My D19 had intended on applying to 7 UC campuses (we are in California, and my daughter is interested in attending a strong stem research university, so they all are good to great fits for her) . She is using them as her sliding match to reach schools. We have visited all and while she has her priority list, in the end she said she would be fine attending any of the 7 she is applying to. Recently a friend told me that she heard from two UC admissions officers on tours that the admissions officers can see the other campuses you are looking at and it might effect the decision. This was news to me but with the rising importance of yield, I can see where a school might think because of the number the percentage of acceptance would be lower with kids applying to all the UC’s. An in-state student that only applies to two schools might look more interested in that campus. Does anyone have any insight into this?
Based on the entries at collegedata.com (admissions tab), UCI and UCM consider “level of applicant’s interest” in admission decisions (an undesirable trend for public university undergraduate admissions generally), but the others do not (although they could still use it to predict a given admitted applicant’s chance of yielding).
How they would do so is not necessarily clear, since some of the traditional indicators of interest are not present (no ED option, no “why this campus?” essay because of the common UC application), although visibility of other campus applications can be a part of it (e.g. if UCI sees that an “overqualified” applicant is also applying to UCB, UCLA, and UCSD, would it believe that this applicant is less interested in UCI?). Other usual ways of showing interest like having visits recorded and opening emails from the campus with an image-opening mail reader could be tried.
Thanks @ucbalumnus, yes I have read the common data set and UCI’s response is curious compared to the rest. I don’t know that I trust how that question on the common data sets is interpreted. The person filling out the form for the campus might not indicate they care about demonstrated interest because they don’t cross track tours or requests for information, but they might care about overall yield and number of campuses applied to might have an effect. I am not sure.
I don’t know why I thought that the UC’s wouldn’t know what campuses individuals applied to but I am very curious how this information is displayed. Is it at the top of the application in the face of the officer while they are making an individual decision? Anyone who has worked at one of the UC admissions offices care to respond?
For my daughter, if she thought this would effect her chance at getting in to her desired UC if she has too many UC’s listed, she might prefer to look at other match and safety schools outside of the UC’s.
I am not an admissions officer nor do I claim to have any special insight regarding your question, other than to say that in my experience these last 6 years, I believe it does not make a difference if you apply to 1-2 UC’s vs. applying to all. It is very easy to apply to multiple campuses with the UC application and with the increased competition the UC’s are well aware that applicants will apply widely.
Have your daughter apply to any or all UC’s she prefers and if she is not accepted, it will not be because she applied to too many.
I highly recommend that she have some Match and Safety schools outside the UC system but that advice would be true for any applicant applying to many competitive schools.
Regarding UCI and showing interest, I have 2 family members that never visited or showed any specific interest prior to applying and were accepted and currently attending the school. Since an “applicants level of interest” is listed on the common dataset, I would try to at least schedule a visit. Better safe than sorry.
Regarding UCI, I can add another student, an incoming freshman fall 2018, that showed 0 DI for UCI, but was accepted as well. Said student applied to 7 UC campuses as well.
Speaking from personal experience from last year (class of 2018), I can say that my kid applied to the Big 6 UC campuses, visited all 6 before but officially only at UCB and UCLA, and never had any contact of any kind with UCI, UCSB and UCSD. He got accepted to UCB, UCD and UCSB. Got waitlisted for UCI and UCSD. My niece, who had a better GPA and almost the same SAT but not quite as good a public school, applied to the 7 and got accepted at UCI (Honors), UCSB, UCI, and UCSC. Got waitlisted at UCLA and UCSD. I’m 99% sure she never visited UCI before, or had any previous contact.
Having said that, there definitely were rumors and conspiracy theories abound this year that UCI really tightened up admissions for this year after the previous year’s fiasco by instituting their “ring of acceptance” as done at some other schools - waitlist if above a certain threshold, deny if below. My kid got surprisingly waitlisted at UCI so it lends credence to those rumors. But in reality, who knows… one thing for sure, UCI’s acceptance rate sure came tumbling down this year.
My 3 applied to UCI, UCD, UCLA, UCSD, UCB, UCSB. in 2014, 2016, 2018.
All 3 accepted to all UCs—except 2018 who was WL at UCD.
No demonstrated interest at any.
Thank you everyone for your experience in applying to multiple UC campuses. It does give me more confidence that applicants aren’t getting passed aside because AO’s are assuming their application will be turned down in favor of another campus. That being said I will probably make sure my daughter will make sure she is willing to accept any campus she applies to.