Getting the Regents scholarship is limited to only a few percent of admits at each campus, and is much more competitive than admission, of course.
For those campuses that may give increased need-based awards, UCB, UCLA, UCM, and UCSD list rather unambiguous and non-subjective/competitive criteria to get them once a student is awarded the Regents scholarship. UCD is somewhat more vague on the matter.
And is based on rather opaque criteria. At least at UCB, it is definitely not simply the applicants with the highest stats. It seems more based on âinstitutional prioritiesâ but those arenât totally clear and may vary from year to year. So not only can you not count on getting a regents, there is absolutely no way of knowing if youâd be in the running. Itâs just whatever they happen to be looking for that year and you canât really predict that.
Merit scholarships generally exist to try to lure especially attractive applicants toward the scholarship granting school away from other schools that are likely to admit the applicants and be seen as more attractive to the applicants. So it would not be surprising that the UCB Regents scholarship âinstitutional prioritiesâ are to attract top-level students who are likely be choosing between UCB and other highly selective schools that they are likely to be admitted to.
Okay, I added a paragraph about the selectivity of Regents and tried to grab the verbiage from each website regarding additional need based aid. Let me know if I missed something.
For UCSB, while Honors and Regents donât give priority registration, their College of Creative Studies does (same window as the varsity athletes). A ton of other special perks and treatment too. Itâs kind of a step up from Honors if your major is one of the few they cover.
Also, per another comment somewhere, UCSB does offer Regents to OOS admits.
I thought about adding CCS, but it isnât an honors or scholarship program. It is definitely unique and a fantastic program for students who like to learn for the sake of learning. They arenât limited to a certain number of units and can drop a class up until the last day of the quarter.
Although this isnât listed explicitly on the website UC Merced offers a âBright Beginningsâ scholarship to students admitted under the CA top 9% eligibility guarantee who didnât originally apply.
S23 was offered $1500 per year for the first two years. He hasnât submitted a FAFSA so this was not need based, just an incentive to accept their offer.
FWIW UCLAâs Alumni scholarship is $1500 per year (not need based) for most recipients, when S18 received it there was an additional competition in which a handful get higher awards. Thereâs no priority registration for Alumni scholars.
UCLA has an Honors program, which allows you to apply for some additional scholarships, but isnât as useful as departmental honors.
https://www.honors.ucla.edu/
@Twoin18 are all of what you described available to OOS students too?
At UCLA yes. I believe UCMâs Bright Beginnings is specific to the instate eligibility guarantee:
https://admissions.ucmerced.edu/bb-faq
Is that something that a student applies for or are they chosen based off of their UC app?
Since the alumni scholarships at each campus are awarded by outside entities, I didnât include them. The UCLA alumni scholarship starts at $1500/yr and can go as high as $5K/yr if a student has financial need.
As I understand it, you apply before starting but after admission (and itâs limited to L&S):