Hi,
My H is Japanese, I am Caucasian and our two D’s are adopted from China. So, we are a bit of a mixed bag. D1 was in the top 9%. Rather than go to a UC, she applied and was accepted into Cal Poly’s Engineering Program. She has graduated and has a job that she loves. I disagree @sleeplessmom1. I don’t believe the frat scene dominates the campus. Also, no one is forced to join a frat. How can you make a judgment based on a one day tour of the campus? Also, please don’t judge an entire school based on an isolated incident. Cal Poly has a lot of wonderful, intelligent, dedicated students and professors.
IMO there are two main reasons Cal Poly has trouble attracting Asians. One, San Luis Obispo is mid state and there is not a high population of Asians in that area. Secondly, Asians are just like almost everyone else that you read on CC. They want their child to go to the best university. And the UC’s are definitely top tier. TBH, if you have the grades, SAT scores and whatever else the school is looking for, why should your ethnic background matter. As my daughter told me in frustration once over friends telling her she got good grades because she was Asian, “I don’t get good grades because I’m Asian, I get good grades because I work my a$$ off.”
Finally, I would like to say please don’t be bitter about your child not getting into a UC. If it’s that important, have your child enroll in a community college that has a Transfer Admission Guarantees Program. For example Santa Barabara City College’s program guarantees admittance to UCSB. Remember, it’s not always about where you began, but where you end up.
@epiphany …I shouldn’t have mentioned the partying aspect of it…you are correct. Possibly everyone is doing that in equal representation? It was more for surfing…the Top 44 surfers in the world are majority Caucasian (a good number of Brazilians in the mix now as well) and most I see in the water in So. Cal are Caucasian. I was never much into partying, but as a surfer myself…had to head inland to UC Riverside away from the beach to avoid those distractions that really could have derailed me at a school like UC Santa Cruz or CPSLO. As an 18 year old kid, I doubt I could have avoided the beach…probably would have ditched school so much at those locations when the waves were up that I would have dropped out of school! Definitely envy those that have the discipline to make it all work in those “perfect” locations for sure!
“. I can reassure you that the UG engineering programs are just as difficult at CP as they are at a UC. True though…at CP you can access the beach while at UCB you can access an … um…urban (?) environment. And yes, CP students are ranked consistently ranked as one of (if not THE) happiest student body.”
@dietz199 …most definitely CPP and CPSLO have top notch UG Engineering programs just as difficult as the UC’s! Academic opportunity was most important to me and not location. Exposure to diversity at UC Riverside was a great thing for me. Thought about SLO as well (a lot of my very homogeneous high school classmates went there)…didn’t want an extension of my high school experience though and was glad to get out of my comfort zone. Really shaped me into who I am today! Not sure how they measure “happiness” but I can completely see that at CPSLO. More power to the school if you can make it all work out!
@Chumom I agree that Cal Poly SLO is a great school. In fact, it was our #1 choice for DS. Unfortunately, he felt differently. We did visit the campus more than once, and he also spoke to several Cal Poly SLO students of color before he made his decision. He decided it was just not a good fit for him. That said, he has several friends ( white, biracial, and asian) at CPSLO and most are quite happy there.
Also, CPSLO admin is definitely aware they have a diversity problem.
Personally, I believe if UCR or UCM, or both, made some significant upward improvements in their rankings, such as in US News, students would be vying for coveted spots at those schools. For example, if UCR, UCM or both, hired renowned/Nobel prize professors, or took steps to make significant progress to get its rankings on par with UCSD, UCD, etc., students would go there, and not look down upon going to UCR or UCM. Despite the fact that UCR and UCM are not located in vibrant large metropolitan areas, these schools would become attractive alternatives.
I think rankings are often extremely behind and uninformed about recent campus changes. I am not sure if it is true but they have always felt very east coast centered, often stopping at the first few UC’s and forgetting the rest. UCR as a campus is changing dramatically as the enrollment has grown. I am on campus every few years and each time I notice major changes to the campus. A few years ago they even added a medical school. The area around Riverside is one of the fastest growing parts of the state. I think the rankings will catch up to it. For now it is a great choice for Californians who are frustrated about the lack of spaces at the flagships to have options that aren’t well known outside of California.
One of the things that hasn’t been brought up enough in my opinion is just how much harder it is to get into UCs in general. To the people saying that for them it was easy to into UCs and that your perfect child got unfaily rejected look at the stats. Just as one example, at UCLA alone the number of applicants has gone from a mere 30,000 in 1998 to a record breaking 100,000+ every year. People with 4.0+ have gone from just 40% of applicants(only 7% unweighted) to about 70% of applicants(30% weighted!!!). If anything the schools are getting a bunch of “jack of all trades master of none” applicants and need to choose what’s best for the school/ redeeming qualities. I really suggest you read up on just some of the comparisons. IT’S RIDICULOUSLY HARDER AND ACADEMIC SCHOLARS ACROSS THE GLOBE ARE COMING FOR YOUR CHILD’S SEAT. You can’t just type things up and whine when the majority of students including myself just followed everyone else like a heard of SHEEP. What does a school gain accepting a bunch of clones?
You can also start looking at some of the stats from this years freshman’s applicants as well from each campus starting at Berkeley. And these are only the 25-75 percentile…the truth hurts!
It may be that people think it is easier to get into the UCs than it actually is because they compare exaggerated weighted GPAs like 4.4 or 4.6 from their high schools to the lower UC weighted capped GPAs like the 4.15 to 4.30 middle 50% range for UCB in the link above.
Indeed, for a typical student taking 6 courses per year, the maximum is 4.33 so you can’t even get to 4.30 weighted & capped if you have anything less than all As in your sophomore and junior years (plus 4 AP or honors courses).
But what GPA numbers are they really using? On the UCLA link above they post GPAs of 4.55 (enrolled) and 4.60 (admitted) for the 75th percentile for CA residents. Based on the average number of semesters of AP courses that UCLA has published, if you go by the capped numbers you may not have the rigor necessary to actually be accepted. Taking only 4-5 AP courses because that’s what it’s capped at may not be enough if it’s common at your HS to take 9-10.
Max capped vs max uncapped UC GPA’s are different. My high school is in 5 academic classes, plus athletics. All 5 classes are UC weighted. Next year as a junior she will also be in 5 UC weighted classes. If she got 20 A’s she’d have a UC uncapped weighted 5.0 and a capped of 4.4 (80 + 8)/20
In http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof17.htm (linked from the page linked to in reply #646), they explicitly state “Fully Weighted GPA” and “Unweighted GPA” in two different rows, so it should be more clear what GPAs they actually mean.
However, when UCs refer to high school GPA without any other description like the above, it is almost always weighted-capped GPA.
I also look at campuses and Notice the racial composition of students. I, however, unlike some on this forum care less whether the student body is all black, all white or all Asian, as long as the students are smart, friendly and open minded. This is because my kid has already been exposed to and feel comfortable with all kinds of races, which probably will be the racial make up at companies where my kid will be working. I know from my own experience that being a minority in this country has toughened me up. People who have been in the majority should try it sometimes. Lol
I grew up playing sports and sometimes fighting with many black kids in Virginia, and as a result, I feel more comfortable among Afro-
Americans to this day.
People don’t realize that if your student exceed the 4 capped weighted AP/Honors courses, getting a B in an excess AP course will hurt the student’s UC GPA. The is because the B in an AP class (in excess of the 4 capped classes) will be counted by the UC’s as a 3.0, not the 4.0 weight the high schools give for that AP/Honors class.
What I left out in my question was ‘for admissions’. What GPA are they using to make admissions decisions? I’d say as an applicant you better look at more than just their capped GPA to get a feel for your chances. That said, band kids and the like will have a lower max GPA because those aren’t weighted. Based on our experience, you need to have more rigor (i.e. AP classes) than the capped GPA suggests, but not necessarily as crazy as the 25-75% uncapped ranges suggest.
UC admission readers should see all versions of recalculated high school GPA and all self reported courses and grades for frosh applicants. So the reader’s scoring of the application can consider all of these.
I think it is also important to remember that the doubling of applications in the last few years includes kids who have expanded the number of applications they are sending out. While it doesn’t account for all the increase, it does account for some. It is easier to check more boxes and send $70 to increase your odds of getting a few “yes’s”. Especially when the selection process seems very random for those well qualified.
One of the reasons some students disappointed, 100,000+ CA kids vying for limited spots at only 6 UC campuses. The other 3 UCs are less desirable UCR, UCMerced, and UCSC, Let’s look at these 3 schools:
UCMerced - #490 ranking (Niche), isolated campus; too new, lower academics of peers/faculty compared to other UCs;
UCSC - #288 ranking, right or wrong has a reputation as counter-culture (hippie, care-free, pot smoking), campus (some like it, some don’t);
UCR - #282 ranking, reputation as a commuter school, not ideal location in the inland empire (IE) with traffic,smog,and can get very hot (does’nt have the benefit of being along the coast like other state schools which are cheaper (e.g. CSULB, SDSU, and even CPSLO).
I still believe it is all about rankings for the many who snub UCM; UCR. For example, UCD is a similar school in terms of location and weather. At UCD, it is hot from late spring to the Fall quarter in late October. UCD is about 15 minutes south of downtown Sacramento, a city not as exciting or exactly like the vibrant LA or SF Bay area.
I grew up in the IE (Inland Empire) when it was all orange groves and two-lane highways, broken up by the occasional fruit stand and a Eucalyptus or two. No one imagines my desolate desert-scape town pictured on a California postcard. It’s always beaches and sunsets from the coastal cities. As much as I’m nostalgic for my humble hometown, I couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there. For the same reason, kids don’t dream of going to study in a town like the one I grew up in. They all want a beach.
Unless it’s Tahoe, the California legislature should stop siting campuses in inland cities that are the opposite of “California Dreamin’.”