Help review the Letters of Appeal to UCI

Applying to College
1

<p>I need a quick review before I submit</p>

<p>To UC Irvine Admissions Office:
I am writing a letter of appeal in regards to the rejection I have received from the UC Irvine application for 2013 -2014.</p>

<p>When I found out that I was rejected from the UCI admissions, I was distraught because it was my innermost desire to study the Computer Game Science from the Donald Bren School. When I researched about UCI computer science, UCI was ranked 28th in the Computer Science major. Among UCSD, UCSC, and UCI, the UCI suited me the best because UCI provides Computer Gaming Science as a major while the other schools only include the computer science as part of the major. Not to mention that there are not only notable professors such as professor Hirschberg, who created the HS algorithm, and professor Ramanan, who developed the computer that can see and recognize people, but also many famous alumni such as Paul Mockapetris, who invented the Domain Name System for the computer programming. Because UCI has these qualities that the other schools don’t have, I was determined to go to UCI to study Computer Science.</p>

<p>However, I did not meet the academic standards because there were some tests and classes I didn’t quite associate with during High School. I got an average score on the SAT because I can’t focus under the time constraining environment. I tend to get nervous and not think straight under these conditions and make rash choices. However, this does not define my academic capabilities because the SAT doesn’t reflect on the creativity of a person outside of their academic lives. Also, I did not excel on my AP English class because I am more comfortable with math than with English.</p>

<p>I took Calculus AB and BC class in order for me to prepare myself for the computer science major since I knew that Calculus was going to be necessary for learning Computer Science. Although the Calculus class was a rigorous course, I studied with all my effort in order for me to get a good score in the AP test and got a 5 on the AP test.</p>

<p>Ever since I took interest in the computer gaming science major, I began to study java in order for me to understand more about computer programming since I heard that the computer science is very rigorous. Since my school did not have the class for the AP computer science A, I had to study the Computer Science by myself. Through the study booklet I bought and the online courses I watched in the internet, I began to familiarize myself with the java and the computer programming. </p>

<p>Despite the rejection I faced from the UC Irvine once, I hope that the UC Irvine may reevaluate my application and that I may pursue my goal of computer gaming engineer in UC Irvine.</p>

2

<p>To be entirely blunt, I don’t think this appeal will work. The whole paragraph where you tell them about their own school doesn’t help your individual case. The paragraph after is pretty weak and doesn’t show anything in terms of improvement or why they should look over the weakness in your application. The last 3 paragraphs are ok, but there seems to be some grammatical error especially when talking about CS/engineering.</p>

<p>Also, UCI’s game degree isn’t as good as UCSC’s (which you neglected to acknowledge). UCI’s regular computer science major might be better (idk) but UCSC’s game major is definitely better than UCI’s. Shows a lack of research on your part.</p>

3

<p>They know their rank and alumni-don’t tell them about their own school, but focus on how you are affected by specific classes at UCI that you want to take. And don’t make excuses for your SAT score, they definitely don’t want to hear that you don’t do well under pressure.</p>

<p>Expand about your own experiences with computer science, and (if applicable) state that, if accepted, you will definitely attend.</p>

4

<p>I’m not sure how much time you have left, but if you do have the time, the letter is in serious need of rewriting. You could cut out the first two paragraphs and not lose much. GL</p>