when I submitted my UC application, it said I was in the top 9% of my class. Would that help me w/ admissions to UCI? If so, then by how much? Also, what’s the difference between being in the top 9% of the state, and being in the top 9% of your class for ELC?
UCI says that they take ELC into consideration in admission:
So in theory, ELC status helps at UCI. In practice, however, it probably doesn't help very much, because it's likely that most of the other 70,000+ in-state applicants to UCI will also have ELC status. So ELC is not going to make your application stand out.On the other hand, if you didn’t have ELC, it would hurt you. According to the UCI CDS, 96% of entering freshmen in Fall 2016 were in the top 10% of their high school class. OK, ELC is only the top 9% of the class, so maybe that number should be a bit lower, perhaps 94-95%. of UCI students. But the point is that the vast majority of UCI students were at the top of their classes in high school. Since the number isn’t 100%, some non-ELC applicants apparently do get admitted to UCI. But the acceptance rate for non-ELC applicants is probably much lower than the acceptance rate for ELC applicants.
If you qualify under either ELC or ESC (“eligibility in the statewide context”), the University of California will guarantee you a slot somewhere in the system, if space is available. In recent years, the only campus where space has been available is UC Merced. So from the perspective of the UC system, either ELC or ESC guarantees you a slot at UCM. No difference.
In addition, some of the individual UC campuses may favor ELC applicants in admissions. For example, UCI says that they consider ELC status (as noted above), but they don’t say the same about ESC status. However, ELC is not going to be a significant advantage at the most competitive campuses, because so many applicants have it. At the most popular UC campuses, ELC is almost like a prerequisite, rather than an advantage.
I’m sure what you are saying is correct, but I just google those numbers and they are from 2002.
@Corbett ^^^
Not sure which numbers you are talking about, but I am citing the latest available data, not info from 2002.
If you are referring to the “70,000+ instate applicants to UCI” number, that is for Fall 2018. More precisely, the number was 71,130. That’s only for in-state freshman applicants – I did not count out-of-state or transfer applicants, since ELC does not apply to them.
https://news.uci.edu/2017/12/14/sweet-116000-uci-again-breaks-undergraduate-applications-record/
If you are referring to the “96% of entering freshmen in Fall 2016 were in the top 10% of their high school class” number, that is from the latest available UCI Common Data Set, which is for Fall 2016. See Section C10.
http://www.oir.uci.edu/files/campus/CDS2016_17.pdf
UCI hasn’t posted the CDS for Fall 2017 yet, but I’m sure it will be similar.
@Corbett ok nm my bad