<p>Since several people have asked me about my appeal letter, I thought I’d make a thread here for others to see as well.</p>
<p>I don’t know exactly what factors they consider when deciding who goes in. I’m sure there are many, which makes it all too variable, so what worked for some may not work for others.</p>
<p>I applied to Davis under Design, with Undeclared Life Sciences as my alternate. For Irvine, it was Business Administration, alternate Biological Sciences.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor says that when appealing, you must provide NEW and COMPELLING information, i.e. things that are not on your original application that may have affected their decision. Recommendation letters are helpful as well and could provide adcoms more information about your character, or maybe verify a claim you’ve made in your appeal, etc.</p>
<p>So here were my grounds for appeal:
- higher senior year grades despite increased workload–I had only 1 AP each year for 10th and 11th grade, but took 3 AP classes first semester of 12th and 4 the second, while self-studying for 2 other APs.
- more art/design-related work–joined school yearbook team as a layout designer; took AP Studio Art; designed posters, brochures, etc. for school functions and clubs; made flyers, coupons, etc. for my dad’s restaurant; all of which took up a lot of time but gave me experience towards my ultimate goal of becoming a graphic designer/illustrator (because I applied to Irvine for Business, I tailored the end of the letter to relate, saying how business skills would help with owning a design firm).
-additional awards–I was notified later on that I was a National Merit Finalist, and I had gotten third place in my school’s Mandarin Speech Contest.</p>
<p>I sent in three letters of recommendation: one from my AP Econ teacher (I had taken three classes he taught consecutively and did well and enjoyed them), another from my AP Calc teacher (my counselor suggested to have her write one because I scored Cs the year before in Precal Honors, but was in the A-/B+ range for AP Calc AB), and one last one from the school principal (at the request of my father, since she was a “higher up”; her son was also going through the appeals process, so I guess she could empathize).</p>
<p>I had also compiled recent artwork onto a few pages with MS Word, printed it out, and sent it in to both schools. The design work I had mentioned in my appeal was included to back up my claim, so to speak.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Davis as a Design major and Irvine as BioSci because Business Admin is impacted and they had no spaces left, but they allowed me to switch to any non-impacted major I desired.</p>
<p>With that said, I’ll provide some background information, as they do look over your original application along with your appeal.</p>
<p>Female Asian
parents had gone to college</p>
<p>UC GPA: 3.765
SAT I: 2170; CR - 760, M - 730, W - 680 (previous score 2030)
SAT II: Math IIC - 740; U.S. History - 730; Biology - 680 (all taken multiple times)</p>
<p>9 years piano, 4 years varsity soccer, 4 years volunteering (< 100 hours), 3 years cultural club (treasurer position in 12th grade), 1 year yearbook
various small awards, National Merit Semifinalist (later advanced to Finalist standing)
downward trend from 10th to 11th grade
Prompt 1 essay received positive feedback; had major, major problems writing Prompt 2 and finished literally at the last minute, so it was pretty bad</p>
<p>One of my friends applied to Davis as a Psych major. She was accepted to Irvine but not Davis and appealed. From what I recall, she did research on Davis’s Psych department and her appeal letter basically detailed out how she really wanted to attend Davis because of their excellent Psychology program. She had a 4.0 GPA, lower SATs than mine, some ECs, no leadership positions, first gen college student. Another friend (in the class of 08) had lots of ECs and leadership positions (and probably good grades as well) and was accepted to SD and Irvine for BioSci, but Davis was his first choice. He talked about how he wanted to stay close to home so he could take care of his grandmother. Both had letters of recommendation. Now they’re both attending Davis.</p>
<p>Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope this aids those of you who are writing appeals to the UCs right now. This should give you some ideas of what you could say, but obviously, it will be different for each person. I know quite a few people who got in through appeal (e.g. just from my class, six out of the eight who matriculated were), so if you were rejected but really want to go to Davis, I’d encourage you to try for yourself. 
If anyone else who went through this process wants to add in their experience as well, feel free to do so!</p>