I am going to be appealing to a UC and I need some help for appealing. I had a first semester senior year gpa of 4.4, which is a great improvement. In addition I live near this UC so I will not need housing and can commute to the school. I also have a diagnosed disorder that has prevented me from doing my best in high school. Should I write about that too? How long should an appeal be? Any tips?
Follow the instructions for the UC appeal process. Send your HS transcripts showing your first semester Senior grades. If you have a diagnosed disorder, discuss this in your appeal and send supporting documentation. Each UC should have guidelines for their appeal process. Some want a short statement, some will allow you write a longer appeal. Check with the school.
Supporting documentation such as what? A letter from my psychiatrist?
bump
It depends on which UC- they each have their own appeal process. For instance, UCSD only allows an on-line appeal that is limited to 250 words and they will not accept any supporting documentation or supplements. You need to look at the appeal process for the UC you are interested in and follow their directions exactly. They will all throw out your appeal if you do not follow directions. Whatever you submit, it will have to be new information that was not included in your original application. If you have not previously discussed your medical condition and it impacted your performance in HS then you may want to use that as the basis for your appeal. Good luck!
UCI
It looks like there is no word limit for this school. However, I strongly suggest that you keep the Letter of Appeal (Item 2 below) very short and to the point. Be very direct, don’t throw in a lot of info that doesn’t matter. Remember that these admissions officers have read thousands of applications and are probably pretty burned out by now. If you don’t catch their attention in the first couple of sentences then you will most likely lose them quickly. Good luck!
http://services.admissions.uci.edu/resources/appeal_information.html#selection
Appeal to Selection Decision
This appeal is for applicants who wish to request the Office of Admissions and Relations with Schools reevaluate the admission decision of their application. New and compelling evidence not previously on the initial application will need to be submitted by the applicant for further review. Submission of an appeal does not mean an appeal will be granted, and students should follow through with other universities’ deadlines.
Please be advised that even with filing an appeal, the applicant is still considered not admitted to the university, and therefore is unable to sign up for any and all orientation/advising programs offered by our campus. If the student is admitted via appeal at a later date, arrangements will be made to attend orientation at a later date.
A further consideration is that once the initial SIR deadline (May 1 for freshman applicants; June 1 for transfer applicants) has passed, on-campus housing is no longer guaranteed for applicants accepting an admission offer after those dates.
PLEASE NOTE: It is very imporant all materials sent for review are sent at one time in one package. Due to the amount of paperwork received by the office and also the ongoing appeal review process, any paperwork submitted separately WILL NOT be merged with the original appeal for review.
Freshmen Selection Appeals: Submit the following items in ONE package postmarked by April 15 and include student name and Application ID number on each sheet of materials submitted:
1.Appeal Cover Sheet (download and print: MS Word or PDF)
2.Letter of appeal clearly stating new and compelling information for appeal consideration, written and signed by the applicant
3.High school transcript from most recent term; please note the transcript must have course information and grades from fall semester of your senior year and any additional semesters available at the time of appeal; an official transcript in the school’s sealed envelope is preferred
4.Other additional documentation
5.Letters of recommendation are NOT REQUIRED unless requested by our staff to support appeal information
This is from Ms. Sun’s UC blog- a great source of info for the UC’s:
http://■■■■■■■■■■■■/home/uc-freshman-application-timeline/#decisions
Appeal Writing Guidelines
Remember, telling the admissions office that they made a huge mistake is not
going to help your case. For your appeal to be considered, you must prove
that you are a much stronger candidate than what was presented in your
application. Specifically, you must provide new and compelling information that was not previously available to the admissions office.
Your need to stay in a particular geographical area, in itself, does not constitute grounds for an appeal. Any hardship in relocating must be accompanied by other new and compelling information for your appeal to be considered. Similarly, changing your major, in itself, is not sufficient grounds for an appeal; additional new and compelling information must be present for your appeal to be considered.
Examples of new and compelling information may include extraordinary hardship or exceptional talent. You can discuss these things on your appeal as reasons for the UCs to reconsider you. Make sure you describe exactly how the exceptional talent qualifies you for UC admissions or how the hardship prevented you from achieving academically. The focus of your appeal should be on why you are an excellent candidate for the UCs and why the UCs should be interested in you, not why your hardship is horrible or how much you love a particular UC campus and must go there. State your case concisely (one page appeal is ideal but two pages are acceptable) and don’t exaggerate or try to be dramatic. Keep in mind that the acceptance rate on appeal is less than 10% for most UCs and less than 3% for Berkeley and UCLA. Please visit Appeal or Free Service for additional service options.