UC Irvine Class of 2029 Waitlist and Appeal Discussion

March Decisions will be posting soon so I have started the Waitlist/Appeal discussion.

2024 Waitlist Timeline:
Thursday April 18, 2024 Few Engineering admits. Tuesday May 21 admits and final admit wave June 5.

Below are some Waitlist stats from the last few years. Remember the number of admitted varies from year to year.

UCI Waitlist 2024 UC Counselor Conference Data

Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list 18691
Number accepting a place on the waitlist N/A
Number of waitlisted students admitted 6313

Appeals submitted: 1426

Appeals approved: 26

UCI Waitlist 2023

Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list 9861
Number accepting a place on the waitlist 3533
Number of waitlisted students admitted 2979

APPEALS: 1604

APPROVED: 23

UCI 2022 Counselor Conference data

Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list 23904
Number accepting a place on the waitlist N/A
Number of waitlisted students admitted 4818

General Waitlist information:

  1. UC Waitlists are not ranked and it is not first in, first admitted.
  2. There is no way to determine your chances from being admitted off the waitlist. It will be depend upon how many admitted students SIR and how many spots are open after the deadline.
  3. No specific timeline for waitlist admits. If space opens up before the SIR deadline of May 1, then students can be pulled from the waitlist.
  4. Residency type and major are not broken out for the UC waitlist statistics.
  5. The number of waitlisted students that actually enroll is not listed.
  6. No LOCI’s since UC’s do not consider demonstrated interest. Opting into the waitlist shows your interest in attending.
  7. Opting into the waitlist is by invitation only.
  8. You cannot appeal your decision while on the waitlist.
1 Like

Wow, it’s really worth it to accept a place on the waitlist, that’s the best chances I’ve seen so far, especially for such a selective university, I wonder why?

1 Like

Some year’s the UC’s can underestimate their yield so the waitlist serves that purpose of making sure they are not under enrolled for any given year.

If you are admitted to your alternate major and you SIR based on that major then no you are not placed on the waitlist for your first choice major. You are either admitted or waitlisted but not both. If you SIR to the alternate and want to switch to your first choice major, you need to go through the change of major process as a matriculated student.

When the offer is given, does UCi accept the student into the Alternate Major and place the the student on the Waitlist for the First Major and then give the student the choices to decide what to select?

You will be admitted based on your First choice major or alternate major or rarely Undeclared. If waitlisted, you will be waitlisted based on your First choice major but may be considered for your alternate major during the waitlist admission process. You will not be admitted and waitlisted at the same time. It is all or nothing so you are admitted, waitlisted or denied.

If you are admitted by UCI, the major will be listed and that is the major you will enroll in. If you decide you want to change majors, then you have to go through the change of major process which is not guaranteed.

1 Like

Based on data from last year and this year’s current admission cycle, what do you predict is the waitlist acceptance rate going to look like? Would there be a high chance to get off the waitlist or low chance?

1 Like

There is no way to predict. It will depend upon how many admitted students enroll by the deadline.

How does UCI determine which student will get off the waitlist? Like Student A and Student B both got waitlisted for Bio, so how do they determine which student will get off the waitlist first? I dont see anywhere on their website their process on how they take students off the waitlist.

No school will post how they determine whom they take off the waitlist just like how they determine whom they will admit in the first place. They will re-review your application and make the determination based on which spots are available and how you fit into their institutional priorities.

Does it seem like there is an unusual number of applicants waitlisted this year at UCI? Most of the folks I know are either rejected or waitlisted. The number of people waitlisted is much higher than those rejected.

Did you look at the waitlist data from the last 3 years at the first post on this discussion? The number of waitlisted applicants have varied greatly.

Yes, I did. 2023 seems the outlier otherwise about 20K more or less. Going through the 2024 thread and 2022, the number of waitlists seemed higher this year. Just my impression. Wanted to check if others felt that way too.

1 Like

Yes and havent heard of anyone I know or someone who knows someone that was admitted. Weird

I fear it might be higher due to the large number of applicants this year. More like the numbers in 2022 after everyone went back to college after Covid.

My fear is if it’s like 2022 UCSD with 51K applicants waitlisted.

Does UC Irvine accept letters of continued interest?

No, UCI does not accept LOCI’s. If they did, it would be an option when accepting the waitlist.

anyone know how likely it is to get off of the waitlist? the CDS for 2023 says 2979/3533 were accepted off of the waitlist, which seems really extreme?? what were the waitlist acceptances for 2024 like?