<p>My son received his letter yesterday, and it seemed very unambiguous to him. To quote:</p>
<p>" Your outstanding achievements have placed you among the outstanding applicants for the major of Electrical Engineering and, on behalf of HSSEAS, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Faculty of HSSEAS has recommended your admission. More information about your acceptance will be contained in a formal letter of admission . . . in mid to late March."</p>
<p>Could there be different versions of this letter out there? He considers himself in, he's thrilled, and so are we.</p>
<p>Yes, if you got that letter you are in. But only engineering majors are getting this early letter, so everyone else who applied to other majors, don't worry about it. Wait for the formal acceptance letters to be released later this month.</p>
<p>I hate to be lawyerly and parse the letter, but it says two separate things. 1) "Your admission has been recommended." That's it, only recommended. Is a recommended admission the same as formal acceptance? I assume not. 2) "More information about your acceptance...provided later" Does more information mean final acceptance or a thin letter congratulating you on your outstanding achievements, but an inability to offer final acceptance? </p>
<p>I still think this letter is unclear - perhaps intentionally due to UC standard timelines, further screening or ??</p>
<p>My son received this letter and we are now cautiously optimistic about his chances of final acceptance.</p>
<p>UCLA's official start date for notifying admitted applicants is March 15. However, since the HSSEAS is April 9, and the invitees may be coming from all over the country or even overseas, they will need to begin making arrangements for optimal air fares, hotel arrangements, etc. Hence, this letter to enable them to do so in advance of the "official" notification.</p>
<p>The letter also states: "Housing information will be contained in the packet you will receive from UARS." This makes the possibility that the follow-letter will be an inablity to offer final acceptance moot, in my opinion. Sending housing info with a non-admittance letter would be cold indeed. ;o)</p>
<p>Finally, there is a distinct lack of qualifying modifiers: i.e., "More information about your acceptance . . ." is written rather than "More information about your <em>potential</em> acceptance." I think if admission were not assured (other than the usual stipulations about maintaining grades and schedule through senior year), this type of language would be used in abundance.</p>
<p>Anyway, students will know for certain in the near future. However, we have already turned the UCLA cell green on my son's college admittance stoplight chart.</p>
<p>Although I coordinate admissions for a graduate program on the Berkeley campus, I think what I know about admissions in general holds true for your situation.</p>
<p>Only the Office of Undergraduate Admissions= or-- in the case of Graduate admission, Graduate Admissions-- can actually ADMIT an applicant to a campus. What the letter is telling you is that the faculty of the Dept/Major has made a recommendation for admission. The UGA office will make take that into consideration and, assuming that the applicant meets all the requirements for admission to the University of California, will follow the Dept/Major's recommendation with the formal offer of admission. </p>
<p>They would only not follow the recommendation if the applicant doesn't meet the minimum requirements for admission to UC --or there was some other problem with the application (fogery of transcripts, misrepresentation, etc.) </p>
<p>I don't think anybody who got that letter has anything to worry about... it does say "your acceptance" not "your decision."</p>
<p>However, I'm worried. I applied under Mech. Engineering, and I have not gotten anything at all from UCLA. Am I supposed to assume I'm rejected now?</p>
<p>Without putting too fine a point on it, ambiguities about very important issues like this should be resolved by calling the appropriate person at the school and asking him/her directly what the language in question really means.</p>
<p>FWIW, I think BakoAFA and eastbaymom are right: 1) The letter is not from the Admissions Office, but from HSSEAS, an entity without the power to accept or reject, and 2) it plainly states the candidate has been recommended for admission, not admitted.</p>
<p>That said, though, the "More information about your acceptance will be contained in a formal letter of admission . . . in mid to late March" language wouldn't be used, I don't think, if HSSEAS had any reason to think its recommendation wouldn't be followed.</p>
<p>Bottom line, IMO, the letter evidences de facto acceptance, as opposed to de jure.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that nobody gets accepted to the Engineering school at UCLA unless they've been recommended by HSSEAS. And the fact that some people have been recommended but not for the major they wanted, tells me that HSSEAS doesn't make more recommendations than the school can accomodate one way or another. So I don't think that anyone who's been recommended has anything to worry about. But if you didn't get the recommendation letter, I think you should start thinking about Plan B (assuming UCLA was your Plan A).</p>
<p>Just because you didn't get a written invitation in the mail doesn't mean you didn't get recommended Flopsy. But I'm just guessing. I hope everybody on this board gets in. If you're motivated enough to be here, you probably deserve it!</p>
<p>My neighbor came over this morning and said "Hey, I have a letter for you...", and handed me an envelope from the UCLA engineering school. Turns out she was on vacation in the Caribbean, and the mailman had accidentally put it in her box instead of ours. So it turns out that I got accepted, after all.</p>
<p>I'm still shocked. Especially after flopsy called me a "reach"...;)</p>