This seems like a mistake. You obviously achieved a lot and have a great record to show for it. Your stats look well above what is needed. After thinking about it, I did come up with one possibility. Since it is a popular major, do you suppose they only took those who had something in the application that indicated that they love programming? For example, being the programmer for the robot, being a self-taught programmer, making websites, creating software products, etc. Did you have something like that in your activities list or essay?
Your stats guarantee you a spot at a UC if you are from California
^^They guarantee him a spot, but not at any particular UC.
Here is what might have happened (Tuft’s Syndrome):
Admissions Officer 1: Wow, this kid is really qualified. Definitely an admit, maybe a scholarship too.
Admissions Officer 2: You really think he wants to go to UC Davis of all places with those test scores and activities? He’s getting into Harvard or something.
Admissions Officer 1: Yeah, your right, this is his safety. He’s not going to attend UC Davis.
Admissions Officer 2: That brings down our yield percentage and brings up our admit rate, neither of which are desirable. REJECT!
Unless your personal essays were absolutely horrendous (i.e., terrible to the point of being impossible to read), you have nothing to worry about whatsoever.
I agree with 1golfer1. They definitely know that you are not gonna attend Davis, so they did not offer you a place. Those who have higher scores than the school they are applying to should show more interest if they want that specific school.
I believe u r allowed to look at your application files of the schools which accept u. That fredback may give u some insight even if its from accepting schools
UC Davis does not consider “level of applicant’s interest”, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=650 .
1920 SAT is likely not competitive for CS/Engineering. Last year UCLA got 50,000 apps, not sure about UCSD but lots of competition, I’m afraid. CS/Engin probably the toughest major, too.
Tuft’s syndrome or yield protection by wait listing or denying over-qualified applicants is understandable when you are talking about private institutions trying to game the rankings, but it should be inexcusable for a public institution like the UC’s. Any admins yield protecting by denying high-stat applicants at a state subsidized institution should be fired ASAP.
Re: #26
See the link in #28. UC Davis does not consider “level of applicant’s interest”.
However, some public universities do consider “level of applicant’s interest”:
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1455
“Relationship with alumnus” may be an even more controversial admission criterion for a public university.
@rkelly5182 UCLA got 119,000 applications (highest in the nation, as usual) and not 50,000 You stated above!
@rkelly5182 http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/examination/
UC admissions only considers the top score from a sitting, and if both ACT and SAT were taken, only the test with the better score. So, according to that, only the 35 ACT would have been considered, not the 1920 SAT. I agree with you that computer engineering is probably the hardest major to get accepted to.
I know it is hard to explain when your safety school rejects you. You probably will have much better options. You know this and they know this as well.
Thanks for the responses. I’m just scared because I really want to go to Berkeley (for EECS also, the hardest major to get into), but getting denied from a lower-tier UC is stressing me out immensely. Are there stories of people who got denied from a lower-tier UC and got into a better one?
Wow, your stats are really great! I’m honestly shocked you weren’t accepted. UC’s can be a bit unpredictable. I’ve heard of people getting into Davis with much worse stats than even me, and I have a 3.7/31 ACT (I got rejected too). They get an insane amount of applicants though so who knows how they pick their class. Sorry to hear that. I wouldn’t count yourself out for UCLA and Berkeley though!
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary shows that, for last year’s frosh applicants to Davis, 52% of those with GPA 3.80-4.19 were admitted. Given the OP’s 4.08 (UC-recalculated) GPA and application to an apparently popular major (meaning likely more selective than the school overall), it should not have been a surprise that Davis was not anything close to a safety (and UCs seem to be less impressed with top-end ACT/SAT scores than many other schools).
For Berkeley, only 12% of applicants with GPA 3.80-4.19 in 2015 were admitted. Of course, applying to one of the most popular majors means that the OP’s chances are likely even lower.
@ucbalumnus Are you sure that GPA in the infocenter data is referring to capped UC GPA? Also, I heard competitive UCs like Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD use fully uncapped weighted GPA instead of UC GPA. Is this true? If so, this could explain why I got denied to Davis. I took the hardest possible course load offerred at my high schools (10 honors+ 9 AP classes combined all 4 years) but didn’t make straight A’s in all of them. Also, I took more courses that qualify for a-g than a typical HS student (more academic classes), which lowered my UC GPA even further. 
Does UC Davis even look at my ACTUAL transcript or do they just use a formula?
Generally, UC system reports use UC recalculated GPA (weighted and capped), so the previously linked web page almost certainly uses that. UCB, at least, shows three recalculated GPAs to admission readers: unweighted, weighted capped, and weighted uncapped (probably other UCs do something similar). Admission readers also get to see your self-reported courses and grades.
Also, do UCs use a point system still where they give points based on certain factors present in your application? Or is the decision made without regard to specific factors with point values assigned to them?
Check out perdel’s post in the above link. Apparently, he got rejected with a 4.2 UC GPA and a 2350 SAT to UC Davis for Computer Science. This is ridiculous It seems as though UC Davis is probably rejecting very highly qualified applicants to preserve yield. Any other opinions?