<p>So I just got a random email from UCSC and I was a bit surprised. The title of it is:</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz Offer - Response Requested by April 10</p>
<p>The body:</p>
<p>Dear Shawn:</p>
<p>I am happy to learn of your interest in the University of California and am writing today with a special opportunity for you to pursue enrolling at UC Santa Cruz, located on California's Central Coast.</p>
<p>UCSC attracts students -- as well as faculty -- from all over the country and the world. Our students from outside of California are an important part of our campus culture. While they benefit from their new experiences here, the campus in turn benefits from the variety of perspectives they bring.</p>
<p>That is why we are pleased to offer you an Undergraduate Dean's Award totaling $20,000! This award is payable over four years ($4,000 per year for each of your first two years and $6,000 per year for each of your final two years). To be eligible for this award, you must accept your offer of admission from UCSC, enroll full-time, and maintain a minimum 3.0 grade point average. To make your stay in Santa Cruz easier and more comfortable, we also offer a two-year guarantee of university housing.</p>
<p>I want to make it clear that you are not automatically enrolled at UC Santa Cruz. If you are interested in exploring UC Santa Cruz further, please e-mail me directly at (taken out) by Tuesday, April 10, and I will follow up with further details.</p>
<p>Question is: is this legit? The reason why I asked is because I never even showed my interest in this school (not saying that I'm not curious now) let alone applied there. I probably would be able to pay for it but im Just curious to know. Thanks you guys! :)</p>
<p>Oh and the email ending was @ucsc.edu if that helps.</p>
<p>I got the same email and I replied back asking them if they will offer more financial aid. Only $4000 for the first two years and $6000 for the last two is still higher than what I have to pay at UW for in state tuition. Also, I got rejected from Berkeley and UCLA, so I think that they looked at my UC application from there.</p>
<p>No offense or anything but I’m surprised they sent you the e-mail when your SAT score is 1630 lol. Your subjectives are solid however, and I think that was the deciding factor.</p>
<p>Anyways, I just replied to them asking for more money as well. lol.</p>
<p>Haha. My SAT was low, but I took it one year after I moved to the U.S. and I didn’t know that much English then, and also I wasn’t used to its format. Anyway, I think they saw that I increased my GPA (4.0 junior year) and that I am taking all my senior year classes at a community college in a program called running start. Also, I had around 100 volunteer hours, 2 years work experience, 6 years of judo where I won many tournaments, and I think that my essays were pretty good. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how good UCSC’s Computer Science/Engineering program is? I know it’s not quite as good as the one at UW, but I might consider it since getting into UW CSE is very competitive.</p>
<p>I received the exact same email. and yes i was rejected from both berkeley and ucla so I think UCSC looked up my file on uc application and thought I was worthy to receive this offer. did UCSC offer this to anyone last year? or is it newly implemented this year?
I wondered if it was an april fool’s joke</p>
<p>Undergraduate dean’s award is the only merit scholarship offered by UCSC to out of state students. It was new in 2011. My daughter received it also (not in email, it was in her acceptance package). So I am assuming you guys are out of state…if not maybe it is also available to CA residents, I never investigated that side of it because we are OOS.</p>
<p>If you’ve been following some of the threads you know that students who applied to UCB and UCLA had their applications reviewed and scored by readers over there because of past strong overlap in scores between UCB/UCLA readers and UCSC readers. Some have speculated that this new practice will result in overlap of accepted students, as well, and decrease UCSC’s yield. Indeed my daughter was accepted to UCLA, and while she loved UCSC campus and for awhile it was her top choice…she has trouble seeing herself actually declining UCLA’s offer of admission.</p>
<p>If you did not actually apply to UCSC, it sounds to me like they are now going after OOS students who applied to UCB and UCLA and were not accepted.</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly. Although this offer is extremeeely tempting, I cannot see myself turning down McGill for it! Well, I’m still deciding on which school to choose. Mcgill for prestige and proper education or UCSC for scholarship =/</p>
<p>@VeryFat I also got into both! But I mean, McGill is still incredibly cheap compared to many US schools. The cost of the program I got into is ~$17k/year, not including any financial aid. Unless you’re an in-state for UC, I don’t think it’s likely that UCSC will become cheaper than McGill, right?</p>
<p>Well the thing is, I’m considered in state, as in I was from California but I study in Canada, so basically I pay normal citizen’s tuition fees! Also congrats on getting into mcgill! What faculty were you accepted to?
I got into Chemical Engineering via early decision and I’m still waiting on Life Sciences.</p>
Has anyone else received the e-mail or know anything about this?</p>