<p>Irvine was his best shot but not near a guarantee.</p>
<p>awakenedream, why doesn't your friend contact UCI and UCSB undergraduate admissions and simply ask why his application didn't make the cut. Most UCs will tell you if your essays were considered weaker than other candidates or whatever. Maybe there were already too many undeclared majors at UCI and UCSB. He'll never know unless he goes to the source and inquires.</p>
<p>It's clear that no UC campus is issuing acceptance simply on GPA and SAT scores. They want to know that there is a real live human being behind all of the stats.</p>
<p>this is an april fools joke isnt it</p>
<p>diablo2fan: ummm no, and i posted this yesterday</p>
<p>did he get accepted anywhere? there may have been something not recieved or the counselor may have messed up on something... you know, something unexpected. i know nothing about the UC's, but there could have been a major flaw on his application that could easily be corrected.</p>
<p>ugh... u guys talk about UCI like itz the lowest thing u can get. I'm going there n this is making me feel dumb</p>
<p>CasperLoveUCs: UC Irvine is a very good school! It's just true that it's not as selective as UCLA, UCSD, and UC Berkeley. And with my friend's stats, he should have made UC Irvine...heck, he even had a shot at the higher UC's. Him really wanting to go to UC Irvine is a testament to how good of a school it is.</p>
<p>UCI should have been a shoo in</p>
<p>All the UC schools could not have been wrong on your friend. Maybe one or two schools, but not all of them. This gives me indication that maybe he is at fault. I've never quite understood the definition of "top 13%" of your class, I don't know if that percentage is relative to a school or statewide, but it would mean that your friend has (virtual) guarantee of getting into at least one UC, or that may be grounds for appeal. I think the other guarantee to get in is at least a 1400 or 31 on ACT, but it seems he fell just short. Something doesn't seem quite right with this whole situation. You mentioned he was on varsity tennis, how about any other clubs? Tennis alone should make him a shoo-in, there's a ton of crappy tennis teams out there. The UC's should not have made their decision if his application was incomplete, so I'm assuming it was; he can check this (is it still on?) on the website (which he/she should've anyways!), so it can't be a freak accident like in "Orange County" the movie. I hate to admit it, but the essays may be at issue. You have assured us that they are good, but are they on prompt? Does he make himself sound arrogant, entitled, or something similar to that? Whatever the case, I'm 90% certain this is your friend's own doing, by misrepresented intention or through some other unfortunate, subconscious mis-action. All those colleges cannot be wrong.</p>
<p>PS- don't blame everything on AA, it just makes you look stupid.</p>
<p>Did your friend have elc?</p>
<p>I haven't been to cc for the longest time
i thought i was a shoo in for UCI as well, guess im appealing. It makes me sick that i was rejected.</p>
<p>Acquaintance graduating from prestigious, highly challenging prep school in CA, who got 1510 on SATs, had 13 APs, mostly A's/some B's due to known, famous grade deflation at that high school, applied to every U.C. Rejected by all but Davis. His only e.c. was sports; that's all we can figure for the reason for rejection.</p>
<p>Did you read your friend essays? Did you read his teachers/counselor rec's...I am pretty sure the answer is no....There are many reasons schools accept/reject students...My sister was rejected by UCSD but accepted by UC Davis/USD/Maryland and UNC-Chapel Hill (of course she is attending UNC). Now with her grades/SAT scores/ECs we (family) felt she would get into just about any school on her list...but UCSD rejected. Of course we could have blamed it on AA...that would be the easy thing to do..... It is always someone else fault for our failures!!!!!</p>
<p>Take a look at what ttgiang15 said above - there is wisdom in those words. I fear we don't have the full picture here, but the odds are strongly against 5 or 6 good schools making decisions that are inconsistent with the complete application package. Once again, you are falling victim to the thinking that numerical scores trump everything, and they don't. Your friend absolutely proves that. I would bet good money that if you could get your hands on the rec letters, you would get a more complete picture of what happened. One or two strange sentences is all it takes in a rec letter. Phrases in a rec letter like, "good student, and will hopefully reach his potential in college"; "his classroom behavior is very inquisitive but sometimes presents a challenge for his teachers", etc. are killers. Think about it, the rec letters are the one key piece of information not typically available to the applicant and are therefore the most significant variable confounding the acceptance process. I see students say on these boards, "...I know I got great rec letters," I always wonder if they are sure.</p>
<p>To all who mentioned rec letters: The UC system's application does not require recommendation letters. Contrarily, these schools actually <i>discourage</i> rec letters because of the abundance of applicants, and that they will not have time to read every single letter if submitted. </p>
<p>awakenedream: I echo everyone's advice of having your friend calling the different UCs and asking what went wrong. Your friend does have impressive numerical stats for UCs Irvine and Santa Barbara. However, also like everyone said, numbers aren't everything. Also, you've mentioned that your friend applied undeclared. Did you, since you have been accepted to them? Maybe it is the major status, since I know a lot of people myself who have been rejected by UC Davis (considered a "safety" for my high school) that I've thought to be shoo-ins. All of them applied as undeclared, and there are a couple of individuals with slightly "lower" numerical stats/ECs (not sure about the essays, so <i>that</i> may have been the deciding factor instead) who declared a major and were accepted. </p>
<p>I think someone else already mentioned this, but was he in ELC? Was his 3.9 enough to get him top 4% of the class in your high school?</p>
<p>If he wasn't admitted to ANY UCs, than he should get a GTO (guarenteed transfer option) to one of them. Complete your GE at a CCC, and go as a junior. He should definitely appeal though, because it looks like maybe there was a mistake on his application. I don't know about all UCs, but I know SB grants automatic appeals to people whos GPAs have been miscalculated, or something along those lines.</p>
<p>PS: He doesn't have a full IB diploma...those aren't awarded until summer after the IBO has examined everything. You must say you're an IB candidate on applications.</p>
<p>his GPA might have killed him. i know a friend who had stellar everything, 1550 sat I, 800 x 3 SAT II's, APs, leadership and extracurriculars, some sports, good essay. rejected everywhere (including UCI) but riverside. why? a very low sophomore GPA. your friend's sophomore or junior gpa might've been really low (3.9 UC GPA is only mediocre when its unweighted). that's just my guess, but unless there was some outside factor like he filled out his app wrong or there was a mixup, he should've gotten into UCI. </p>
<p>follow gsp<em>sillicon</em>valley's advice.</p>
<p>its great how people blame things on aa...trust me it won't make him feel any better</p>
<p>Damn it, California doesn't even practice AA, but people still use it as a reason to explain why they or someone else didn't get in. Also, even if backdoor AA was in play, it wouldn't cause him rejection from almost every school to which he applied.</p>
<p>well..i have a different opinion..
i feel he was rejected by UCI and UCSB because they simply just feel that his scores are too high for them to take..like schools dont like students to reject them..but maybe his scores or he doesnt stand out as strongly as other applicants to UCB, UCLA and UCSD..
i have a friend who got rejected by UCI but got accepted to UCB and UCLA..so</p>