What Happens after UC Admissions Readers Grade Your Application?

In this case, I believe your academic index plays into whether they give you a second reader as well. @gumbymom

For example, UCSB essentially uses 3 indexes to grade applicants.

These are all my nicknames, I forgot what the internal term was.

  1. Academic Index – essentially the academic strength of the applicant, calculated from GPA, courseload, AP scores, community college classes, rigor, etc.
  2. Engineering Academic Index – considered for admissions to the College of Engineering, essentially a modified version of the Academic Index weighted heavily towards engineering, science and math classes, etc.
  3. “EC+Essays” Index – essentially everything else on the application. This includes your ECs, essays, your personal circumstances, everything that’s read by a reader.

The first two are calculated via computer algorithms, the third one is calculated via a score from 1-3 readers.

I received 18/18 on my academic index, a full score.
I received an 16/18 on my engineering academic index.
I received a 9/9 on my ECs+Essays index.

According to the admissions officer, they made the decision to forgo a second reader on my application because I had very high academic scores in addition to extremely strong ECs and Essays. In essence, I was “high stat” enough to be an auto-admit without a second reader.

I hope this clarifies some things.

For reference, my UC Capped GPA was a 4.27, uncapped GPA was 4.55.

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