<p>Now before everyone flames me and tells me it can never happen because UCLA is part of the UC system and the regents would never let it happen, I just wanted to open this thread for thought. As more and more colleges adopt common app and the move to a universal application benefits both the university and applicants, I wanted to know if UCLA students could possibly do anything to recommend the university to use common app from 2012 and on. Why? Well not only does it benefit the applicants and help UCLA pick from a wider pool of prospective students, but it also will increase prestige as the acceptance rate will drop some. Now, I hate rankings and college name brand battles just as much as the next person, but no one can deny that the college you pick is an investment and the name does indeed matter. With USC (joined common app this year) and other colleges (University of Michigan is a public school like UCLA which recently moved to the common app) moving up the ranks (and selectivity being a big part of the rankings), I wanted to ask what others, both prospective and current students, think. This is just a hypothetical thread of course, but ideally UCLA could hopefully be persuaded to accept both common app and the UC app for future class selection. This will both benefit the university greatly as well as the students.</p>
<p>Primary question: “CAN” they? As in, is it “POSSIBLE?”
Answer: Yes.</p>
<p>What you’re really asking: “WILL” they?
Answer: No. At least not any time soon.</p>
<p>The common app is best used for private schools imo. Why on earth would you fill out 8 or 10, or 12 applications when you can just fill out 1? The UCs have their own ‘common app’ for all the UCs.</p>
<p>will it happen? nope. Why not? </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The UCs were meant for the education of californians, not for selecting a wider school of applicants and making the university more prestigious. </p></li>
<li><p>UCLA is already the most applied university in the country. The LAST thing they need is more applicants, and the people who really want to apply here can and do.</p></li>
<li><p>the prestige of a given university usually comes from a few things: successful alumni, prestigious faculty, top PHD programs, or research. UCLA has all of these.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So no, i doubt it’s not going to happen. I think most of the applicants for UC are CRs anyway, so it would make little sense to flood UCLA with more applicants, who they’d HAVE to reject if they wanted to keep the same percentage of CRs in the university.</p>
<ol>
<li>UC system has its own a-g requirement.</li>
<li>UC has its own UC GPA calculation.</li>
<li>Applicant only needs to send SAT/ACT to one campus, other campus you applied are able to get the scores.</li>
</ol>
<p>Off top of my head, these are not applied to Common App.</p>
<p>Well first of all, I understand what everyone is telling me, but those aren’t really problems that make it ridiculous for UCLA to join the app. </p>
<p>-I understand UCLA has a commitment to California students but recently it has focused on admitted a slew of OOS applicants as well. There’s no need for UCLA to keep its CR percentage at the rate that it is right now, just basically as long as it’s a majority it’s fine. </p>
<p>-I also understand UCLA has it’s own GPA calculation system. All of which can easily be taken care of by a small supplement to the common app where you self report your grades instead of sending in a paper transcript. The self reported grades then get analyzed through the same computational system as the normal UC app. Basically the comman app will make it easier for applicants to apply because it saves them essay writing and filling in the same information over again in the UC app which will increase UCLA’s applicants (this also increases revenue for the university as application fees are also a small source of income). </p>
<p>-The applicant can just send their ACT/SAT to UCLA. Who cares if the other campuses can get to see them if they only want UCLA?</p>
<p>-I also understand that prestige comes from a variety of factors and all of the mentioned are important factors but so is selectivity. That cannot be denied. </p>
<p>Again, I’m not trying to refute everyone’s ideas, those are legitimate concerns. I’m merely trying to solve these issues with proposals. This is a discussion thread after all.</p>
<p>Another question you’d have to ask is, would UCLA start becoming more of a national or “privatized” college if this were to happen? Would that be the real problem because it is indeed a UC campus?</p>
<p>Keep the thoughts coming.</p>
<p>The UCs just sank a ton of money revamping the online application system for Fall 2011 (the last application cycle). Now the system is more intuitive, doesn’t crash during the last three days of the application cycle, and transfer updates (for transfer students) are automatically imported into the main online application. The UCs are also looking to integrate the online TAG application (for transfer students) with the main online application in the next couple of years. So in short, the answer is “never.”</p>
<p>@g0ld3n, I think you bring up some valid points in terms of freshman admission, but keep in mind that the UCs are using the online application for BOTH freshman and transfer admission, plus ancillary functions for the transfer admission process. The UCs have also moved the application review process online, using secure remote review that ensures the privacy of student data while providing application reviewers with in-home access (no, the admissions office doesn’t have a large enough staff to read 60k+ applications in a month). The review interface is developed specifically to work with the UC online application. In order to switch to or add the Common App, the UCs will have to sink additional resources to implement hardware/software to import the data from Common App for the reviewers to make adequate side-by-side comparisons between different applications. There will also be additional cost associated with retraining all the evaluators. This is extremely unlikely given the budget constraints already placed on the UC system.</p>