get the news you’d like, it’s hard but this doesn’t define you. I know it stings but you’ll end up somewhere great for you. My S23 was WL at Cal and it was one of his two top choices (he didn’t get into the other one either). He never got off the WL but is very happy where he’s at now and in hindsight it was a better fit for him.
I promise you in 20 years no one will be saying my life would’ve been great but for the fact that I didn’t get into XYZ college. No one cares about 3-5 years after you leave college. Love the school that loves you back.
Decision: Waitlisted
Merit scholarships awarded (if any): N/A
Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Data Science
UC Unweighted GPA: 3.71
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 3.92
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.03
ELC (top 9% CA HS): Y
Comments about course load (including senior year): 11th Grade - 3 Honors 3 AP, 12th Grade - 5 AP
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A
SUBJECTIVE::
Extracurriculars: President of Tri-M Music Honor Society, School/Local Orchestras, Varsity Water Polo/Swim
Job/Work Experience: Department Manager of a local public pool, 3 years of private swim instructing
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at a food bank consistently for a few years, tutor in Chinese/math/English/piano, Eagle Scout at 14 y/o
Summer Activities: Chamber music academy
Personal Insight essays (general details/topics): Fairly rushed but I have strong writing skills so they turned out mostly alright according to my English teacher, essays didn’t have anything to do with major
Supplemental/Augmented Review: No
DEMOGRAPHICS::
State/location of HS: CA
Applied for need-based financial aid? No
First Generation? Yes
Other acceptances/waitlists/denials:
Accepted: UCLA, UCI, UCSC, Northwestern, CU Boulder, UW-M, IU-B, SJSU, SDSU
Rejected: Rice, UCD, UCSD, BYU
Congratulations to everyone who was admitted!
Accepted Chemical Engineering with invitation to apply for SEEDS HONOR
4.0/4.28/4.55 ( higher now 4.68). 34 years A-G with 8 years of math:science 8 yrs science/5 English /7 Lote/ 2 years Art/ 8AP 1 UCHonor class (3 AP senior year so not in gpa on application) and 16 DE classes. (5 DE classes senior year listed on application as taking or planned but not in GPA calculation at time of application). Took 5 AP exams before applying and passed all and turned in the scores
Portal astrology: forbidden but didn’t look for the student ID or for the source code data.
I think PIQs were the key for her as I see so many 4.0/4.5 kids applying with amazing ECs and a ton of A-G classes you have to stand out and so many amazing kids get rejected who are absolutely strong enough to get in. Please spend time on your PIQs. For my daughter you truly felt like you knew her after reading them ( per her AP Lit teacher). Btw she started working on them late summer and had everyone she knows read them- Friends, teachers, counselor, parents. She made amendments from feedback ( or sometimes she ignored the feedback). I think coming back to the PIQs multiple times helped her guarantee she was conveying her intended message. DO NOT rush the PIQs. The PIQs are an interview. Get the admissions officer to like you. Be humble but use numbers and facts to support what you did. Also remember they read a ton and likely have 8-10 minutes to spend on your application so don’t be boring. Make them want to spend all 8 minutes. She formatted each PIQ with a hook to get attention. Her passion for stem showed in her essays. For the common app schools she researched the school and wrote about what she could bring to the school using the info from the school to help her show that she would fit in and be a positive influence there.
ECs: NHS/APScholar /Restarted Academic Decathlon/started two clubs/ volunteer various organizations/job/20-30 hrs in athletics (Gymnastics and Diving) regional and national qualifiers for athletics/ AlaGirls State/ rank 1st in class/ 3 Associates degrees/ research and shadowing in field. Leadership in clubs and athletics.
Acceptances:
Caltech REA (Chemistry and math)
Tulane Honors plus 13k Merit(ChemE)
SJSU(ChemE)
CSU LB Honors ( biology/biochem I forgot)
UCSC Regents 20K Biology or Biochem
UCI Honors ( ChemE)
UCD ( Biochemical Eng)
UCSD
UCSB Biochem
CPSLO Honors aerospace
SDSU
UCLA biochemistry
UCB ( Seeds) Chemical Engineering
Waitlist:None
Rejections: none
My D24 just looked! Finally!!
Decision: Accepted!
Merit scholarships awarded (if any): N/A
Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Theater/Political Science
UC Unweighted GPA: 4.0
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.31
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.44
ELC (top 9% CA HS): Not ranked, but Y
Comments about course load (including senior year): 6 APs, 5 Honors - block schedule with limited space for APs
SUBJECTIVE::
Extracurriculars: Lots of theater, ASB exec officer, pres of school clubs, delegate to CA Girls State, CSF Regional Finalist
Job/Work Experience: Restaurant Hostess, teaching assistant
Volunteer/Community service: Lead a 30 + person fundraising team for Cancer, raising $150k over the last 3 years, President’s Volunteer Service Medal
Summer Activities: Work, CA Girls State & Mission trip to Dominican Republic
Supplemental/Augmented Review: No
DEMOGRAPHICS::
State/location of HS: CA
Applied for need-based financial aid? Yes
First Generation? No
Accepted: American U (audition based), also GW, UCSB, UMD, U Washington, Temple
Rejected: UCLA, USC, NYU, BU - (audition based) also Nothwestern, UChicago, WashU, Yale, Columbia
Waitlisted: Barnard, BC
This was tough for my daughter… She was rejected from all of her top choices. She has some great schools to choose from, especially Cal, but the rejections were really tough. I only put in half of her activities. She worked really hard and accomplished a lot.
D24 accepted Haas Business School. 3.9+uw, 4.5+w, 4.19 UCw, valedictorian, ELC UC top 9%, gold award Girl Scouts, President Gold Volunteer Award, good ECs, Song Captain, President and VP of culture and service clubs, dance 10+ years, Girl Scouts 10+ years.
Accepted Cal, USC, UCI, UCSB, Cal Poly SLO, NEU, Bates, UP. Waitlisted at Cornell, UCLA, UCSD, WashU, Emory, UVA, BC, Colby. Rejected ND, Williams. DD thankful and blessed for the acceptance!
Well said! 
I would say it’s more like 2 minutes. If you can’t capture their attention with the first 3 sentences, you probably won’t even get the whole 8 minutes.
how is this being allowed to happen? nobody above the housing authority that can redress this? it is a complete dereliction of duty on the part of UCB administration.
I was told by a Berkeley AO on the steps of Sproul that they take 6-7 minutes per application.
D Waitlisted
College of L&S
UC capped 4.21
UC uncapped 4.79
In state
No financial aid
No first generation
Tons of community hours
Officer for multiple school clubs
Paid part time job
Accepted: UCR, UCI, UCD, UCSD, UCSB, UCLA
She ran out of mojo lol, this is actually good, I think haha. Congrats to all who got admitted!
Congrats!!! Now I question about SLO’s and UCI’s decision. How do they reject and what basis would they say this student does not qualify. This is why so many say that some schools reject top qualified students for the sake of their yield stats, even if they deny it.
A woman who went through the process to see her admission file at Berkeley said there was a computer record of the times, and it was 8 minutes first reader, 2 minutes second. So basically everyone is right!
My son lives in Foothill and has had a good experience. He likes the food just fine too, lol. He does enjoy the grubhub dollars!
I’ll never understand this type of coping when it comes to SLO. SLO doesn’t practice yield protection. It has some of the best programs in the country for Engineering, Aerospace, Psychology etc. it’s weird that people get so offended when a student isn’t offered admission at SLO as if it’s so beneath them.
Some might even be shocked to learn that every year kids choose SLO over UCB, UCLA, UCSD etc
SLO also used 9-11 grades unlike the UCs who use just 10-11. So, its conceivable that an applicant with a 4.0 UC GPA could have an underpar SLO GPA. Also, none of the CSUs accept essays or detailed XC data. I wish people look at specific differences rather than leap to a conclusion matching their priors.
Plus, for all of these schools, they can’t accept everyone who is qualified! There’s just not enough space! A rejection doesn’t mean the student isn’t qualified, or wouldn’t have succeeded at that school, or isn’t a fabulous person. It just means that the school decided that someone else made more sense, based on their priorities, for their admitted class at that moment. It’s based on the factors the universities list, and probably a little bit of luck (who else is applying to that university/major, who else is applying from your student’s high school).
Interesting to know it shows that. My son recently said he would be interested in seeing his application file, so I’ll tell him to look for that.
My kid got accepted at Berkeley and SLO last year, among a long list of other great schools, yet rejected at UCSB, UCLA, and SDSU. While a head scratcher, I don’t think the SDSU rejection was yield protection, just different methodology.
I know, I know. I agree with what you say but it is a head scratcher indeed like socalmom007 said. Just saying that I would just love to know what their reasoning was, and yes, there could be very good reasons. And of course, this happens every year :-).