Californian parents justified feeling bitter their kids are shutout of the UC System?

[ucbalumnus]

@Twoin18

That may be the source of some of the complaints cited on this thread, for example I know of one kid (at a very competitive school) who was rejected from UCLA but got into JHU and was waitlisted at Columbia. The corollary is that at my kids (less prestigious but fairly decent) school, most of the top kids were shut out of Ivy League and similar schools, but a significant number were successful at UCLA and Berkeley (and most of them will attend).

Not that big a surprise, when considering the differences between admission processes and criteria that tend to correlate to SES and prep school background:

• GPA versus test score emphasis: UCs lean more toward GPA than most other schools.
• Recommendations: not used at UCs, used in Ivy League.
• Financial aid forms: UCs do not use CSS Profile or NCP information, Ivy League does.
• SAT subject tests: not required at UCs, optional for some majors; required or recommended in Ivy League.
• Legacy preference: not used at UCs, used in Ivy League.