There is a discussion on the UCLA thread about the Alumni Scholarship invites.
This information was posted by another poster @Twoin18 last year which I copied and will now post. I know they expanded the # of applicants that they sent the invite to last year but it does not mean that you will be accepted by getting the invite and not all applicants will get the invite.
I suggest you look at this link: UCLA Official Regents and Alumni Scholarships FAQ 2019
UCLA Alumni Scholarships:
The vast majority of the ~150 awarded the Alumni scholarship get the standard $1500 per year, unless they receive the extra need based aid. There is a shortlisting process for video/phone based interviews (IIRC organized on a regional basis within CA) and then roughly 1 in 3 of those interviewed wins the scholarship.
The award of the scholarship is typically announced in early April and then there is a reception for awardees at Bruin Day. A small number (I think 10-20% of winners) are also invited to compete on campus the next weekend for a higher award amount. There is also a reserve list for runners up, since not all of the original winners will choose to attend UCLA.
The shortlisting process appears to be based primarily on a) did you write an essay that stands out and gets noticed by your reader and b) your community service and similar ECs. Its different from the Regents scholarship which is based more on pure academic talent (and obviously relies on the original UC application for shortlisting). So my S who was senior class president etc won an Alumni scholarship, his classmate who was the top student with 36 ACT etc won a Regents scholarship. However, I understand that some applicants can win both scholarships (and then they stack).
Its worth noting that the Regents scholarship is vastly more useful as it gives you class and housing priority (and other things like a parking permit), while the Alumni scholarship doesn’t. Nevertheless, a $6000 scholarship is worth applying for and there are some additional benefits, like access to internships, mentoring etc.
The Alumni Association is independent of UCLA admissions. There is only a one way flow of information:
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UCLA admissions give the Alumni Association a list of some subset of applicants for the invitation email. Then the invitation is sent out and people apply for the Alumni scholarship.
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After UCLA admissions have announced their admission decisions, they give the Alumni Association a list of admitted students so they can screen out any scholarship applications from those who weren’t admitted before starting to read them.
The only time information goes the other way is when the Alumni Association tell financial aid about the awarded scholarships.
So there is no impact on the admission decision from any Alumni scholarship application. The fact that there may be correlation (depending on how selective UCLA admissions were in compiling the original list for the invitation email) is in no way causation.
If it’s the same as previous years then Alumni scholarship applicants were shortlisted in late March/early April, interviewed in the first week of April and then awards made before Bruin Day. There are some awards made later to runners up depending on how many of the original awardees don’t attend UCLA but I don’t believe there is any provision for interviewing additional candidates.