<p>Why does the UC system ask students to self-report their courses rather than simply requesting transcripts? It would make the application even easier than it already is because students wouldn’t have to worry about misreporting anything. I’m just curious if there’s a particular reason why they don’t take transcripts…</p>
<p>Do you want to read 72,000 different transcripts, each school with its own format and layout? Wouldn’t you rather all 72,000 schedules you have to review to have the exact same format so you can compare what you are reviewing?</p>
<p>Good point; I can see how that makes reviewing applications faster. But private institutions usually request transcripts, so I don’t see why the UCs can’t do the same. (But then again, most private institutions probably receive fewer applications…)</p>
<p>Private colleges get something closer to 10k-20k applications per cycle. That’s less than 1/3 of what UCLA gets (72K last year; I expect it will break 80k in the next couple years). Since all UCs share the same application, it has to accommodate the campuses that get the most applications (Berkeley got 61k and San Diego got 60k; at the other end, Merced got just short of 13k).</p>