They seem to have it, though? At least in some cases. When I log onto the Cal Central financial page, I see my SAI as determined by FAFSA, so they’ve gotten something? I don’t have any awards or anything yet, though.
My understanding is that they do not have the complete and correct FAFSA info that would be needed to issue FA packages and that they are still waiting for this (or at least a few days ago were still waiting).
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Well, and we don’t know what’s going on with Cal Grants folks, either - many of the need-based awards are processed through them before the UCs (I think?), so we have a two step process in CA, rather than a single step. (To be honest, I don’t know how it all works, but from my experience last year, it is very bureaucratic even under the best of circumstances, which is obviously not what we have this year.)
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I spoke with admissions at Barrett. It’s too late for the fall, but she can apply for the following semester. She just wouldn’t be able to move over to Barrett housing complex.
And their merit won’t be as high as UofA, but still doable.
It’s in the running!
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If you have time, it would be great to visit Arizona. I personally much prefer Tucson to the Phoenix area. Since it’s in the mountains it has much more tolerable weather.
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As @Gumbymom pointed out earlier there is an entire thread devoted to the subject.
You can follow a long conversation there with plenty of agreement and disagreement for any view point. But a few quick points that I would quickly call out as issues.
For The CSUs:
Transparency- They are supposed to be stats only so one should be able to enter their info, compute an index and you should be able to get a good idea of where you stand for admissions. SJSU does a good job here, SDSU and CP SLO do not.
Having to apply to a single major for many competitive programs. Since these programs are supposed to be stats driven let an applicant apply to multiple programs and the system can generate admissions offers based on matching the best preference. Many kids would be happy with several different related or adjacent majors but they are pretty much required to pick one and shoot. Even when they can add an alternate there is no guarantee that it will be considered.
For the UCs:
Transparency- There is the infamous list of 13 factors. Rank them in order of importance and outline how each is evaluated. Results indicate that regional representation and creating a student body are possibly more important than academics so make that plain and obvious.
There is nothing wrong with evaluation in context either but tell people what that means and how it might advantage or disadvantage an applicant. Doing so might make additional applicants apply in some cases and in others it might make some cast a bigger net. Context is good, especially when it is clear to everyone.
Same CSUs, having to apply to a single major for many competitive programs hurts kids. Do not force a 17 year old kid to make a single choice as their major. Let an applicant apply to multiple programs and admissions decisions based on matching the best preference. Many kids would be happy with several different related or adjacent majors but they are pretty much required to pick one and shoot. Even when they can add an alternate there is no guarantee that it will be considered.
Reduce the number of international and out of state students. The children of CA residents should be the priority. There is so much excess demand for seats at the top UCs that the International/OOS number should tighten considerably. How would you pay for this? That is not really difficult. One straightforward way is to raise the list price and then auto-merit or auto discount back to current prices for the current portion of the student body which is CA residents. Offer the remaining seat to CA residents at a ‘Full Pay’ rate. Given the number of people who want admissions they will be quickly accepted by in state residents.
Make ELC meaningful. ELC isn’t meaningful today because as you pointed out a real issue is that the bottom 3 UCs are not nearly as attractive as the other 6. Offering ELC to UCM or UCR is not offering anything to the ELC eligible kids shout out of the other schools. If they wanted admissions to those schools all that they had to do was check a box and pay the additional admissions fee. Create an ELC pool across some or all of the desirable UCs and use it to make offers to ELC eligible kids who did not get into their choices.
Of course these are just suggestions from one person (me) but I think all of them would be improvements to the UC/CSU admissions system that we currently have.
And note: I do not have a child who has ever applied or ever will apply to the UC system.
I strongly disagree with this.
Private schools are just that ‘Private’ and they should be completely able to craft their classes in accordance with their understanding of their ‘mission’ as long as they are within the bounds of the law.
Public schools are a ‘Public good’ for the benefit of those who fund them, in this case state residents. As a public good good the people funding the good should expect and receive transparency regarding the distribution of the ‘good’, in this case seats at schools. It is simply good government to provide transparency and a lack of willingness to provide it should be a red flag.
Do think the top UC should not be able to craft their classes themselves and that they should be forced to admit purely based on a rigid metric with no human review? I honestly don’t think anybody would be satisfied with that result. And I think it would certainly cause the schools to drop in national rankings because the school would have very little diversity of talent, mindset and life experiences.
Schools like UCLA and UCB with 11 and 12% acceptance rates can’t possibly create a metric that would work across-the-board. No matter what metric they created there would be more people that fall into that range than they can accept - so there needs to be their own internal way of crafting their classes, and since by necessity it is ultimately a subjective decision, there’s no amount of transparency that can give students a blueprint for getting in.
I think the UC is remarkably transparent, compared to most schools, in terms of providing data about their acceptances and decision factors.
And the reason I used private schools as a comparison is that there are no other public schools in the country with acceptance rates as low as the top UCs. With 150,000 applications, And 11% acceptance rate, the vast majority of applicants are going to be disappointed in the results, and more transparency couldn’t really solve that problem.
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The rules on merit are different from UA.
She probably would have to pay 35k but I can’t be certain - email them.
I do believe that the UCs should craft their classes in line with public policy priorities. And, I agree that the UC system as a whole provides a lot of ex post facto data; more than most. I do not believe that they provide remotely enough information on how they evaluate each of their factors and how they come together to form a decision. I agree with the high level policies of geographic representation and to a large extent their goals of class profiles looking similar to the state population as a whole.
I don’t want a blueprint for getting in, I want people to be sad that they didn’t get in but understand the driving factors as too why beyond “a huge number of people apply”. People know that it is harder to get in from Santa Clara county than from Inyo county with the same stats but the UC system won’t come out and say it beyond “we strive for geographic diversity”. They can do better than that. Same for "how do they compare a WGPA of 3.7 when there are 30 Honors/AP classes offered vs one of 3.3 where there are 6? They say things are evaluated in context of opportunities but what does that mean? Again, its not hard to do better.
I understand why you pointed to selective private. It is amazing that two of the UCs have acceptance rates in line with T20 privates and a testament to their reputations, popularity, and value. But though they look like privates as public entities they have duties and responsibilities above and beyond private schools. Transparency into their processes are among them. Publics should put the “sausage making” process on display and if they fail to do so it shouldn’t be surprising when people question the results.
Wouldn’t all this general discussion be much better in the other thread about this question that @Gumbymom already noted?
“A few quick points” are rapidly going to become a long general discussion, which is really off topic for the OP, as well as others in a similar position.
The OP’s daughter, and others, DID apply to the UC/CSU system and they are trying to figure out what to do now, in practical terms.
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Please bring the conversation back to focus on @PrayingToWaitlistGod. As mentioned in several posts, there are other threads for discussing the CA schools and admissions practices.
Thanks for your understanding.
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That’s great news!!
My only concern from what you posted is whether she will get a merit scholarship for her desired campus location (if she has a desired campus location).
Once you get that resolved, it looks like things are good!
Are any of the colleges that are still taking apps in the running?
Regarding cc-> UC path, I have heard that with some AP classes from high school, students can complete two years of CC in one year (summer-fall-spring-summer) and can than transfer to UC just a year later than originally hoped (but with junior standing I believe). Also, I think there is a CC dorm right near UCSB and students there can take advantage of many UCSB activities and facilities. I don’t think this locks you into transferring to UCSB but I am not sure. @Gumbymom is the expert on the above. Hopefully she will provide more information.
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That is what she intends to do if taking the CC route. Which, like you said, puts her into junior year at a UC after 1 year at cc. She is already young in her class… she would potentially be graduating college at 20 years old lol
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Slightly off topic, but my son will start UC with almost 60 units. I told him he should take a year and go abroad (like a vacation year) and not worry about finishing early. I don’t think he understands what an opportunity this means, yet.
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With the OP’s CC to UC route, students normally have a limit to finish after being admitted, so it won’t be exactly the same for them. Depending on the major and whether it’s possible to complete certain classes at CC (some classes may be specific to the UC), transfer students sometimes scramble to complete requirements that have longer prereq chains during that short timeframe.
Edited to remove the specific timeframe mentioned. Students should check the requirements for their own campus (and college within that campus).
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@MMRose @PrayingToWaitlistGod I posted a link where you can see how successful the transfer rate is from specific California Community Colleges to a UC campus in this thread here: Backdoor way into UCSB - #15 by pathandpurpose
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This time line can’t be true. Most engineering transfers from CC would not have been able to complete their degree in two years. I do know UC caps the units, but we discussed this before: AP do not count towards that. CC units earned during HS also do not count towards that cap.
Read reddit threads. Tons of engineering students complain about the short timeframe to finish their degrees. My son is in a class right now where his lab partner is a transfer student running into this problem.
Each UC will have its own policies about how many semesters a transfer is allowed, of course.
I can see people taking too long and run out of FA money, but as far as a hard time line, I need to do more research.