Thanks for your reply. My son expected to be rejected, so being waitlisted was a huge positive surprise. He has a safety school he already was accepted to in our country (the best school of the country and even among the best of the world), but was happy anyway for this unexpected result. My question is also: for an International student, can even just being waitlisted be considered a good accomplisment?
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Being waitlisted at UCSB, although not a desired outcome, is certainly an accomplishment. Your son should be proud.
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Being waitlisted is a positive since it means he is a competitive applicant regardless of his residency status.
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FWIW
last year a very high percentage of kids were admitted off of the WL (IIRC, 85% or something like that)
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Would second this, I actually donât know a single engineering major that got off the waitlist, COE is very small.
Sadly itâs difficult for universities to predict their yield ahead of time, UCLA/Berkeley admitting an extra ~100 people can have second and third order effects as students may choose to go there instead of like UCSB or UCSD, which means these schools may need to admit more from their waitlist, which would impact less selective UCs like Santa Cruz and Riverside and so on.
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82% of waitlisted students that opted in were admitted in 2024. Data for the last 3 yearâs is listed on the first post of this discussion but it does not mean it will be the same for this year.
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What year?
that IMO speaks about how the AOâs strategize the admission game. thatâs a sad reading. something like UCSB with itâs world class physics department shouldnât do and push students to this waiting game. My son moved on to other better choice after few moments of remorse 
. Thank you for sharing the âwaitlistâ info and that was quite useful and helped my son make a decision much quickly!
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Applied for Fall 2022.
can someone send the waitlist wave dates from previous years
2022: Admits starting May 2- May 17. Waitlist closed June 10.
2023: Rare waitlist admit Wed April 19, 2023. Few admits posted on Tuesday May 2,2023 and May 3 In-state and OOS. Admits on May 9, May 22, June 9, June 22. Denials June 23.
2024: Admits on May 8, May 9, May 15, May 17, May 20, May 22. Instate wave May 29. Few admits June 4, June 20, June 28.
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@Gumbymom do you have any insights about whether UCSB wants or will look at mid-year / fall semester senior grades and classes in progress, for WL applicants? UCD solicits this and actually lists previously reported classes/grades on their portal, for updating senior year grades/status. This seems like an avenue for possible acceptance off WL, but it doesnât look like UCSB solicits this, as far as I can tell. Hoping they would, as it might help in our case. Thanks!
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When the student opts into the waitlist, is there an option to report Mid-year/Fall grades? If not, then they are not considered.
it doesnât seem that way. thanks!
Seems like you are a student at UCSB (thanks for responding)? Anywas, it seems like UCSB maybe waitlisting candidates for a reason to wait out until after UCLA/UCB releases and give those candidates an opportunity to take the waitlist offer should they be rejected or waitlisted there (probably that would happen since those 2 universities acceptance rate is single digits). The kids who are genuinly interested in UCSB will get caught in these schemes
did anyone else receive a financial aid offer while on the waitlist today? It says it doesnât indicate any admission, but just wondering anyway.
I did
just remember, last year the SIR date for the UCs was May 15th(due to FAFSA issues), so they let kids in off the WL prior to the deadline, which would technically mean possibility of end of April for this roundâŠ
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Do you mean there is potential that waitlist offers could come as soon as end of April? What does financial aid have to do with getting off waitlist before the May 1st commitment date? Donât they need numbers from May 1st to determine how many spots?