<p>On the TAG application, do you have to pick a single UC or does it work for all of them?</p>
<p>Just one, unfortunately!</p>
<p>It use to be that you can TAG to all the UC’s. But, unfortunately, they recently changed the rule to 1 UC only in 2011.</p>
<p>You can thank the thousands of people that TAGed to all 7 UCs last year and overloaded admissions at all of the universities in the UC system for that. Thanks a lot '11 UC transfers! </p>
<p>On a serious note though, it was a huge problem being able to TAG to all of the UCs and it put a lot of stress on the admissions process for the UC system as a whole. When a student TAGs to 7 different UCs and inevitably selects just one to attend, it leaves the 6 others (or all 7 if they went to UCLA/UCB) left with empty spaces that they had to guarantee to those students. Ultimately, TAG just watered down the quality of admitted applicants at certain schools and made it insanely difficult for non-TAG applicants at others (UCSD had a 3.7 non-TAG cutoff last year). A change had to be made, which is why you saw a switch this year to only being able to select one university. Furthermore, many of the schools raised their minimum TAG GPA and changed some of their requirements to prevent an over saturation of TAG applicants like last year. </p>
<p>IMO, the TAG system now is better because of the changes, but I personally disagree with the policy of only being able to TAG to one school. By staggering the TAG GPA at the different universities it already prevents the over saturation problem. Last year, anyone with a 3.0 GPA and met the TAG requirements could TAG to any of the UCs. Effectively, that meant that everyone that TAGed and qualified was going to be insured a space at 7 different schools and was going to leave 6 or 7 open spaces. By staggering the GPAs, a more prestigious school like UCSD, is going to prevent that over saturation of applicants and they’re not going to be rejecting more qualified non-TAG applicants and the less prestigious schools are still going to get sufficient TAG applicants. Also as an applicant, the higher your GPA is the more options you have to TAG to. They also should require you to rank the UCs in the order in which you want to attend. That way there isn’t as much pressure on admissions to try and speculate which students are going to enroll despite qualifying for TAG at 7 different UCs. By ranking each of the UCs, admissions can quantify the number of TAG enrollees beforehand and project by probability any unexpected applicants (those that end up enrolling at their 2nd or 3rd choice TAG). That way they don’t have to set such absurd GPA cutoffs for non-TAG applicants because they had to assume a spot for everyone that TAGed to their university whether or not they selected a different school at the end of the process. The TAG process is definitely improved, but it’s by no means perfect. The quick solution was to limit the number of schools applicants to TAG to, but I think UCs have to keep evaluating the relatively new TAG process to improve it for parties at both ends, the applicants and the admissions departments.</p>
<p>I don’t see the limit of one campus as being much of a real problem for most people. In the past even if all 7 campuses admitted you via TAG, you had to pick one in the end. All the change means is you need to pick that one sooner.</p>
<p>If you have some free time and want to read a real interesting book, “Predictably Irrational” talks about some of the findings in behavioral economics and one of the things covered is our preference for keeping choice open. Which is what’s at stake here. Marketers take advantage of this preference, BTW, which is why any gadget you see or software you look at is going to list tons of features even if you don’t have any intention of using them or even know what they are. They count on people being willing to pay more to keep their options open.</p>
<p>If the non tag GPA for UCSD was a 3.7 last year, how the heck did people with 3.2-3.3’s get in to non impacted majors?</p>
<p>I have no idea, but I applied to UCSD last year, my first major was impacted and my second wasn’t and I got rejected from both with a 3.44 GPA and with all the pre-reqs completed. When I called admissions after to ask why she said it was because of an unexpected amount of TAG applicants, more than double the previous year. She specifically said there was a 3.7 GPA cutoff for non-TAG applicants to even be considered. Either a few people on this board exaggerated where they were admitted or the admissions officer I talked to gave me the wrong explanation. Personally, I believe the admissions officer because there were a lot of people with a 3.5, 3.6, 3.7+ that got rejected or wait listed. I know there was someone on this board last year that got wait listed to UCSD with a 3.8 but got into UCLA and Cal which just goes to show the impact TAG made at somewhere like UCSD. Not surprisingly UCSD was the most popular TAG choice as its the highest “ranked” of the UCs that offer TAG. They pretty much had to raise the TAG GPA this year because they were rejecting so many qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Thats really sad honestly. I remember seeing A TON of people like yourself get rejected when people with 3.0’s and tag were accepted. I’m glad they bumped it up to a 3.5 tag…but I am kinda bummed because I have a 3.34 GPA and my major isn’t impacted. I was thinking if the cutoff is at a 3.7…then they must have accepted maybe less than half of non tag applicants with 3.7+. Maybe the 3.7 cutoff was for impacted majors?</p>
<p>I hope it’s diff this year.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what was your major and your alt major?</p>
<p>My first choice major was General Biology, my alternate was Chemistry which is not impacted. Obviously Biology at UCSD is very heavily impacted. So much so that starting Fall 2011 they started limiting the number of transfers into the Biology department as a whole to reach an approximate target of only 200 enrollees per year. My GPA was a little low at 3.44, so I wasn’t expecting to get into Biology, but Chemistry was not impacted and I was told I would’ve been competitive if it weren’t for TAG. My stats weren’t amazing, but if you go back on this board there were many that seemed like shoe-in candidates for UCSD but ended up getting rejected or wait listed without TAG. This year I brought my GPA up to a 3.67 after Fall and TAGed as well so I think I have a decent chance at getting in as a Molecular Biology major which is impacted and if not I know I’ll get in through TAG. </p>
<p>The whole TAG situation was very peculiar last year because we had heard throughout January to March that there was a possibility of being wait listed by the UCs. As far as I know, the UCs didn’t usually wait list transfer students and a few people posted on the board that they had talked to admissions at several different places and I know at UCSD they denied there would be a wait list for transfers, only freshman applicants. Then when April came around it seemed like there were a lot of people that were wait listed to UCSD. The TAG program is relatively new having just started in Fall 2009, so it seems like they’re still figuring out the best way to implement it. It moved online in 2010 and that’s sort of what drove the unpredictable flood of TAG applicants in 2011. Apparently, more people were motivated or heard about TAG when it moved online then when it was a form that you had to pick up from your counseling office and mail in. </p>
<p>TAG will definitely be different this year. First of all, you’re not competing with the entirety of the TAG pool for an admission spot at one UC. Since TAG is free and you were allowed to select any number of UCs last year, many people just selected every UC they could for TAG. Obviously with the switch to only selecting one UC, TAG isn’t going to be as competitive to the point where half the applicant pool to one school is going to have TAG like at UCSD last year. Some people will TAG to UCSD, some to UCSB, some to UCI, etc. Not everyone is going to TAG to every UC. Furthermore, the GPA increase means a lot less people are going to be able to TAG and those that do are likely going to have been qualified for admission anyways because at UCSD the TAG GPA is right around average admitted GPA (avg admitted was 3.55 in 2010). Effectively, those people are not going to be displacing other applicants because even without TAG they’re likely to get in. Last year, because the TAG GPA was so low at 3.0, many of the students that got in would’ve been under qualified by normal admissions standard and effectively bumped out and raised the standard for non TAG applicants to maintain the number of enrollees. If UCSD didn’t set a GPA cutoff for non TAG applicants they would’ve admitted nearly double the amount of people they did last year, which would’ve ruined their selectivity and overloaded the campus. Basically, instead of competing with 9000 TAG applicants (many didn’t qualify for TAG) for 12,000 or so admissions spaces. There’s more like to be around 2000-3000 people that actually TAG this year, leaving many more spaces for non-TAG applicants. You should be in a much better position for admission this year than anyone that tried to get in without TAG last year.</p>
<p>Seems unfair that last year they could apply to all of the UCs that had TAG and we can only apply to one.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why anyone would want to tag to more than one campus. You can’t attend more than one UC at a time so just pick the one you want and leave room at the others for people who really want to attend.</p>
<p>I just wish I could like a top 3 thing. I understand why they changed it but I would prefer to keep my options open.</p>
<p>@jdom24 Not everyone knows exactly which campus they want to transfer to yet so having those extra options can be helpful and reassuring knowing that whatever school you end up choosing you’ll have guaranteed admissions for. It also doesn’t hurt to have a back up plan, just in case you change your mind or something happens. The TAG requirements are different at each of the UCs, so it’s possible to apply for TAG at one and get rejected and qualify for another. It would suck to apply for TAG to one school and waste it, perhaps because you messed up in a class during Fall semester and it lowered your GPA a little too low for TAG at one school at least you’d have admission to somewhere else.</p>