Rejection from nearly all schools

I’m posting again because I’ve finally gotten responses from all the schools I applied to. I applied to 10 schools (CSULB, Cal Poly Pomona, CSUN, SDSU, UCLA, UCI, UC Berkeley, UCSD, USC, and Claremont McKenna) and only got accepted to SDSU and UCSD. My stats: 4.40 weighted GPA 3.96 unweighted (rank 8/650) SAT: 1250, ACT: 28, involved in 8 clubs at school and I hold an officer position in 3 of them, and I have 200+ hours of community service. All of my majors relate to Enviromental Science or Biology. A lot of my peers with lower stats got into schools that I felt like were my reach schools. I understand that my test scores were low for schools like UCB, UCLA, USC, and Claremont McKenna but I just can’t understand the rejections I got from the other schools

Two great schools.

Once you make it into the ‘qualified for admissions’ level at the other schools (and for SDSU and UCSD too) it is really just a matter of whether they have space for you. There are thousands of qualified kids and the schools can’t accept everyone. If you are in the San Diego area, you get a boost for those schools and someone who lives closer to the others get a boost to those.

SDSU and UCSD are great options and you do have a choice while many students only got into one and some did not get into any schools. Be happy you are going to college and I am sure many applicants would love to trade places with you.

For Reference:

Your test scores on the lower side for all the UC’s on your list and this year seems to be even more competitive than last year. For the CSU’s they do give local area preference which means applicants out side the local area need a higher stats (EI) to be admitted.

2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCB: 1360-1540

UCLA: 1340-1540
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1270-1500
UCD: 1220-1480
UCI: 1230-1490
UCSC: 1210-1450
UCR: 1130-1380
UCM: 1020-1280

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT:
UCB: 30-35
UCLA: 31-35
UCSD: 28-34
UCSB: 28-34
UCD: 26-33
UCI: 26-33
UCSC: 26-32
UCR: 22-30
UCM: 19-26