I wanted to give my very honest and real opinion on UC Merced to those who might be struggling with it as their ‘only UC option’ in this very, very odd application cycle.
We, like many other parents and students in the "Class of 2026’ application cycle are dealing with the leftover remnants of the pandemic, an ‘unprecedented’ amount of applications - and all the other issues that have left many of our high achieving, high stats kids with completely unexpected waitlists, rejections and a seemingly lack of “acceptable” options.
We were super naive and assumed lots of acceptances were on the way from some of the hardest to get into schools based on all the things in our favor that were tangible - his grades, his GPA, his high number of rigorous AP courses, and the scores he received. He’s an excellent writer - he had great essays, etc etc etc – What we got was a LOT of heartbreak, unsureness, feelings of failure from my son, and his feeling that all his hard work had been a waste. Lots of “What now?”. March was a very, very anxiety-filled and ultimately sad month.
Scrambling, we looked into Community College transfer - but he really wanted the full college experience and that truly did make him feel like the hard work put in, in high school was a waste, we looked into less prestigious universities that we didn’t first consider and were still accepting late applications (while there were some acceptances there, they were not a fit for several reasons), I contacted CSU for redirection and we received that to two campuses – and, we had, in our back pocket the Top 9% statewide UC guarantee – which we all know means UC Merced.
We did NOT consider UC Merced a viable option as, without knowing for ourselves, we’ve heard the negative musings about it, the rumors, the lack of “prestige” etc. We looked it up online - we know the acceptance rate, we know it’s kind of the butt of all the UC jokes (we also know this used to be the same for UC Riverside, Santa Cruz, and Irvine – which have all risen tremendously on their own with regard to how people consider them, prestige level, etc) I’ll be honest – we probably had some snobby or possibly even elitist preconceived education notions - “not my amazing kid - he is destined for (Any Big-Name Here)”. Plus, we know about the town of Merced which – is a small town and… has its own issues.
Despite that, when the “Count Me In” program offer came, we were grateful for the acceptance (and outstanding financial aid offer) - and figured we’d accept on May 1, pray for waitlists to come through, and plan a transfer out as soon as possible, if it was our only option.
Bobcat day, their accepted student’s preview day, was Saturday (yesterday) – but the weekend before this we drove out to Merced to give it a look. The campus was beautiful but felt a little too ‘new’ with newly planted trees still essentially sticks, lots of white concrete - and as it’s been described, is quite literally the only thing in a large cow pasture. The town itself is pretty removed from the campus (8 miles away) and I won’t sugar coat it – while the ‘downtown’ area is very cute, it’s sparse with very little to do, see, eat, etc. There is no getting around that right now - it is what it is.
I was hoping that this campus drive-through would generate some excitement with my son and really all it did was re-enforce the negatives we’ve all heard about.
Then, with low expectations, we went to Bobcat day. Let’s be real, we had a very skeptical view, that skewed negative. We weren’t starting out with a fresh, open mind.
Our first visit was to a presentation from the College of Natural Sciences. My son is an Environmental Science and Systems major. Listening to the heads of the department excitedly talk about their programs, offerings, cool out-of-the-box things they are doing - and what’s to come was invigorating. They had students that work in the Student Assistance center for these majors come and speak about their experience at UC Merced and the work they are doing in the student assistance center. Their energy was palpable. These were students with drive, motivation, and excitement. This was something that was seriously lacking when we visited some of the other campuses where we had some acceptances. We desperately were looking for and wanted an environment that matched my son’s energy and goals. We were struck by the small class sizes, the student-to-teacher ratio, the high caliber of the teaching staff, and how accessible everyone seems to be.
We then went to a presentation from the department chair of the job placement, internship programs. The things they are doing with these programs are phenomenal, smart, forward-thinking – we found ourselves saying, “WOW” throughout the data-driven real-life example-filled presentation. At this point, we were starting to feel completely dumbfounded by all that we were hearing. UC Merced students and grads are getting amazing internships and work opportunities at ALL of the big names in every industry. Start-ups, non-profits. They have a student interning at the White House this summer. They are getting into all the top grad schools - and had the data to show this. They have a high 4-year graduation rate. Things were making a drastic turn and feeling pretty good. And this wasn’t just a cheer team of positivity talk – everything they said was presented with actual data, evidence, and examples.
We walked throughout the campus, we toured dorms, we talked to the actual students who were extremely polite, friendly, well-spoken, and approachable, we observed those who like us, were accepted or prospective students – the energy throughout the entire day was one of excitement to be a part of the growth of this campus and excitement of – just being there, being a part of it. The dorms were really nice and comfortable feeling (not what we experienced at some other campuses), and the Pavilion food (which I know has had criticisms recently) was excellent.
After lunch, we went to a presentation by the Chancellor, Juan Sanchez Munoz. Not only is he personable, smart, well-spoken, forward-thinking, and approachable – his strategic plan for UC Merced had us blown away. You can read more about it HERE - https://strategicplan.ucmerced.edu/ -
They’ve recently had a 20 Million donation - which, instead of being put into an endowment like many other campuses would do, is being spent – on facilities, student programs, their study abroad program and to attract top-notch teaching talent.
They are getting ready to break ground on a new medical building and have partnered with UCSF to provide a BS/MD degree program - starting at UCM and transferring with acceptance to UCSF to complete the degree - Medical Education Building Planning | Planning, Design, & Construction Management This doesn’t impact us, as my son is not interested in pursuing health care as an option - but this speaks to the caliber of this campus, the growth, what they will attract and what’s to come. A new medical center is in the plan. Given they are a research school with amazing opportunities there and this new medical program plan — it’s starting to sound a lot like – John Hopkins.
These are just a couple of the points – he went in-depth about their study abroad program, their school philosophy throughout about not just learning theory, but application and how they encourage and do that, various exciting things that are happening with their growth (lots of money being poured in) and stats (already a Top 40 University and constantly rising) and point after point highlighting various examples of student success stories, and their commitment to doing things differently. It felt very engaging, entrepreneurial, and inspiring and we left that presentation – with no exaggeration, Blown. Away. Ready to commit. All. In. A complete 180.
There is something really exciting and interesting about UC Merced, right now. Right at this point in their growth, that is intangible and was really, really unexpected. Something you won’t find at any of the established UCs and left us really, really with a hard decision at this point.
We are going to see this process through – and of course, will commit to one of the options we have on May 1. We’ll wait and see what happens with the various waitlists. We’ll pick the right thing based on all the factors and checked boxes - from whatever options we have – but we left Bobcat Day and UC Merced feeling 100% confident that no matter what options there are – we are winning. If all the waitlists end up being rejections and he “only” has UC Merced, it’s definitely not ‘only’ UC Merced. We are lucky and excited that UC Merced chose him.
Hope this helps some who may be in the same position.
Go Bobcats!
