<p>Most C or D students either :</p>
<ol>
<li>Go to community college
or</li>
<li>Go straight into the work force</li>
</ol>
<p>I believe that to assume many of the kids with 4.0 and above come from inferior HS is not fair. I know many kids with well above 4.0, with sats well above 1900 and lots of ECs. These kids are the real deal. And schools like Cal and UCLA can fill their numbers with these kids so why would they go to a 3.0 student? And the top tier UCs are competing with the top tier privates in the nation too. There are kids who will give up an Ivie for a spot at Cal because of factors like cost and distance. That is why the top tier UCs can be so selective and they should. If your kid is in the top 10% or so of his class, then there is a UC for him, but not the top ones. Once in a UCM or UCR if he truly is so bright, then he should excel and be able to transfer within the system so he could graduate from a better UC and get his upper division courses at the higher tier UC.</p>
<p>It’s hard to figure out sometimes. At my daughter’s school, two boys were admitted to Cal Berkeley with gpa’s of 3.1/3.0 and sat’s of 1810/1900 and no EC’s…</p>
<p>The UC’s typically have random, seemingly unexplainable, and surprising acceptances. This year a girl at my son’s school was accepted to both UCLA and Cal with a 3.0 gpa, 1900 sat, no sports, no ec’s. This same girl was waitlisted at Davis. And to support the above comment, all students at his school who applied to Cal were also accepted: variety of gpas, from low to very high. One girl was rejected from UCLA with a 2360 sat, 4.0 gpa and student body president. Very hard to know what is really going on. </p>
<p>All of that said, the UC’s are in terrible financial straits and it’s getting worse. One friend’s daughter can’t graduate on time because she couldn’t get two classes she needed. Another who goes to Davis on a crew scholarship just lost it because Davis just cut the women’s crew program.</p>
<p>Given the very competitive arena this year, there were variables in the UC point system that left qualified “B” students at top high schools out in the cold (and yes, they could go to Merced, which in 10 years may have some snob appeal). There are 300 graduating seniors in my son’s school with average SATs and GPA over 1800 and 3.0 (high averages). A large percentage of them applied to UCs but it’s safe to say that no more than 25% of them will attend a UC. And yes, the top students (and athletes) do get into Cal and UCLA. The point is that many of the students in my son’s school who were shut out this year would have been admitted to mid-tier UCs a couple of years ago. That is not to say that the “A” students from mediocre schools don’t deserve to be admitted. They do. All of you who were accepted to UCs (whether or not you got your top choice) are deserving and should be proud. Others who were not, but who were accepted into CSUs of their choice should also be proud. Not surprising that the CSUs are dissed in this forum, but many of them have been cranking out graduates that are landing great jobs straight out of college. I graduated from UCLA many years ago and used to be a “UC snob” until working with extremely bright people who were mere CSU grads…</p>
<p>Readynot, well said. I agree with you. All those who fret being left out from UC’s should listen to your words. Thanks for posting.</p>
<p>The UCs cut freshman enrollment across the board this year due to budget constraints. This combined with the increased applications (due to the economic downturn) and new admission procedures (an attempt to avoid another year of over-enrollment) has pretty much shafted all the B students. Of the student population I worked with this year, many A-/B+ students and majority of the solid B students were referred to Merced.</p>
<p>Another factor is choice of major. I think most campus don’t recommend students to a less competitive major if they don’t qualify intended major. So some low stats students get in while higher stats B were left out.</p>
<p>^That is only really true for certain UCs, and usually engineering majors. So yes, a mech engineer at Berkeley needs a much higher GPA than a English major at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Major choice makes a difference for transfer applicants. For freshman applicants, most majors are equally competitive; exceptions include engineering, biological sciences in some UC campuses (such as UCSD and Davis), business (at Irvine), and nursing (UCLA and Irvine).</p>
<p>I beg to differ. If one applies for Bio Science major may gets rejected but never offered an altantive say “art histroy”. So some higher stats applicants end up missing all the boat.</p>
<p>emishap: Just a quick question: how did your son get rejected by all the UC’s? He might have been rejected by those he CHOSE, but you’re garunteed acceptance to UCR or UCM if you don’t get accepted by your schools of choice. He must have been accepted by ONE. </p>
<p>For my S case, none. because UCM was not on our application list. UCR Bio program was good good for him. I guess.</p>
<p>SHSurprise: applicants who apply under impacted majors–the ones listed in the earlier post at their respective schools-- often get rejected, even if you were to apply to multiple impacted majors. I, for instance, am going to UCSB, where physics and biology are very impacted. Were I to apply to one of these and held the other as my alternative, there’s a good chance I would have been rejected. I’ve always held that the best way to apply is Undeclared, because it shows a college the possible versitility of the applicant.</p>
<p>On question to emishap: guaranteed acceptance only applies if the applicant is ELC or ELS, there is a possibility that some oversight occurred and his son was neither.</p>
<p>if you are UC eligible you WILL be accepted by one UC.</p>
<p>even if you did not apply to UCR/UCM your app will be automatically forwarded to those schools if you are rejected by all of the ones you applied to.</p>
<p>and yes. applying for an impacted major for both ur first choice and alternative SUCKS. you didn’t know any better. neither did i. but now you know for the next person in your family who applies to the UC’s.</p>
<p>is this automatic uc eligible thing only for freshmens or treansfer students too</p>
<p>SHSurprise, UCR and UCM do not grantee admission to anyone who apply to UC. Only those who meet the UC requirements will be guaranteed a spot. I am not surprise your son was rejected from all UC’s if he is as misinformed as you are.</p>
<p>you know, this whole “my UC is better than your UC” stuff is tiresome… and a bit foolish. likewise, so is the notion that your child (or you, the denied student) was “guaranteed” admission to the UC of their choice–or any of them, for that matter. if there were a guarantee, all u’d have to do is submit an application to the campus of your choice and…voila!..instant admission! as we all know (or certainly should know) it doesn’t quite work that way. especially this year, when every campus reported record-breaking applications, implemented unprecedented waitlists, and had to scale back on admissions due to budget concerns. this was foreseeable. apparently, there was a whole bunch of kids born in 1992! and if my own son’s K-12 classroom experience was typical, a whole bunch of those babies were male! campuses have to adjust to changing situations. so of course that means that there were a lot of disappointed people this past march, not just SHSurprise’s child. </p>
<p>as several commenters have mentioned, the UC will refer your application to either merced or riverside if u were denied admission from every UC originally applied to IF you were UC-eligible at the time u submitted your application in november (grades and number of a-g classes taken). i’m not positive, but i think i read somewhere that merced is the only campus accepting “referrals” this year. </p>
<p>getting back to ridiculous campus comparisons: the UC system is the BEST public university system in the united states, budget crisis notwithstanding. many students would love to boast that their state offered such a deal (both costwise and qualitywise). to compare and judge the perceived ‘specialness’ of one or two campuses over the others is crazy. if u were a student who was fortunate enough to have been admitted to any of the UCs this year, count your blessings and get ready to take full advantage of the opportunities that await you.</p>
<p>In reference to the quote below my post…</p>
<p>I beg to differ with you. Cal Poly SLO, for one, is a fine educational institution. Also, it depends on what you want to learn in college. I’ve known many students who have come out of CSUs with more practical knowledge that can be applied to their career from the onset. Not always true for UC grads. Not to say that that *either *system won’t do a great job of educating our kids. I’m just saying not to discount the CSUs. In fact, I’m often surprised where folks did their undergraduate schooling when I ask them. These are often very successful people who are satisifed with their jobs. Some went on to grad school; some did not. </p>
<hr>
<p>It was quoted as saying that the CSUs aren’t up there with the UCs:</p>
<p>** CSUs are not up there, so not the same quality education.**</p>
<p>Right on! I know several people with degrees from a “lowly CSU” (being sarcastic) who are doing quite well. One graduated from Chico and is an algebra teacher at the American School in Paris. Yes, THAT Paris. She does very nicely there, living close to the Eiffel Tower. Her sister, also a Chico grad, lives and works in the city of San Francisco as a Registered Dietitian for an endocrinologist. Does very well and loves her job. I have a neighbor, also a Chico grad who teachers ESL at a community college. Loves her job. I also know several UC grads still looking for work. That’s not to say that any one of them got a better or worse education. I’m just saying that it’s not alway about the prestige of a UC. My own daughter was accepted to UC Davis and turned it down for Cal Poly SLO. For her it wasn’t about the “UC” in front of the name that mattered as much as other criteria. If she had gotten accepted to Berkeley and UCLA, she most likely would have gone to the latter. Cal was never really on her radar, but she applied anyway. Not sure if she would have chosen Berkeley over Cal Poly if it was between those two. I know many kids who gave up Berkeley for Cal Poly SLO, so it *has *been done! :)</p>
<p>My husband got his BA in Econ at Stanford and his MBA at UCLA. He didn’t care for his major and ended up going back to San Jose State and getting his teaching credential in math. He’s been doing that for over 30 years.
**
Quote:**</p>
<p>All of you who were accepted to UCs (whether or not you got your top choice) are deserving and should be proud. Others who were not, but who were accepted into CSUs of their choice should also be proud. Not surprising that the CSUs are dissed in this forum, but many of them have been cranking out graduates that are landing great jobs straight out of college. I graduated from UCLA many years ago and used to be a “UC snob” until working with extremely bright people who were mere CSU grads…</p>
<p>^
Cal Poly SLO and SDSU are harder to get in than a lot of the UC’s. And SLO is arguably better in engineering than all the UC’s except Berkeley. It’s funny, because I got rejected from CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, and got in SDSU, UCM, UCR, UCSC, and University of Arizona. So many of the CSU’s because of budget cuts are becoming extremely competitive to get in. Plus in this economy, most people are tending towards the CSU route since it’s so much cheaper.</p>
<p>
[quoteAnd SLO is arguably better in engineering than all the UC’s except Berkeley.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Anybody can argue anything, but that doesn’t make it true. UCLA and UCSD are phenomenal in engineering, with Davis & Irvine not far behind. heck, SD is #2/3 in bio-engineering, depending on who you want to speak to (argue with). :)</p>