In February, I was nominated for the Berkeley Regents Scholarship and was super excited about that. However, I did not receive regents scholarships for any of the other UC campuses I applied, and as results came out I found out that I was waitlisted from Davis, did not receive any of my 2 majors of choice for SD , and found out today that I was wait listed for UCLA. How could there be such a large discrepancy in admissions, finishing in the top 2 percent of Berkeley applicants but not even the top 40 percent of Davis applicants? And the ironic part is I attended COSMOS at UC Davis in my sophomore year.
Some basic info about me: I am an asian Male living in California for Berkeley my major was computer science in college of letters and science while for all other UCs I chose computer science and engineering. My unweighted uc gpa is a 4.0 while uncapped weighted is a 4.53 and my sat is 2240 single sitting. Some of my main hooks/awards include a research internship in computer engineering at Boston University last summer, AIME qualifier, Physics Olympiad Semifinalist, and all-state honor band among others.
Shouldn’t my stats alone be enough to get me into some of these campuses and even going beyond the stats how is it possible that Berkeley selects me for regents nomination but I get wait listed for all the other major UC campuses. I know they probably have different admissions policies at each school and look for different things in the essay but how was the discrepancy this large. Is there communication between the schools that I was already selected as a regents nominee, do they waitlist overqualified applicants which I don’t think because I had friends who had stronger applications than me and also received Berkeley regents but got all the other campuses, or did it have to do with the major choice, why did this happen? I’m just a little bit shocked because had I not gotten into Berkeley, I very well may have had to attend community college as it is practically my only acceptance as of now and the only schools remaining are super competitive private schools that I will probably not get into.
Computer engineering is more competitive at all schools. Had you applied to EECS, you may not have received a Regents invitation to Cal.
I understand but would that mean getting wait listed at all the other schools. That’s quite a large difference from getting regents.
I’m not surprised that I didn’t get regents for any of the other schools but by the fact that I did not get in at all.
It’s definitely not overqualification; I have really similar stats to you, got the Regents nomination at Cal, and got into every UC I applied to with Regents to all but one (UCLA).
I’m pretty sure it’s your major, and/or SAT score; 2240 is a little bit on the low side, I feel.
But, the Regents nomination at Cal means that you’re in!! So, don’t worry about it!! You got into the best UC anyway 
@saxmaster27 That’s very surprising and unfortunate. My best guess is that it’s because you applied to the engineering school for all of your other universities. Most engineering schools admit by school or by major (UCD admits by major). The selection rate for computer science is much lower than the overall selection rate. Unlike these other schools, UC Berkeley does not offer direct admission to CS and requires its students to petition after completing prereqs.
Congrats on your UC Berkeley acceptance though; you should be really excited!
“I understand but would that mean getting wait listed at all the other schools. That’s quite a large difference from getting regents. I’m not surprised that I didn’t get regents for any of the other schools but by the fact that I did not get in at all.”
Well, it’s quite a large difference between COE EECS and L&S. Being a Regents’ Candidate in L&S doesn’t mean one would be offered even regular admission to EECS. It’s sad, but true.
And because COE is more competitive at all UCs, it’s not that surprising that you were only waitlisted at SD, Davis and UCLA. After all, you were waitlisted, not rejected.
I understand that major has an influence because for UCSD, I actually got into the school but just not for CSE or CS, my two choices and I know trying to get impacted majors is nearly impossible at UCSD, but are SD and Davis CSE really harder to get into than Berkeley LS? I probably shouldn’t be caring about this anyway since I already got in to Cal but just curious, how common is it for someone with my stats to be wait listed for Davis Engineering? Does this kind of stuff happen frequently?
I don’t believe you are a typical Regents recipient as your stats are slightly above average for even admission to UCLA/UCB. Honestly, under a different circumstance you could have been rejected by UCB! Perhaps your good ECs made a difference for UCB. So don’t complain and instead be thankful for the honor you recieved from UCB (just for comparison, my daughter who got Regents from UCLA last year had 2370 SAT, 4.65 UC GPA, 800-790-760-SAT II, 12 APs with scores of all 5s except of two 4s and plenty of ECs and she thinks that she is just an average recipient among her peers!).