@nicrosoft, unless the admission person was drunk, the decision is probably not a mistake. There are many criteria they apply to give a score to an application, such as alumni connection, Sports (big deal), Faculty’s children, fame/celebrity, Diversity (big deal too)…, besides grade and test scores.
@nicrosoft I seriously think it all comes down to the personal statements. Care to share what you wrote about?
I’d have to say UC Irvine cares more about SAT. My daughter is very good on everything except SAT, where she only had 1920 for her score all on one date (1960 superscore), 4.3 GPA, 3.95 UW, got Waitlist. Others we know with higher SAT but much lower GPA and very little ECs or volunteer hours got in. We were surprised as she had many leadership positions, too. We did not even consider it a reach school for her as she was at average for SAT and quite a bit above average for GPA for last year, but she got waitlisted.
I don’t think UC Irvine cares that much about the SAT. I had an 1890 SAT and a 3.64 UW / 3.86 UCW and was fortunate to get in. Numerous of my friends had lower stats than me too and also got in. I think it really boils down to your personal statements. I’m still shocked your daughter got waitlisted though @frustrated55. What AP’s did she take?
Like God’s will, UCI admission policy works in mysterious ways.
**Decision: Accepted **
Objective:[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): 1490 (550 M 490 CR 450 W)
[] ACT (breakdown): 22 (22 M 26 S 18 E 22 W)
[] SAT II:
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.79
[] Weighted GPA (if available):
[] Rank/percentile (if available):
[] AP (place score in parenthesis):
[] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[] Senior Year Course Load: All are classes from local community college
[] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Key Club (Club Editor), Chinese Club (Club Officer), Chinese National Honor Society (Club Officer), National Honor Society, Tennis
[] Job/Work Experience:
[] Volunteer/Community service: Hospital with +100 hours
[] Summer Activities:
[] Essays:
[] Teacher Recommendation:
[] Counselor Rec:
[] Additional Rec:
[/ul]Other[ul]
[] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yeah
[] Intended Major: Nursing
[] State (if domestic applicant): Washington
[] Country (if international applicant):
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: Vietnamese
[] Gender: Female
[] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
[/ul]Reflection[list]
[] Strengths: I have more than 90 credits from the community college that I attend to as the same time as high school. The in-state colleges I applied to already listed me as Junior status because of that.
[] Weaknesses: Testing, I didn’t plan on taking the tests in the first place since I thought I could just transfer all my college credits right after high school so I didn’t really care for studying.
[] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Honestly, I have no idea. My only guess is because of all the credits I already have, even thought they might not even accept all of them for the program I wanted.
[] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I got accepted into: University of Washington - Seattle, Washington State University, Central Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, University of the Sciences
I got waitlisted at: University of Portland
@RHSclassof16 Choose the major that YOU want, it doesn’t matter if it’s impacted. Let’s say you really want to be a business major (this is impacted), show in your application that you have a passion for it and get involved in business! Show them that you took initiative during high school. Show them that this is something you are serious about.
Don’t worry too much over GPA and instead strengthen the other factors.
Make your personal statement amazing. It helps. Someone got into Berkeley on Thursday with a 3.6 UC GPA and a 28 ACT with an amazing personal statement and active interest in their field of major.
@ItsHydro @RHSclassof16 I would agree with you hydro if this were any uc other than irvine. This year, a lot of people who had weak gpas but were very strong in all other areas were rejected. It definitely doesn’t hurt to strengthen your major-oriented ecs but id say, for uci, GPA is the primary factor. If you can get your gpa above a 4.0, you should have no problem getting in.
@DPattt I had a 4.2 GPa but I got waitlisted. My act was 25 which is quite low but there are people with lower stats that got in. So perhaps the big decider is the personal statement because the admission people are human too… If there’s an amazing personal statement… They will want to pick that person. But idk the uc admissions are a mystery
What do you all think about the waitlist chances this year? I know it’s all about who decides to SIR… But does anyone have a good feeling ? 
Not true for UC Irvine. I would say it is true for UCLA though.
A friend of mine got into an impacted major with a 3.4 UC GPA and little EC’s and a 29 ACT.
Someone else on this thread got into an impacted major with a 3.2 UC GPA.
And I also have a friend who got into UC Berkeley with a 3.6 GPA.
@DPattt
@itshydro I know that it is possible to get into ucla and ucb with low gpa/sat as they are the most holistic campuses in terms of admission (i got into ucla with a 3.23 gpa) but i saw many applicants get rejected from uci because their gpas were just a little bit low. I see no reason why there should be many acceptances of students with 4.0 gpas and sub 1700 sat scores while people with 3.5 gpas and 2100+ scores get rejected almost every time. No reason other than uci values gpa over sat. If it happened only a few times, then id be prompted to believe that personal statement had a larger role, but i saw it happen many times.
I’d say it’s other factors, including: Personal Statement (Inspiring story possibly), Character/Quality Traits, and again, passion (passion for major especially).
But of course, we just don’t know as we ourselves can’t see the whole applicant 
in terms of financial aid, I noticed that on the UCI portal, it says that “upon initial review…you aren’t qualified for financial aid,” is this their final decision…or will they be releasing updates soon because I really need the financial aid. I made corrections to my fafsa after my father received my 2014 tax return about three weeks ago, so I don’t know if they’re going to re-evaluate?
@puppycujo I called UCI and they say they will release the financial aid package on April 1st hope this helps
@frustrated55 @tofuhamster yeah I don’t think its about the SAT because I have a 1580 score but I got accepted
anyone going to the Discover UCI Day on April 1st, Wednesday? 
@WinnieH Thanks so much! If you don’t mind me asking, does yours say the same thing mine’s saying right now? And yes I’m going to Discover UCI on april 1st Might see you there!
@puppycujo no problem! mine says:
As of the dates noted below, our office has received all of the initial information requested.
Your initial application is complete and all documents were submitted on time.
Based upon the receipt dates as shown below, you may be considered for “priority funding” (this includes grants, loans and work-study). Please note, that we may be asking for additional information from you to complete the evaluation of your file. You will remain eligible for priority funding providing all future documents requested are received on or before the due date.
@WinnieH my Financial aid also says just that. Do you know what it means? Does anybody know what it means?