Did you only apply to UCD, UCB, and UCLA? I agree with the others that you have a good chance at the other two. Keep positive…you are a strong applicant!
You mentioned your large amount of a-g classes that brought down your UC GPA. I had that same concern cuz I have about 6 more than most applicants and it really brought my UC capped GPA down. I got in to Davis, but I feel that if that problem wasn’t there I would have been on the list sent to the Regents Scholarship committee from admissions. This “punishment” for doing more than others is a major flaw and needs to be addressed.
@firstsax I completely agree. it’s so stupid that students are punished for doing more academic work. For example, I took two science classes sophomore year (AP Chemistry and Honors Physics) instead of just 1 science class and some random elective since I enjoy science. But I already have 8 semesters of weighted classes so I basically lower my UC GPA compared to if I were to take some frigging cooking class that doesn’t fulfill the a-g requirement. rofl.
If UCD is like UCB, each application is read by two admissions readers, each of whom gives a 1 to 5 score (1 is best). If they differ too much, a third senior reader tie-breaks. There is no point system for GPA, test scores, etc. when the admissions readers are scoring the applications. After the readings, the applications are ranked in order of these scores within the divisions or majors applied to in order to determine whom to admit. There will likely be a set of applicants on the bubble (i.e. a group of applicants with a certain score that is more numerous than the remaining number to admit) who are sorted into admit, waitlist, and reject by tie breaking procedures.
CS is a popular major with a higher threshold than most other majors. A 4.2 UC-weighted GPA cannot be seen as a safety for UC Davis even with a less popular major (4.2 was at the border of the 89% admission rate and the 52% admission rate GPA ranges last year).
SAT/ACT scores probably are not as important to UCs as people tend to think they are.
@firstsax the arrogance of your comment about the Regents’ Scholarship is appalling. Based on (admittedly anecdotal) experience as to which individuals I know who have received Regents, as well as the more objective information on the scholarship posted on the UC website, the scholarship does not have a GPA cutoff.
OP is a smart kid with incredible stats. Really wondering why UC Davis would deny him. Good luck on Berkeley and UCLA
Hey I have somewhat similar stats and also got denied admissions. Don’t worry about it, I have a feeling we weren’t underqualified. I got UCSD though(undeclared, didn’t accept me for CS prob because of lowish gpa). Some of my friends with significantly lower stats were accepted instead. Davis probably knows we are looking at better universities and may have denied us to increase their yield. Many people like me at my school were rejected by Davis, feelsbadman. It feels like there is a weird divide. Like under some threshold, you can get accepted, and above some really high threshhold, you get accepted/waitlisted, and inbetween you get rejected or waitlisted. That’s just based on the info I have from talking to many of my peers though.
Decision: Rejected
Major: Computer Science
ACT: 35 (35 math and reading)
SAT: 2290 (690 CR, 800 M, 800 W)
Sat II: 800 M 2, 780 C, 740 Bio eco
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.78
UC GPA: 4.0-4.1 (approx.)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
IB scores: N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP physics C, AP Calc BC, English 12, Gov/Econ, AP cs A, Advanced band 3
Awards/Cert.: National Merit Finalist, Cisco Networking Associate Certification (Pro-level networking cert.)
Essays 9/10 recs 8/10.
EC’s robotics, tech museum(300+ hours), homebuilding trips in mexico, library tech
Other
State (if domestic applicant): California (in-state)
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: male
Income Bracket: upper class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I
Reflection
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Not sure. Maybe overqualified? But I don’t think so. Some of my friends with much weaker apps were accepted to CS though. A lot of people at my school who already got into ivies, regents berk/LA, MIT etc. were rejected or waitlisted by Davis. A lot of people with stats like me, maybe a bit higher, were rejected. I think they are probably trying to increase the yield. I do not think I was underqualified or overqualified for this college and major, but it happens I guess. I got SD so I don’t really care though.
Where else were you accepted: Deferred Northwestern ED and UMich. Accepted to SCU, NEU, Purdue, UCSD. Waitlisted at SLO, GA Tech, UIUC
I was waitlisted with a 35 ACT and a 2190 SAT. One of my friends was definitely the best student at our school but was rejected as well. My sister got in with a 2010 SAT five years ago for engineering.
Maybe the times have changed, but I’m guessing they are counting on the super-applicants not choosing their school. And if the applicant really does want to go to Davis, they can accept the waitlist offer.
Seems like most of the complaining is coming from “test score heavy” applicants whose UC-weighted GPAs are in the 3.80-4.19 range (probably 3.4-3.8 unweighted), with many applying for popular majors. Remember, at UC Davis last year, 89% of applicants with GPA >= 4.20 were admitted, but only 52% of those with GPA in the range of 3.80-4.19 were admitted. Since UC appears to less impressed with high SAT/ACT scores than most people on these forums, it may not be surprising that “test score heavy” applicants get “surprised” by waitlist or reject decisions.
@ucbalumnus So even though their course loads are very challenging, they’re still not allowed to make a few B’s if they want to go to UC Davis’ computer science program?
Unfortunately for many CS aspirants, CS has gotten so popular that they have little margin of error if they are aiming for highly selective colleges and universities. The same applies to some other popular majors. Students aiming for popular majors may need to apply to a range of schools that goes lower in the selectivity range than may otherwise be indicated by overall admission stats.
My son is in the same boat and still waiting to hear from other UCs. What I am not clear is, would you be rejected based on the major you applied for? Our college counsular said it really doesn’t matter with UCs but I have a feeling it does.
In terms of whether one may be admitted to the campus as an undeclared student or second choice major, it depends on the campus, division, and major.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/freshman-admission-matrix.pdf
In the case of popular majors that are more selective than overall, entering the major later after enrolling may require a higher GPA or competitive admission process. Some majors at some campuses may not offer direct frosh admission at all, but do require a higher GPA or competitive admission process to declare later.
How do you know they were weaker? Did you read them? It sounds to me like some students assume a higher standardized test score trumps everything else in an application. I don’t believe that’s true.
@austinmshauri Yes, I did.
His GPA and test scores were significantly weaker. His EC’s were very different than mine, but not necessarily better than worse. His essays were weaker. He agrees. You can believe what you want, but I am going to continue to believe it’s something related to yield protection. If it isn’t, then whatever, Davis’s program is a long shot from SD’s. If it is, then they were right, I wasn’t planning on attending anyways.
@Evertim, Just because your friend’s app was “weaker” in your eyes, and in his, it doesn’t mean adcoms interpreted them the same way. I don’t know why you’d tell a friend that your app was better.
Sometimes when kids apply to a “safety” school, it’s hard for them to show the same excitement and knowledge about the school that kids who really love it show. Choosing the kid who loves your school doesn’t have to be yield protection. It can just be choosing the kids who did their homework.
My daughter’s application was weaker than a couple of her friends who applied to the same school. But she made it clear, the school was her No. 1 choice, and that she’d matriculate if accepted. Her friends were shooting for the very top schools in the nation, and this school was their backup. She got in. They didn’t.
UC applications are unique since it’s one application for all the schools in the UC system you apply to. An applicant can’t express which one they prefer in their essays since it may shut you out from the others you apply to. I don’t think the UC system wants the same super candidates to get into all the UC schools. They want them to receive some rejections. I wonder whether the UC schools can see the acceptances to the other campuses also or even pending acceptances? If they can, then do they use this information to reject a candidate from another UC? Perhaps they can and do and this rejection from DAVIS indicates acceptance at Berkeley or UCLA? Does anyone have any insight into this question in the UC system?
@austinmshauri
As above poster pointed out, UC’s all use the same app. If you want to express specific interest in Davis in your essay to ucb and UCLA, be my guest lmao
@Evertim, If I were a 17-year-old high school student, I just might. But that ship sailed a long time and a couple of degrees ago.