<p>Is there a way to know why i was rejected from UCLA?</p>
<p>Call the admissions office.
They will probably be very general though, and say what they had in the rejection letter…
I tried having my counselor call, but it was the morning right after the decisions came out so we were on hold for like 30 minutes. I’m going to try again tomorrow morning though.</p>
<p>oh ok, can you post a reply when you get a response. thankx</p>
<p>t1lui – I doubt there is a practical way to find out. </p>
<p>I am sorry you were not accepted, but think about the numbers involved here — 55,000 applications, about 11,500 acceptances and 43,500 rejections. What are the odds that the admissions office can </p>
<p>1) have time to speak with you for 3 minutes, then agree to
2) pull your file (which had already been reviewed for about 5 minutes by two different readers),
3) re-read your file, and then
4)report back to you how <em>specifically</em> you suck compared to the 11,500 applicants who sucked less and were admitted?</p>
<p>That’s about a half hour of extra time committed to a file that was rejected in less than 10 minutes. If the admissions office were to entertain these types of requests, they’d have to triple in size, at the least.</p>
<p>You will never find out why. If they were to give reasons for rejections, there would be thousands of appeals each year because the rejected applicants now have something specific to argue about…, and your taxes would go up just to fund the Appeals office at UCLA and the other nine (well, maybe 7) UCs.</p>
<p>You know,the answer you seek might be right in front of you. UCLA’s admitted student profile has an ave. GPA of 4.17 and SATs over 2000. Plus strong leadership attesting ECs. How were you on these three measures?</p>
<p>I got into UCLA with 1940 SAT I and i’m international…so my guess is, compare your essay and statement with that of an admitted student (if someone u know got in). And obviously your grades matter ALOT.</p>
<p>My D has a 3.95 UW and 4.65 W, over 2000 on SAT and 32 on ACT. Lots of leadership, ECs and good essay/writing skills. Reason she was rejected? Her essay was about her experiences in Israel & Poland. Reason for rejection??</p>
<p>@ jnrsmom WOW!! those are great numbers. I can’t see why she was rejected other than the fact that maybe she did not express what they were looking for in the essays. </p>
<p>This time of year, a lot of people look for reasons whey got rejected: others start making excuses: and some even resort to blaming. </p>
<p>You can ALWAYS call and ask for someone to explain why they rejected you. The answer may not be to your liking, but they have the obligation to tell you. It can be as simple as “you just weren’t qualified compared to other candidates,” or as complicated as “Your essays were lacking XYZ, your scores were 5 pts lower, your GPA was…”
This will depend on who you get on the phone, how busy they are, what kind of day they are having, etc. </p>
<p>Doesn’t hurt to call. And 30 minutes seem like a lot if you count how many people get rejected. BUt it’s not a lot f you discount the people who were unqualified to begin with, who were wishing on a prayer that they may be the special ones with the fairy tale ending… And then there are those who are content to accept their second and third choices. </p>
<p>Only a few who truly believe they deserve to get in will call up and ask for an explanation. And fewer will ask “what can I do to turn the Rejection into Acceptance?” That sows motivation and dedication. </p>
<p>And then there are the few who honestly believe they should have made it in with 3.9 weighted GPA, 1800 SAT, and one year as JV badminton and 2 hours community service, because his parents have ben telling him all his life that he was “special”, and never denied him anything.</p>
<p>Balgus - thanks for the response. After 24 hours of going through the sadness and anger, D said that maybe is was not meant to be. She has other good choices and knows that. She was just upset after so many kids from her HS DID get in with a lot less on their applications. Said she does not want to go theough the appeals process and have to wait until June to find out. Great kid.</p>
<p>lol there might not be a reason for every rejection. admissions is such a subjective process. if the adcom is in a bad mood/tired/sick of course he/she is gonna start acting different, which might mean random rejections. they have countless qualified applicants…a few rejections means nothing to them.</p>
<p>I actually called two days in a row last week. I didn’t get to talk to an actual person because I was put on hold for almost 20 minutes because no one picked up. I might call again this week. A lot of this doesn’t make sense to me right now.</p>
<p>Even if your numbers are slightly above average, you still do not “deserve” to get in.
The thing is, if your SAT’s are ~2000, then you should know that there are A LOT of similar applicants. There are TONS of applicants in the 1950-2100 range so I definitely see some of you with ~2000 SAT’s who feel like you “deserve” to get in.</p>
<p>And there are so many other factors that go along with this…</p>
<p>^I had a 2240. Sorry if I sound bitter. I still am.</p>
<p>if you had a good sat score (2100+), near-perfect GPA, at least SOME activities, and a decent essay, you basically should have gotten in. everyone knows that UC’s are primarily stat-driven. guess you just messed up somewhere =(. sucks man.</p>
<p>i got 1740 and accepted. 
i got supplemental and wrote killerr essays.</p>
<p>yummymango, i think it might have been your GPA.</p>
<p>^My UC GPA wasn’t the highest because of grade 10, but my HS GPA from grades 10-11 was 4.15. You’re right. It could have been my GPA, but I thought my extra curricular activities and essays balanced it out. I mean, after all, a few of my friends who had 1900-2100 SATs, almost the same or lower GPAs, and nearly zero leadership roles got accepted. Yeah, I’m just being bitter again. Being a senior sucks.</p>
<p>^yummymango, i know exactly how you feel. i was actually thinking about sending an appeal with some kicka** letters of rec, and a reason as to why my grades slumped junior year… (still dont really know if i should)</p>
<p>but when i come to think about it, i really do not think i’ll write the appeal, and i actually believe that maybe it JUST WAS NOT MEANT TO BE. weigh your other options, and get over the fact that UCLA did not accept you. When it comes down to your future, getting accepted or rejected from UCLA is of such minuscule importance. What matters is that you accept that you didn’t do as well as you could’ve, and should’ve done, and learn from your mistakes. Hey, maybe a friend with lower stats than yours got into UCLA ( alot of mine did), but then again, maybe they did something or had some unfortunate circumstances that you dont know about… maybe the adcoms just liked them more. What i’m trying to say is that there’s so many maybe’s, and you just will never know…the whole process is completely arbitrary, and it’ll never be justified…hence they remain so secretive.
Sometimes rejections can actually be blessings, forcing your hand to play cards that you otherwise never would have played… Because quite frankly, maybe you wouldn’t have even liked the college in the first place. (my friend got into her dream school–cal her freshman year and now she hates it because it’s impersonal and she’s looking to transfer)…sometimes our wishes just don’t always go as planned, but just accept the fact that there are other more important things in life than that acceptance letter to UCLA. going there will not make/break you.
Make the best of what you have in front of you. Evaluate your other acceptances. Some kids are probably dying to be in your shoes and to have what you have. Remember, there were like what…2, maybe 3 people, that reviewed your application… 3 imperfect people which think they can judge you from the glance of a sheet of paper. Obviously, the system’s flawed, so don’t beat yourself up about it. Just kick a** during your undergrad, go to an excellent grad, and then graduate at the top of your class and get a multi biliion dollar job. Then, when they interview you about your success, tell the press about how UCLA rejected your potential 8 years back… lol then maybe they’ll change the broken system… hhahhaha(that’s what i’m doing) :)</p>
<p>I hope this gives you some peace of mind and helps you cope through this process. It’s definitely helped me. Like a friend of mind said, the college experience is wonderful wherever you go…don’t let brand names cloud your judgment.</p>
<p>^^ what is this like your graduation speech or something lol</p>
<p>dude i think we’re all capable of writing graduation speeches at this point</p>
<p>the hell does that have to do with anything?</p>