@Soccer416: UCSB has a small Engineering department in comparison to the other UC’s which makes for a tougher admit. Best of luck to your son.
Son accepted to Pre-Psych & Brain Sciences- he was so excited- did not expect much.
out of state
UW GPA 3.9
SAT 1410
9 AP classes
ECs are typical (pretty good), but most ‘unique’ would be his main passion: volunteering every Sat for 4 hours since the start of his freshman yr (until the day he needs to leave for college) at a refugee resettlement area, tutoring kids who just arrived from various refugee camps and resettled. he rallies communities and fundraised a lot for school supplies etc for these kids. He wrote about it in all college ap essays and PIQs.
other schools:
waitlisted at UGA (head-scratcher), rejected at Emory (expected).
accepted at UCSD
waiting for: UCLA, UCB, UCI
Accepted to Pre-Psychological & Brain Sciences
- out of state
- SAT 1260 (m 650; r 660) (was not thrilled that I had to submit my SAT w/ essay score rather than my SAT w/o essay score)
- UW GPA 4.0 / W GPA 4.48 / UC GPA 4.32
- Rank: 3/151
- Took all honors and 5/9 AP classes that my school offered
- ECs: Girls’ Tennis captain, Boys’ Tennis manager, several clubs that worked towards providing for the less fortunate families in my town, shadowed a psychologist,
- PIQs seemed mediocre to me
I was really not expecting to get in, I was not confident in 3 out of my 4 essays and my SAT score is below average
Other schools:
Accepted: Rutgers, Stony Brook, Fordham, U of Minnesota (TC), John Jay, Hunter College
Waiting for: UCLA, UCI, NYU
Son accepted for Mechanical Engineering.
in state
W GPA 4.67
UW GPA 4.0
ACT 35
SAT Subject Tests: Math 2 - 790; US History - 750; Biology - 740
10 AP classes
Very strong essays and ECs.
Also accepted for Mechanical Engineering at: UC Berkeley (early admit with interview for Regents Scholarship), UC Davis, UCSD, Cal Poly.
Waitlist
Major- Physics (College of Letters and Science)
Secondary Major- Premathematical Science
In state
ACT- 34 composite
GPA uw- 3.98
GPA w- 4.57
9 APs- 3 Chemistry, 4 Us History, 5 Calc AB, 5 Calc BC, rest are tbd
6 full year math courses
Was selected as the recipient of a high school based scholarship given to one student each year for math and science
EC: Participant in 9 theater productions with my high school, participation in a professional theater company as an actor and technical assistant, Leader of the Improv club at my high school, a member of the drama LEAP team (a service based organization run by my school that allows high schoolers to teach at middle schools in the area), volunteer at the local middle school and various other organizations
PIQs- fairly strong
Accepted:
UCSC, UCDavis, Smith College, also a likely early evaluation at Wellesley College
Denied:
Johns Hopkins
I am honestly kind of surprised at how many people are getting waitlisted and rejected, as well as the fact that most of those people also got accepted to UCSD which I thought was more selective
@Gumbymom. Thank you
The current rankings tend to show UCSB ahead of both UCSD and UCI for selectivity now. Still, it is indeed shocking how many rejections and WLs we’re hearing about.
Waitlisted
Major- Poli Sci
Secondary Major- Global Studies
In-state
ACT- 34 composite
GPA uw- 3.9
UC CAPPED GPA - 4.2
Tons of ECs in area of interest, 4 years varsity swim, lots of volunteering hours, strong essays.
Accepted:
UCD, UT Austin Honors, SDSU Honors, SLO (asked to apply honors), SMU Honors, Santa Clara Honors
Denied:
None so far
Waiting:
UCLA, UCB, USC
Hoping for good news from one of the remaining schools. Feel very fortunate to have solid choices if rejected from UCB, UCLA, and USC - but the USCB waitlist definitely stings and puts things in perspective. There are simply a lot of very talented and incredibly smart kids out there. Congrats to all who were accepted!! You have much to be proud of!
@nicksan109 SB is a smaller school with limited seats. UCSD has a very high number of foreign students. In fact, it has the highest in the UC system. UCI is second. We are a little wary about it. Just to want to hear opinions from anyone who has kids at UCSD. My friend’s daughter from UCD complained that she cannot communicate with her Chinese TA because of the language barrier (she could speak mandarin but not in technical terms!)
@nella2024 - My older D is a junior at UCLA. Her experience has been similar to what your friend mentioned of UCD. I think it’s pretty common among the top universities, especially true at Cal and UCLA.
Sorry I’m venting but it is so frustrating that we have to go out of state, or far from home, or to a commuter school with a 4.1 gpa in CA, and so many out of state/international are accepted. The only negative was my daughter’s act, 1 test, and she has a learning disability so she doesn’t test well on the standardized type tests. You should not have to be gifted to get into a good UC. Right now my daughter is going to have to go to a school far away from home in Davis where we can’t tour and have never been. We all have major anxiety about it. Her closer options that she was accepted are UC Riverside, Long Beach, Pomona, Fullerton. I’m sad there are so few spots at UCSB, UCSD, and I’m not holding my breath for the last three close to home. I’m thankful Davis accepted her, but if we can’t tour it, and she doesn’t want to go that far away, it’s not going to work sadly.
@CollegeMomCL2024 I share your frustrations. Right now the way CA schools work is that they subsidize their budget with foreign students who pay 2x o 3 x more than we do. There isn’t enough space for our kids because of this reason. UCSB itself takes in more than 2000+ foreign students!
@nella2024 @Collegemom2024: UC’s have capped the limit on OOS and International applicants at 18% so there is room for many in-state students. California is a huge state with a huge student population and also very high achieving so unfortunately the competition is fierce for the spots available.
Also please double check your information in regards to the number of International students enrolled at each UC campus. UCOP undergrad admissions information for 2019 with link below. Here are the International student #’s for UCSB.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-residency-and-ethnicity
17,078 applicants
5866 admitted
948 enrolled so not 2000+.
Yes the UC’s admit a high # of International applicants but only a small percentage enroll due to the high costs. Also if the UC’s did not admit OOS and International students, you can bet the in-state costs for tuition would even higher than $13K+/year.
I understand your frustration but if you look at the # of applications that all colleges get throughout the US, 8 out of the 10 most applied schools are in California.
- UCLA
- UCSD
- UCI
- UCB
- UCSB
- UCD
- CSULB
- SDSU
Both your students have been accepted into good schools so focus on the schools that are showing your students the love…
@Gumbymom I was so surprised to read about the issues of foreign students while researching each campus.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-11-10/sd-me-ucsd-china
@Gumbymom It is a well-known issue that California has been trying to fix due to complaints and well discussed in multiple news sources.
https://edsource.org/2019/uc-says-higher-tuition-for-out-of-staters-will-help-californians/609586
Decision: Admitted (OOS)
Major: Pre-biology
UC Unweighted GPA: 3.76
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 3.91
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 3.91
Senior year course load:
5 APs (AP Calculus AB, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Environmental Science, AP Gov), 2 Dual Enrollments, and 3 normal classes
I’m taking two classes over what is allowed in a schedule by doing two normal classes online.
ACT (total and sections): 31 >> E35, M28, R31, S29 Writing 9
AP exams (scores in parentheses): APHuG (4), AP Psych (4)
Extracurriculars:
- High School Swim Team (4x varsity, 4x letter winner, team captain, state qualifier)
- Community Swim Team (12x commitment, undefeated all 12 years, conference record holder, Conference champs 12x)
- Large Group Speech/Drama (3x State Qualifier, 2x All-State Qualifier, was an actor in short film)
Job/Work Experience:
- Lifeguard/Red Cross Instructor (Full-time but often racked in around 50+ hours per week)
- Swim Team Coach (Coached around 50 9/10 year old boys and girls over the summer, coached for 2 years, went undefeated and conference champs both years. My swimmers broke every pool record and four conference records).
- Tutor (Helped younger students with math)
Volunteer/Community service:
- Vacation Bible School Leader (Did it over summer for 3 years)
Summer Activities:
- All activities listed above except High School Swim Team and Large Group Speech/Drama
Personal Insight essays (details):
Essay 1: How I show leadership through my actions rather than verbally
Essay 2: How my best skill I have is my optimistic attitude which stemmed from negativity
Essay 3: The stereotypes of being a ginger
Essay 4: How I have helped my community specifically through helping the youth population within it. Connected to a memory of teaching a young boy with Down Syndrome swimming lessons.
Most of my essays reflected my extracurriculars and elaborated on them (skills I’ve learned, etc.)
Strengths:
- Geographical Location ?? (not many are applying from Iowa)
- Very unique and strong essays
- I’ve taken APs through the University of Iowa (My school only offers 5 APs, I’ve taken 7)
Weaknesses:
- Low statistics
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UIowa, Luther College, Syracuse University, SDSU, CSULB, Cal Poly Pomona, CSULA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC San Diego
WL/Rejected: Nowhere
Waiting on: UCI, UCLA, UCB, USC, NYU, Boston U, Northeastern, UMiami
Accepted 3.7 W 1500 SAT… posted more info on stats page… Truly a miracle getting SB and SD with this kind of gpa!
@CollegeMomCL2024 – Would it be possible for you to drive to Davis to visit? If you needed to spend the night, you could perhaps find a hotel in one of the outlying (but not too far from Davis) counties – that have no known Wuhan virus cases. We’re struggling with the same prospect of having to choose a college sight-unseen.
@Attentecordiale
I wish this virus problem wasn’t happening right now because we will have to drive 6 hours there and 6 hours back. My husband and I will have to take turns. I’m not sure how we choose without a physical tour. We can see it online, but it’s different in person.