@coolweather, did you mean to suggest that applicants be restricted to three choices of campus, college and major?
Or did you mean that 40 years ago, one could only rank three UC campuses when applying?
I think that a failing of the current system is that it forces applicants to choose only one major and one alternate at each campus. The result is that many qualified kids are blown out due to their choice of an impacted major. That’s unnecessarily restrictive. An applicant who really, really wants to go to UCSB for example, could list a dozen majors there. That applicant would have the opportunity gain admission to the major that they’ve ranked highest, so long as UCSB in turn has ranked them highly for that major.
A fast computer could sort out many choices (say, 50 or even 100 per applicant) and determine the best fit. Everyone gets closer to what they actually want, within the limits of available space. In economists’ terms, a Match would maximize the utility of both applicant and college.
An alternative to a Match would indeed be to restrict the maximum number of campuses applied to. Maybe 10 total in the UC/CSU universe. At least kids would not apply to schools that they have intention of attending.
no intention of attending
@PadreDeTres 40 years ago when I applied I could only rank 3 campuses and only 1 campus considered my application (they somehow determined to route the application only to 1 campus).
@PadreDeTres I think your proposal is very logical and makes a lot of sense. Appreciate you taking the effort to improve/fix the system. But what are the realistic chances of this getting reviewed by UC/CSU leadership? What does it take to get it in front of them?
My son is in a similar situation based on his choice of CS Major. He put in extensive extra curricular work in 2 clubs related to CS all 4 years and it didn’t seem to make a big difference. If grades are all what UCs really care about, they should make it clear. So, all the time he spent on EC could have gone into a few more AP courses to boost GPA. At the same time, he really found his passion through EC and I think he he will benefit from it in the long run. But choosing CS major seems to have caused bizarre results for lot of very smart kids this year.
And, what are the chances of a spot opening up in CS for a waitlisted student? When are the UCs expected to announce it?
Thanks!
@dilemma2017: For waitlisted applicants, expect to hear from the UC’s after May 1, when they know how many spots will be available. It is possible to hear sooner if many applicants decline their admissions, but figure after May 1. In the meantime, have your son SIR to another campus to ensure you has somewhere to go this Fall.
@dilemma2017, another member suggested writing a guest editorial for the L.A. Times. I’m certainly willing to do that. Anybody know a UC Regent personally? 
@PadreDeTres I’m a physician so I can relate to the match. The match for UC colleges would be good only if it is geared toward benefitting student preference vs. college need to enroll students. A friend of mine put down North Dakota for his residency and ended up there, when it was like his 5th preference. I often wondered if he got put there because no one else put it on their list as acceptable options.
The lack of TAG does not mean that transfer is blocked; it means that transfer admission is competitive, with no guaranteed-admission-by-GPA method (TAG) available.
Transfer students can be admitted even with missing courses due to the courses not being available at the CCs, although that is obviously a non-ideal situation that requires taking those courses after transfer to catch up (possibly delaying graduation).
UC appears to be more transparent about transfer admission by major than frosh admission by major:
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
Decades ago, UC applicants would specify their top three choices of campus and major. It also seemed that those who did not get into any of their specified choices may have been offered admission to some other UC with space if they met the UC eligibility minimum GPA and test scores (much like the UCM offers to students with ELC today).
It should be noted that, back then, most UC campuses and majors were nowhere near as selective as now; probably most admitted applicants at the UC eligibility minimum GPA and test scores. Since only UCB and UCLA were the only ones considered somewhat difficult to get into (if one met UC eligibility standards), there may not have been any perceived need to apply to more than three campuses.
^ It will be less competitive if students can only apply to at most 3 campuses like in the past.