UCLA admissions - what do you think is going on here?

Nhatrang
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 17:51:38 +0000

Once you passed certain threshold, you are in the hands of the AO gods who determine your faith. It’s all the luck game.

An “amazing” essay to one AO doesn’t mean the same for another. You could have a “not so amazing essay” but the AO could relate to what you wrote, they liked you and they recommended you on the accepted pile. You could have an AO who is bitter and resentful toward the privileges and they hate everything you wrote b/c you happened to be one of those “privileged” kids, even if you have written the most beautiful essay to many. You could write about being abused as a child and the AO was abused and they loved you for it. One AO may be impressed with certain EC, while the same EC makes the other AO roll their eyes. Etc. and etc.

Sure all the training on how to be a good AO to minimize the biases. And you have 2 AO reviewers, not one. But they are human and they can’t help themselves. For the most part, the collective AO team gets it right. But you are also going to see a lot of eye rolling, eyebrows raising decisions. We are trying to find logic here but sometime there is none.