UC Santa Barbara Class of 2028 Official Thread

[Father_in_California]

My son was accepted! He has a 4.35 weighted GPA - 3.86 un-weighted GPA. He is not a first-generation college student. His extra-curricular activity was mostly Cross Country and Track/Field. He applied for Computer Science and Engineering, but his acceptance at UCSB is only for “Undeclared - College of Letters & Science.”

I think he is reluctant to enter college as “Undeclared” and he currently wants to choose SDSU where he was admitted for Computer Science. Does anyone know if it is unlikely for an Undeclared student to be later admitted into a Computer Science or Engineering major at UCSB?

[ennysa]

Did ucsb also send out honor decisions today?

[SoCaltwins24]

D24 and S24 both accepted. D24 accepted to her second choice major (anthropology, because I really doubt there is anyone else applying anthropology, lol). Son accepted and will hear back about Math CCS in a few days I guess?

My daughter is very happy - wl at Davis and rejected at Irvine. She applied as a bio major to both of those, and anthropology at UCSD and UCSB where she got acceptances.

She had a 4.3 weighted gpa, 9 AP’s, did mostly conservatory style dance as extracurricular, summers dancing as well.
Son had 13 APs, multiple CC classes for math up to Diff EQ, did Sci Olympiad, Quizbowl, Math team. He’s been accepted to all the UC’s so far, and applied mostly math and engineering.

[cohen08]

Rejected
3.91 GPA
Political Science

3.91 GPA
7 Ap & 11 UC approved honors courses
No Ap classes at school freshman and sophomore year
Honors: Honor Roll, Directors Expectations of Excellence Award Boys state, 4 Year Scholar athlete, Two-time academic state champion in cross country, 3 academic & Merit scholarships for private high school

Extracurriculars:

• Cross country and Track
  Captain, 4 Year Varsity letter winner , 2x Team MVP in Cross country, 2x First Team All-Region in Cross Country , 4x First Team All-League, 3x Most Inspirational, 2x Academic State Champion
• Evergreen boys state Secretary of State
• Co founder and vice Chairman of statewide political advocacy organization
• Founder and president of model un organization
• Campus ministry leader
• Youth group leader
• 140 hours of community service
• Varsity mock trial attorney
• 4 EdX free online courses
• Stock wisdom and personal finance club member

Essay topics: wrote about navigating language barriers at work, how running has helped me grow as a person, the challenges I faced being adopted from Guatemala and how I got past them, finally an essay about my political aspirations when I was little and how I believe politics should unite not divide

Additional comments: how I navigated the entire scholarship and admissions process at my high school, how I couldn’t attend first two years in person due to families Adrenoleukodystrophy.

Demographics: First Generation Hispanic, born in Guatemala, adopted. Lives in Washington, attend catholic college prep school. Applied for need based financial aid

Accepted : UC Davis, USD, UW, LMU, Pepperdine, UofA, Westmont, Redlands
Waitlisted: Northeastern
Rejected: UCSB, Pomona, UChicago

Waiting on Johns Hopkins, Claremont McKenna, UPenn, William & Mary, Georgetown, Florida State

[Dali_Jamal]

Decision: Accepted!! Merit scholarships awarded (if any): Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Pre-Polisci

ACADEMIC STATS: UC Unweighted GPA: 3.95 UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.14 UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.2
ELC (top 9% CA HS): Yes
Comments about course load (including senior year): High rigor during senior year Number of a-g courses: Number of UC Approved Honors courses: AP courses/exams (scores in parentheses): 9 APs, 3s and 4s in all
IB courses/exams (score in parentheses): DE courses: 2
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with distinction, some mock trial awards

SUBJECTIVE:: Extracurriculars: Mock trial (president), Teenage convict reform program (Youth Court), school literary magazine (editor), women’s empowerment speaker Job/Work Experience: Volunteer/Community service: Working with reforming convicted teenagers Summer Activities:

Personal Insight essays (general details/topics): About my experiences living in Iran and how I overcame them, Mock trial and Youth Court

Supplemental/Augmented Review: No

DEMOGRAPHICS:: State/location of HS (if domestic applicant): in-state, Socal Country (if international applicant): Applied for need-based financial aid? Yes First Generation? Yes
Other acceptances: UCI, UCD, UCR, CPP, Fullerton, SDSU
waitlists: UCSD, American University denials: UCLA

[desdemonda]

Decision: Waitlisted
Unweighted GPA: 3.9
weighted GPA: 4.27
community college UWGPA: 4.0
Class rank: 24/270
Full time community college student as a HS senior
OOS (washington state)

Other decisions:
Acceptances: UCD, SDSU (early), Cal Poly SLO
Waitlist: UW
TBD: Stanford
Rejections: none (yet)

Is it likely to get off the waitlist or no? i really want to get in.

[mmbbb1]

D24 Accepted!
Major: Communication

UC Unweighted GPA: 3.95
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.33 (iirc)

Comments about course load (including senior year):
Number of a-g courses: I think 24.5
Number of UC-approved honors courses: 8 APs. All her core courses were honors, but OOS honors not considered by UCs
AP Courses/exams : three 5s so far

SUBJECTIVE::
Extracurriculars: some cool and unique performance ECs, sports, activism and volunteering

Supplemental/Augmented Review: No

DEMOGRAPHICS::
State/location of HS (if domestic applicant): Out of state
First Generation? No

Other acceptances/waitlists/denials:
Accepted: UCI, UCSD, Cal Poly, Illinois, LMU, USD
Waitlisted: UCLA

[HopefulUCSB2028]

Thank you so much!!! Was such a stressful process

[Aafat]

There is a good chance to get off the waitlist. Check data here UC Santa Barbara Freshman Class of 2028 Waitlist/Appeals Discussion
Let the student optin into waitlist

[Gumbymom]

Past year’s admit rates from the waitlist will vary so last year may not be representative of the chances for this year. It will depend upon how many students enroll by the SIR deadline and how many spots will still be available.

[Aym]

Lots of posts state accepted/denied/waitlisted for a certain major but it was my understanding that ucsb does not admit my major (unless specified) but will post the major if you were admitted. Is this correct? And also waitlist acceptances are not determined by major but only space available on campus?

[Gumbymom]

The College of L&S does not admit by major but if admitted will list the intended major on the acceptance. Again for the College of L&S waitlist list admits, yes it will be determined by space but Engineering/CCS applicants that listed L&S majors or Undeclared as an Alternate major are also in the mix.

[Aym]

Thank you!

[FluteSection]

My son applied mathematics and was rejected. We are a little bit surprised at this rejection. In the December a professor invited my son to applied for a creative studies (CCS) because he said my son was a promising applicant.

[PezLori]

rejected from UCSB altogether or didn’t get math in CCS?

[btra]

That’s rough. We had a similar experience of a professor telling us our son was a “perfect fit” for a particular university, he had well above average stats for the school, but he was waitlisted. I think professors ultimately don’t have too much visibility into how AOs operate.

[FluteSection]

we put computer science as a first choice and math in letters and science as a second choice. In the december, a professor invited us to apply for CCS and said my son might be a promising applicant. Today completely rejected by UCSB. We didn’t apply for CCS.

[daffodils01]

My D accepted to UCLA, UCSC, UCI, UCR. Rejected UCD, UCSD, UCSB => Admission process is indeed unpredictable.