hey guys! I got rejected from my dream school UCSB and I was wondering if I should try to appeal. I know that appeals are usually granted based on a mistake in the admissions office but it would be a DREAM for me to go here!! Anyways, so in my appeal I wanted to talk about how my life wasn’t too easy, especially in my high school years, and how it affected me, and I thought it might be good to draw a connection between that and my intended major (biopsych) and why it was so important to me. Be honest with me - do you think that would be a total and complete waste of time, or worth the effort?? ty 
also I got into UCI as a bio major if anyone’s wondering what my other options are. I got into some other schools as well, but I don’t really want to consider them. Thanks
You did not address your difficult HS years in one of your personal insight questions?
I’m sorry you didn’t get accepted at your first choice. At this point, i would suggest you love the schools to,which you were accepted…and choose one.
Lots of kids don’t get accepted to their top choice. In my opinion…it’s time to move on.
@Gumbymom No I wasn’t able to because none of the prompts were a good enough platform to address it, and I didn’t want to go on a tangent and not answer the prompt. Also didn’t want them to think I need to be checked into a psychiatric ward lol. It was some really bad stuff.
The recommendation from the UCs is to only appeal if you have significant new information to offer. I’d say this is a personal decision only you can make. But… you’re asking if it’s worth the effort to appeal to your dream school. I would say that if it’s truly your dream school, isn’t any effort worthwhile? Wouldn’t you be happier 6 months from now having appealed and been denied, than wondering if your appeal would have been successful?
Go ahead and give the appeal your best shot and worst case, you’ll be able to sleep a little easier at night having tried. However do be aware that only a minuscule number of appeals are accepted. File your appeal, but do your best to move on mentally to another school as Thumper suggests.
@anomander Okay. Thanks I’m trying to mentally move on to UCI but it’s a little difficult for me. I’ll still try appeal. I really hope I get in lol. People tell me UCI is a commuter school full of people that didn’t want to go there so there’s a huge lack of school pride. That just doesn’t sound good 
I agree, if there is an appeals process it sounds like you’ve got nothing to lose and you would pick UCSB over UCI
So give it your best shot…meanwhile make sure you have an enrollment at UCI on May 1 if that is your second choice.
Is there a documented case of an admission appeal ever being successful?
@@Muad_dib:
From Ms Sun’s Waitlist thread for 2015:::
926 appeals
17 admits + 13 late SIR
UCI is full of very smart people who do want to be there.
@Talkingtortillasandtacos Appealing the decision based on the information you’ve provided would likely be fruitless.
You should think about what your end goal is? If your ultimate goal is med school (given bio major) then there is no advantage over UCI.
Yes. Very low odds, but they sometimes work.
Years ago a CA guy told me he thought that UCI was one of the hidden gems of the CA system. Much better than people think.
I think your chances are miniscule, but you’ll probably sleep better if you try.
If I were you Id got to UCI its a great school with school pride. It looks like it doesn’t but I have a friend currently attending there and she’s having a blast there. If you don mind the amount of Asians there it s actually quite enjoyable. In all I would go to UCI appeals rarely get granted and they aren’t worth your time instead get excited about UCI and figure about the great programs they have to offer as if you try you will have fun there.
You may want to ask for your ACT to be rescored manually. That may actually give you a few points and an objective reason for an appeal.
Not sure why everyone is discouraging you from appealing. You have nothing to lose as long as you realize the chances are slim. My son got in on appeal after he reported that he won an award, but he had been waitlisted first. While Irvine and UCSB are both excellent schools, they have distinctly different environments and it isn’t at all silly to strongly prefer one to the other.
@pog2016 Thanks! I may appeal after all. The deadline is in a few days so I really have no time to waste.
@Materof2 I didn’t take the ACT actually lol. I took the SAT and got a 1260 which I realize is pretty abysmal in comparison to a majority of the people that got accepted into UCSB.
@collegebound4197 Honestly, I visited the other day and a majority of the people who were taking the tours with me were only there because they got rejected from their dream school, which didn’t really give me a lot of hope. I don’t “mind the amount of Asians” but I do like diversity, and based on what I’ve seen, UCI really doesn’t offer much of that. I’m black if anyone’s wondering. It’s something I can get over I guess. UCI has a great program for what I want to do (Biological Sciences) but they don’t have the exact major that I wanted (Biopsychology which UCSB has and rejected me for lol). I guess I can just major in biology and minor in psychology. Not exactly the same thing, but similar I guess. In addition, a bunch of people were telling me that there was “nothing to do in Irvine”, and I didn’t believe them. When I visited UCI we had to drive around Irvine a little bit. There’s literally nothing. Literally nothing is there. Based off of what I’ve seen I already pretty much don’t expect to live the “college life” with “parties” and “doing stuff on the weekends” because there’s pretty much nowhere to go. After that tour all I can really say is the campus looks pretty and the programs and research opportunities seem really good.
@mathmom Can you elaborate on what he meant by hidden gem? It would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Well it was a long time ago, but he felt that academically it was underrated. He thought there were some really terrific professors there.