Hello,
My Daughter applied for the UC’s and after she submitted, the application portal stated that she was in the top 9% of statewide students. I know that this means she is supposed to be offered a spot at at least one of the UC’s even if it’s not the ones she applied to. Can anyone tell me if this really happens? How often? And, is the consolation prize always a spot at Merced?
She is open minded about which school she attends in the UCs, but strongly prefers them to the other schools she is applying to. She applied to all UCs except UCLA and Merced. Her stats are below.
UC Weighted GPA: 4.04 Unweighted: 3.92
ACT 29 (Math 28; Science 25; English 27; Reading 35; ELA 28)
AP Scholar
Majors Applying for: History, Poly Sci, International Relations/Global Studies
Ethnicity: Hispanic
She has transferable college credits from UCLA, UCSD and CC.
EC Highlights: Wrote and Published a novel, won National Novel Writing Month Award.
Lifetime Girl Scout with Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards; over 2000 hours of volunteer time.
Founded a 501c nonprofit and created a partnership with Mt. Vernon to travel to schools and libraries in the CA area to hang formal portraits of George Washington and run educational programs around his legacy.
Mock Senate President.
BE WiSE (Better Education for Women in Science and Engineering) competitive entry organization run by the Fleet Science Center in San Diego for 5 years.
Afterschool job for 2 years.
And, about a dozen other smaller things.
She spent two months on her essays, and they are pretty good. We have also had some extenuating family circumstances that explain why her grades are not higher, and she included that information in the Additional Information section upon the recommendation of a UCSD admissions counselor.
We appreciate everyone’s weigh in on her chances and/or the likelihood of the Statewide Path program for her. Thank you and best wishes to all!
it does happen but, the referral will be to Merced - which it doesn’t look like interests her. .
With her stats, UCR and UCSC are pretty likely to accept her. The others are less than a 50/50 proposition.
I would encourage her to apply to SDSU, CSULB and perhaps Sac. All are highly likely to accept her. They have very credible programs. Sac’s proximity to the state capitol make for some pretty unique internship opportunities.
Good luck
Thank you for the feedback!
@sdscoutmom Where in the portal did you see that your daughter was in the top 9%? Thank you
Based on the majors she is applying under, I think she has a > than 50% chance of being accepted to the mid tier UC’s. If she were to apply under impacted/competitive majors such as computer science, engineering, biology, etc., her chances being accepted to mid tier UC’s would be < 50%.
Again, thank you for the feedback everyone. Yes, I am hoping she has a decent shot at getting at least one mid tier UC because she isn’t applying for impacted or competitive majors. Nationwide enrollment of History majors has declined by over 25% in the last 7 years, and I’ve read that many campuses are hurting for History major students. We are hoping this helps her chances. If not, we toured UCSC and really liked it, and she really liked how some of the programs were structured at UCR.
As our alternate plan, she has applied to SDSU and some other state schools as well as some WUE schools and already gotten acceptances and scholarships. Like many others on this board, we are just hoping one of the UC’s becomes a choice for her too. 
Best wishes to all! Thank you!
50-50 at the mid-tiers, so if she applied to UCSD/UCD/UCI/UCSB the odds are, she would land one of them, especially with a non-impacted major. I would say UCSC and UCR, as well as SDSU are pretty likely as others have said.
@Gumbymom, found it. Thanks
Just some statistical data for the UC’s:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages and not major specific:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71
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
Ethnicity not considered in California public university admissions.
She has some excellent EC’s and if her personal insight essays are equally outstanding, then some of the Mid-tier UC’s are very possible.
Since her intended majors are usually housed in the College of Letters and Sciences which does not admit by major, it will not give her a significant bump in admissions. She will be competing with all L&S majors.
Best of luck to her.
Thank you gumbymom and ProfessorPlum! I appreciate the feedback!