Does anyone know if there are new patterns emerging in UC admissions this year with the introduction of the test blind policy? For example, did some high schools have fewer admits this year compared to previous years, while some have more? If so, is there a discernable pattern?
1 Like
everything i’m thinking is anecdotal at this point, but here are my observations as a class of 21 parent and longtime (10 years) college essay tutor:
- did they use zip code differently/more? as a proxy for wealth? school and/or residence or both? seeing a bump in “local” admits to berkeley, for example.
- contrary to insistence they don’t, did some UCs in fact yield protect? UCSC, i’m talking to you.
- UCs in general are known to weight their holistic admissions factors in a way that gives CA/IS public students a bump and private students from affluent zips/schools a steeper hill to climb (through comparison with peers, through ELC school participation, and other factors). this year, i learned that one small SF private school had 24 RD admits to UCSC. seems high/weird.
- course rigor questions/AP vs. dual enrollment: i feel like this year’s crew may have done better in proof of rigor if they took community college courses, not just maximum APs available at their school site. but maybe it’s more complex; maybe that factors differently at different UCs.
- GPA weighted and unweighted: it is rumored that UCLA and UCB consider weighted uncapped alongside unweighted and weighted capped, while other UCs do not. did it look like it this year?
- LA times reported that the lion’s share of UCI applicants applied to just 5 or 6 majors(?!). is that happening at the other campuses too? does it matter, when some admit by major RD and some don’t?
- i have heard that UCs factor past yield from a particular school into offers (if true, it’s a form of yield protection for sure, so why deny?).
- test-optional/blind future: if the UCs are going to continue with the test-blind or optional approach either temporarily or permanently, they are obliged to be much more transparent about each campus’s institutional priorities and weighting of elements in holistic review; it’s wrong to yammer on about “fit” in the absence of clear merit-based markers when you refuse to reveal what you’re looking for.
- UCs have been using growing waitlists to manage enrollment for a while now. this protects them from over or underenrollment but is ultimately unfair to applicants. they need to be a lot more transparent about waitlist chances, both in the common data set and on an ongoing basis throughout the admissions process.
- not a pattern per se, but i feel strongly that applicants need to start thinking about both activities descriptions AND PIQs together as a their narrative, not just the essays. the packaging matters, and the story they’re telling has to make sense across the board.
3 Likes
Summary data here
and by source school here
2 Likes
I wonder when this data is updated for 2021?
1 Like
they won’t even have final numbers until the waitlists are all dealt with. It will probably be September before they update these dashboards.
did they use zip code differently/more? as a proxy for wealth? school and/or residence or both? seeing a bump in “local” admits to berkeley, for example
As UC forum champion, I did not see any zipcode preferences to admits this year vs. any other year. Due to gap year students, I did see a stronger applicant pool so that may explain more admits from a particular local area.
UCs in general are known to weight their holistic admissions factors in a way that gives CA/IS public students a bump and private students from affluent zips/schools a steeper hill to climb (through comparison with peers, through ELC school participation, and other factors). this year, i learned that one small SF private school had 24 RD admits to [UCSC]
IS students are the majority of applicants and the UC’s have a OOS/International enrollment threshold that they have to adhere to say yes in a way, IS students are favored. Each UC uses the 13 areas of criteria different so it is difficult to generalize that they target affluent private HS’s over public. It should be interesting to see the #'s from the UC admits by source school for 2021.
course rigor questions/AP vs. dual enrollment: i feel like this year’s crew may have done better in proof of rigor if they took community college courses, not just maximum APs available at their school site. but maybe it’s more complex; maybe that factors differently at different UCs.
For many UC’s, AP credit can no longer be used for registration priority or fulfill the GE requirements so many students are using CC courses in lieu or in addition to the AP classes. What many students do not realize that if the courses are UC transferable, these courses will remain on their permanent college record and have to be disclosed when applying to professional or graduate school.
GPA weighted and unweighted: it is rumored that UCLA and UCB consider weighted uncapped alongside unweighted and weighted capped, while other UCs do not. did it look like it this year?
All UC’s will see the 3 different UC GPA’s: Unweighted, Capped weighted and Fully weighted. UCLA and UCB are the only 2 campuses which lists the Fully weighted GPA in their statistical data but it does not mean that the other campuses do not utilize this information. I have seen statistical reports in the news from other UC campuses which have quoted the UC Fully weighted GPA.
LA times reported that the lion’s share of UCI applicants applied to just 5 or 6 majors(?!). is that happening at the other campuses too? does it matter, when some admit by major RD and some don’t?
Although some of the colleges within each UC campus do not admit by major, I am sure there is some threshold of any particular major that the UC campuses will consider. UCI admits into the University first and then into the major and the popular majors quoted in the article are basically direct admit.
test-optional/blind future: if the UCs are going to continue with the test-blind or optional approach either temporarily or permanently, they are obliged to be much more transparent about each campus’s institutional priorities and weighting of elements in holistic review; it’s wrong to yammer on about “fit” in the absence of clear merit-based markers when you refuse to reveal what you’re looking for.
UCs have been using growing waitlists to manage enrollment for a while now. this protects them from over or underenrollment but is ultimately unfair to applicants. they need to be a lot more transparent about waitlist chances, both in the common data set and on an ongoing basis throughout the admissions process.
The UC’s are fairly transparent in comparison to many other top schools, however I agree that there is room for improvement. Other than UCI, it is difficult to determine the acceptance rate by major. Since going test blind was a forced requirement, the UC’s did have to deal with being underprepared in their application assessments although that was where they were originally heading.
There is no perfect system so unfortunately applicants, parents and future students have to navigate the UC admission process armed with the knowledge that it will be unpredictable at times with no guarantees.
4 Likes
Applicants to professional or graduate schools, or undergraduate transfer applicants, should assume that all college records may have to be presented with such applications, regardless of whether the courses in question were transferable to their current undergraduate school. The school applied to can, at its discretion, consider, ignore, upweight, or downweight specific courses based on its policies.
1 Like
I think you are super spot on with that last bullet point – given the lack of scores, I think the essays and activities are even more important, and the story they tell has to be cohesive
From what I have heard, kids from public schools in affluent areas in CA did poorly in UC admissions compared to prior years.
2 Likes
Hearsay is just that. I will wait to see the numbers from UCOP for 2021 to see if this backs up the claim.
Remember record numbers of applicants for the UC’s after going test blind, so admit numbers for all types of students decreased.
Any idea when UCOP releases this data? I too am interested in seeing the distribution as all we have are bits and pieces from the LA Times article (which mentioned some hs had admit numbers to Berkeley/UCLA that outperfomed pre-covid years)
My daughter’s school is a high performing public in an affluent area that got close to 60 into UCLA in 2015, but admit numbers have been trending downwards every year and like many schools, this year its at its lowest yet (30).
1 Like
Usually the detailed UCOP admit information is out January/February of the following year. I usually post the information along with links to the UC General Forum when they are available.
Shoot, really? I was hoping to see this information this fall as S22 is applying.
In the past, the UC website would have some admission data such as 25th-75th percentiles for capped weighted GPA and acceptance rates but so far, none of this information has been updated. Exception is UC Davis which shows 2021 data: Freshman admit data | UC Admissions
The more detailed UCOP admission rate by GPA range and residency is not usually posted until January/February.
1 Like