Why didn't I get in?

aquapt
Fri, 05 May 2017 18:17:19 +0000

Yes, congratulations @hbrunner - Regents at UCB is a huge accomplishment! My D, like pearl2017’s, got into Scripps with a scholarship; but she was denied at UCB and didn’t get Regents even at UCSD or UCD. (Her stats and music/sports EC’s are very similar to yours, but she doesn’t have the “leadership cred” that you have, which I think the UC’s highly value.) I do think my D is better suited to an environment like the 5C’s than to a large UC, so it’s working out well for her. And UCB obviously saw, in you, a student who would thrive on their campus. I think any applicant who applies to multiple competitive schools (unless they have a slam-dunk “hook”) is likely to end up with a pattern of acceptances and denials that has no conclusive explanation. The level of unpredictability is why it’s necessary to cast a wide net… and ultimately each student can only commit to one college, and it doesn’t sound as if you would have given up the UCB Regents opportunity to go to Scripps. (Just as my D would not have turned down her Scripps scholarship to go to Berkeley!) You can attach an explanation to it if it feels better to do so (yield protection… geographic bias against “local” applicants), but in the end, it’s not a bad thing to have a “don’t take it personally - sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason” story to pass down to the next generation of applicants.