With decisions coming out within the next few weeks, I am starting a Waitlist/Appeal discussion. Below are some waitlist stats from the last few years but are not predictive of this year’s chances.
2023 Waitlist Timeline: 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.
UCSB Waitlist 2023 (CDS)
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list:
15689
Number accepting a place on the waitlist
9670
Number of waitlisted students admitted
5493
2023: NO DATA FOR APPEALS
2022 Waitlist stats from the CDS:
Number of applicants waitlisted: 16340
Number of applicants accepting the waitlist: 10163
Number of applicants admitted: 2793
2021 Waitlist stats:
Number of applicants waitlisted: 14076
Number of applicants accepting the waitlist: 9762
Number of applicants admitted: 2093
General Waitlist Information:
No specific timeline for waitlist admits. If space opens up before the SIR deadline of May 15, then students can be pulled from the waitlist.
Residency type and major are not broken out for the UC waitlists
The number of enrolled waitlisted students is not listed.
No LOCI’s since UC’s do not consider demonstrated interest. Opting into the waitlist shows your interest in attending.
Opting into the waitlist is by invitation only.
You cannot appeal your decision while on the waitlist.
Comments about course load (including senior year):
Number of a-g courses:
Number of UC Approved Honors courses:
AP courses/exams (scores in parentheses):
IB courses/exams (score in parentheses):
DE courses:
DEMOGRAPHICS::
State/location of HS (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
Applied for need-based financial aid?
First Generation?
Most of the UC campuses in 2023 admitted more students off the waitlist. It may be due to going test blind after covid and still trying to collect data to help manage their enrollment numbers, they admitted students on the conservative side. It should be interesting to see what the numbers look like this year.
Does anyone have any color on why so many people came off the waitlist last year, it seems like more than usual.
Also, maybe related, but it looks like the male/female split was even greater last year, about 1900 men and 3000 women. The school is 9000/12000 in total, but that is not the same as a 2:3 ratio from the incoming class listed in the 2023-2024 CDS.
This was my answer to another poster with same question about the waitlist.
Most of the UC campuses in 2023 admitted more students off the waitlist. It may be due to going test blind after covid and still trying to collect data to help manage their enrollment numbers, they admitted students on the conservative side. It should be interesting to see what the numbers look like this year.
Regarding the male/female ratio, I cannot say.
Edited: I will also add that housing issues may have also contributed to being conservative in their original number of admits for UCSB.
My DD was waitlisted - Pre Film and Media Studies College of Letters and Science
CA Public High School
ELC: YES
Top 10%/495
4.48 WGPA
AP Scholar with Honor (From 4 AP’s)
9 AP’s / 7 Honors (5 more AP tests May 2024)
Girl Scout Member 13 years
Girl Scout Medal of Honor - Saving a life
HOBY Ambassador (10th), HOBY Jr. Facilitator (11th)
Presidential Bronze Award for Volunteering
Winter Guard WGASC AA Gold Medalist
NHS
Etc…
Acceptances: Loyola Marymount University, Chapman University, CSUN, University of San Diego, UCI, San Diego State University, UCSC
Deferred: USC
Denied: UCLA
Waitlisted: UCSB
Awaiting: USC
Have NOT accepted/declined waitlist yet
Last year the acceptance rate off the waitlist was 56.8% which is pretty high honestly. I was waitlisted for engineering and did not get into my second choice major of physics. I accepted my position on the waitlist, will I most likely be considered for physics?
I have heard of a number of people who got rejected from ucsb a few years back for their first choice major but accepted for their second choice major in the college of Letters and Science.
If I didn’t get in for my alternate major, does that mean I wasn’t qualified in the first place? I got into ucd and ucsc for engineering and ucsd in the letters of science. Would it be okay to email ucsb asking them to consider my alternative major in L & S for the waitlist?
Thank you and sorry for posting in the wrong thread. I am not sure if you have this info but have you seen a decline in the number of students accepted to alternate majors compared to a few years back? It looks like less people are this and last year. Is it logical to think that L &S as first choice would have had a greater chance of acceptance compared to engineering as 1st and L & S as 2nd? Because they are obviously assuming you would want your 1st choice.
Since the CC community is not representative of all students that are admitted, I cannot make any kind of judgement about the trend in alternate major admits.
The admit rate for College of L&S is much higher overall but they also house the majority of majors. The College of Engineering is small in comparison to other UC campuses so limited spots.
From the UC Counselor conference the following are admit rates by college for 2023:
College of L&S: 32%
College of Engineering: 13%
College of Creative Studies: 10%
Gumbymom, I appreciate all of your posts so much! Do you think the trend of admitting more waitlisted students will continue this year? I know you cannot know for sure, but based on your analysis for last year, we’re still test blind, post-covid, etc. From my D24’s experience, it does feel like many of her friends got waitlisted with great stats across all UC’s, leading me to think they are still going conservative this year.
I am asking with the hope that my D24 gets off the waitlist too. She was waitlisted at UCSB, UCI, UCSD, and UCD. She would love to attend any of those schools. Do you think she has a good chance with 4.3 GPA and a lot of EC’s relating to her path of pre-biology?
Will one of the schools take her? I’m sorry, we’ve been sad and disappointed here, knowing D24 worked so hard only to be met with waitlist after waitlist.
