Input from students who have actually attended UC Merced please? Experience?

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

You may find this thread useful:

A very honest opinion on UC Merced from a UC Merced skeptic - 2022

I wanted to give my very honest and real opinion on UC Merced to those who might be struggling with it as their ‘only UC option’ in this very, very odd application cycle. We, like many other parents and students in the "Class of 2026’ application cycle are dealing with the leftover remnants of the pandemic, an ‘unprecedented’ amount of applications - and all the other issues that have left many of our high achieving, high stats kids with completely unexpected waitlists, rejections and a seemingly lack of “acceptable” options. We were super naive and assumed lots of acceptances were on the way from some of the hardest to get into schools based on all the things in our favor that were tangible - his grades, his GPA, his high number of rigorous AP courses, and the scores he received. He’s an excellent writer - he had great essays, etc etc etc – What we got was a LOT of heartbreak, unsureness, feelings of failure from my son, and his feeling that all his hard work had been a waste. Lots …