<p>I was just struck about the talk about how hard it was to gain admission to the UC system contrasted with how low some of the SAT scores were.</p>
<p>Because it is HARD to get into these schools. Admissions are highly unpredictable. It’s not like a student within the top quartile can view many of these schools as safeties. </p>
<p>People complain because 10 kids from the same school with the same high stats can get wildly different results…2 can get accepted to UCLA and rejected by Cal and SD. 3 can get accepted SD and rejected by Cal and UCLA. 4 can get rejected by all 3 top UCs and also get rejected by the lower tiers. 1 might get accepted to all. </p>
<p>Since I have a very large extended family in Calif, I see these odd results every year. One relative rejected by UCLA, accepted by Cal…while another with better stats gets rejected by both, another gets accepted to both. There is no logical explanation for the acceptances or rejections. </p>
<p>I think the mistake that you’re making is thinking that if UCs are accepting kids with 1800 SATs, then that means that they’re not rejecting a bunch with 2100+ SATs…but they are.</p>