<p>My D has amazing stats but no offer of Regent Scholar. Does anyone know why?
Stats:36 ACT first try, 800 in SAT Subject test-Math and Chemistry, 4.0 UW GPA,
4.8 Weighted. Accepted so far to Northwestern, UCLA Engineering, deferred ED Yale,denied MIT, have not heard from UC Berkely. One of 30 Valedictorians at extremely competitive highly rated public school in SoCal, Presidential Scholar Candidate.Lots of EC and leadership-Secretary General of large MUN, Captain of Equestrian team, President of Religious Youth Group plus other EC's. Champion of regional equestrian league in her division. Summer work experience, also summer internship in Engineering at UCLA last year. Multiple awards and recognition in MUN and Science fairs. Volunteer hours as tutor.
Studying piano for 10+years. Extremely good recommendations.
So a well rounded highly competitive student-but no offer of Regent Scholar from UCB or UCLA. Could it be that we did plan to fill out the FAFSA due to high income, and then decided to fill it out February 28 th because we were advised too? I didn't think it was based on need. Although we do not need FA, the perks would have been nice-and my D feels a bit dejected because of this. Any words of wisdom?</p>
<p>It looks like your daughter is a very competitive applicant, but she could have not received the scholarship for a variety of reasons. Maybe she didn’t have that many Engineering Extracurricular that had a lot of depth. In the admissions cycle, it’s usually over quality over quantity, though I have to say your daughter has both. A lot of kids in my school didn’t get the scholarship and they had better EC’s and stats than me, but I got it somehow. I don’t think you need to file FAFSA to be eligible for the scholarship unless you are international. I think link will help you out:
[UC</a> Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office: Undergraduates » Types of Aid » Scholarships » Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship FAQ](<a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/RCfaq.htm#international]UC”>http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/RCfaq.htm#international)</p>
<p>Did your daughter received Regents for UCLA or other UCs she applied to? I go to a school right next to Berkeley and a few of us got regents for cal, but none of us got regents for UCLA. Regents is used more as a yield ploy than anything else imo. I think they tend to choose more norcal people than socal for regents candidacy because they’re more likely to attend Berkeley if given the honor than socal students whom they assume would chose LA over cal. A lot of socal people get regents for UCLA but not Cal, when they’re just as qualified. I wouldn’t really worry. </p>
<p>Furthermore there are people at my school who definitely deserved regents but didn’t get it. It’s quite random. Tell her it doesn’t really mean anything. Also, the perks of being a regent are hyped up. Even if you get first choice for dorms, you still live in a sucky dorm. You might be a high achieving freshman, but once you go to college, it doesn’t mean you’re going to stay at the top just because you’re a regents. etc…</p>
<p>My D applied to UCLA and UC Berkely, no Regents offer from either one. BTW-she did not become interested in engineering until her junior year when she realized she loved her AP Chemistry and Math classes the most and decided to explore engineering. (Rest of the family-parents, grandparents- in the medical field)</p>
<p>Did your daughter declare engineering as a major on her application of did she apply as undeclared?</p>
<p>I’m 100% sure that your daughter is smart and you raised her to be a decent kid, and I don’t mean to insult her or anything like that… but in this day and age you just have to be good at one thing. This "a well rounded… " argument is a joke. I really hope that those so called prestigious academic institutions in the nation introduce some sort of entrance exams in addition to evaluating course work/GPA/test scores/ECs (like research/science olymiad/math competitions, etc…) so that they can objectively accept only those smart ones, instead of making up excuses such as ‘fit’ or ‘diversity’ explanations.</p>
<p>Regents is not just about having the best stats, it’s about having the “it factor”. This it factor is highly subjective, but I would say it’s similar to what the top ivies are looking for. This means it’s just extremely subjective, and there’s nothing much you can do about it. I would also agree that Cal partially uses this as a recruiting tool. I don’t blame them though as it is one of the few ways they can as a public school.</p>
<p>@Bearfacts… I totally disagree with you on the entrance exam. The SAT/ACT clearly serve that purpose. These test serve to directly test intelligence/knowledge. Clearly though, we have seen though that instituions cannot only rely on one high stakes test. Diversity (via affirmative action) is a whole other problem, that I agree needs to be reformed (just as a quick paraphrase of my stance, it should be more than checking the race box on the application). Looking for the fit is also valid in my opinion, as the top colleges have so many really great applicants, they have to start looking outside of purely academic reasons to meet a physical number for space capacity.</p>
<p>@jamaxmom</p>
<p>It is absolutely crazy that your D did not get regents.
I know it is no consolation.
But with those stats, the consolation is that she will do exceptionally well wherever she goes.</p>
<p>It’s shocking that she didn’t get an interview. Thank you for posting, though. My younger son has high stats (though not as high as your child’s!), so I’ll be sure to let him know not to get his hopes up. I wonder if it was a mistake or if it’s happened to other clearly remarkable students??? Did she apply to EECS? Still, I thought regents was strictly numbers based … and you can’t get much better than THAT!</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind words! She did apply to the engineering schools. D continues to do well-finished first semester senior year 5 AP’s (Calculus BC, Physics C,English,French 4, Art) as well as Science Research,MUN and PE/Eq with a 4.0 unweighted GPA and just placed first in her county science fair division,now on to state. Also she has been asked to be one of the student speakers at graduation. I don’t know about UC but her teachers clearly believe she has the “it factor” and the principal describes her as a Renaissance woman. I guess somehow they overlooked her…</p>
<p>That’s really saddddd 
I wonder if she’s up for things like the Chancellor’s Scholarship … my brother has a friend that surprisingly didn’t get Regents, but got Chancellor’s. I don’t know when they get notified.</p>
<p>This is purely speculation, but maybe they assumed there was no chance of your daughter coming to Berkeley (and therefore saw no reason to offer her the Regents scholarship). Does your high school have a history of students turning down Berkeley for private schools? Those are certainly Harvard/Stanford/MIT level stats/EC’s…There are people at Berkeley with perfect stats, but usually they don’t have EC’s that are nearly as impressive as the ones you have listed here.</p>
<p>If I had EC’s like those I certainly would not be at Berkeley. I would argue that the reason why Berkeley has so many strong students is because it picks up all of the top students who do not have the EC’s to get them into Stanford or Harvard.</p>
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<p>Or the brilliant but “weird”, “geeky”, etc. types who might not interview well or come across well in a personal essay to a typical admissions reader at a super-selective school (as opposed to being accepted by peers, faculty, and GSIs in a major where such characteristics are common and accepted).</p>
<p>regents scholarship are both heavy on numbers and ec’s. it appears that your D is rs caliber. her numbers are insane! though the extremely good recommendations does not count cause UC does not require any. her ec’s are outstanding too but you’ll be surprised also when you hear about the ec’s of the kids who were considered. they were outstanding as well, or even better. then the essays should be outstanding (a killer!) - it counts a lot. i guess the volunteer work counts heavy too (my son has 300+hrs). where my son graduated fr hs, they usually have average of 2 regents scholar per year (my son included). unfortunately, for the past several years (4, 5 or maybe more?) not one of the recepients end up going to cal, cause they also made it to harvard &/or stanford. i know 2 other local hs nearby who are friends with my son (thru mathletes & sci olympiad) and got the rs too but also ended up going to H or S.</p>
<p>To be honest, I’ve always really wondered how they determined Regents. I think what some of the people above mentioned (that it’s a recruiting tool) is true, but I don’t even know about the perfect ECs and grades. 
The high school that I went to admits 30-40+ people to Berkeley every year, and I can tell you that there were probably at least 10 kids from that mushpot that all had perfect or near perfect scores+ECs; they weren’t the ones who received Regents, though. I’m sort of leaning towards what Singh said, though: that they don’t give it out to people they already know will probably not attend. </p>
<p>Oh, but just an add-on: while having housing perks may seem negligible, what DOES work VERY MUCH to the advantage of a Regent Scholar is that they get assigned a time on the very first day of Telebears- our system used to enroll in classes. Therefore, they get first dibs on classes+discussion times, along with athletes and DSP students, and will be the ones who’ll make it into those super packed and popular courses. </p>
<p>But Hillary, don’t even worry about what the scholarship itself ‘says or doesn’t say’ about your daughter. Just because you get Regents doesn’t mean that you’re somehow a superior being. : P Remember, Regents reflects how well someone did in high school, but most definitely is not an accurate indicator of success in college.</p>
<p>OP, congratulations to your daughter for those amazing stats.</p>
<p>Why she didn’t get Regents Scholarship? Same reasons why she got rejected from MIT and deferred from Yale. No one knows what each college’s admission officers are looking for. There are a lot of students out there with amazing stats. At some point, the difference between a 4.0 gpa and a 3.95 gpa is probably just one B. The difference between a 2400 SAT and a 2300 SAT is probably just a few questions.</p>
<p>My son who is a junior interviewed last month for summer jobs. He got 4 job offers and also got several rejections. What did the 4 companies see in him that the several others didn’t? Who knows?</p>
<p>Don’t take it personally :)</p>