I am guessing that the latter may be the case – that they were conservative with initial admits. My sense is that there has also been a lot of movement on the UCLA waitlist, maybe for the same reason?
3 Likes
Yes, that could well be. And it may be at least indirectly related to housing - I’m just thinking of what happened last year when there was a scare that they would have to un-admit students due to lack of housing (which fortunately - and maybe predictably - was averted). At any rate, perhaps based on that experience, they decided to go very conservative this year and admit a bare minimum in the first round, then wait to see where housing application are and how many spaces are still available before letting in another wave. Just speculation obviously.
I don’t think it has anything to do with bad press. Over the years, there have been much worse things in the press. I also don’t think that admitting from the waitlist indicates a lower than expected yield. They may have expected a certain yield and planned on a certain number of waitlist offers. They could have received a higher than expected yield and are accepting fewer than anticipated from the waitlist. We don’t know.
I agree with @tamagotchi. I think they were conservative with their initial admits.
2 Likes
Agreed especially given the substantially greater movement this year at UCLA and some of the other UCs.
3 Likes
And I would guess that the UCs that we haven’t seen waitlist movement from, will start to show movement after the recently accepted UCLA, Berkeley and UCSB students make their decisions.
2 Likes
It does feel likely that the admissions office went more conservative with the initial admits this year. On another thread, I had noted that for the class that entered in Fall 2021, UC Berkeley admitted 6,931 students – the largest Freshman class ever. Then for the class that entered in Fall 2022, Cal had targeted 6,240 freshman enrollees, but ended up actually enrolling 6,727, which was 487 more freshmen enrollees than targeted. Given that Cal’s last 2 classes are the 2 largest Freshman classes ever enrolled, it seemed to make sense that they’d be a bit more cautious on the front-end for this Fall 2023 cycle, if for no other reason than Cal probably doesn’t want to over-enroll for the 3rd consecutive year. In addition, admitting only 0.9% of students off the waitlist last year was likely not the preferred outcome, so by going more conservative on the initial admits this year should allow Admissions a chance to go to the waitlist a bit more this year and “shape the class.”
3 Likes
Whatever’s behind it, I’m glad to see it happening 
I wish Cal would do an admissions cycle debrief - I’m still curious about what was behind all those LOR requests in the fall.
2 Likes
I think every UC has used their waitlist so far this year.
I know of students for UCSC, UCSB, UCI, UCD and UCSD and now both UCLA and UCB. Merced and Riverside were already admitting students who didn’t even apply but were top 9%.
Definitely feels like they were conservative in their initial admits.
Where have you seen one for UCSD? I’m not doubting, just wondering. Because per the thread here on CC I don’t think there have been any (much to the dismay of those waiting). If you have seen on Reddit or elsewhere I’d love to see to help folks out.
2 Likes
My kids high school, there were 2 last week. Don’t know majors or what college.
One for sure going, who had committed to UCSB and decided to go to UCSD.
1 Like
Interesting! Don’t know if that’s good or bad for those still waiting. I was hopeful there might be more of a “wave” at some point. I think last year there were some acceptances on this date (5/9).
I think it’s possible that UCSD may have admitted a lot in the first round and not have a lot of space remaining for waitlisted students. Anecdotally, it seemed like a lot of kids at our HS were admitted to UCSD this year (in the first round), compared to the numbers (and GPA) admitted in past years. But I’m not sure if this belongs in the UCB thread 
2 Likes
I agree! All UCs sent congratulations e-mails to parents but not UCB!
The first wave students have 7 days to accept! So second wave will come after the student’s decisions.
I read May 23rd in one of the threads!
We received a congratulations email once our kid filled out the parent contact form in their portal.
1 Like
you received an email from Berkeley? We never got one!
1 Like
Yes, sorry I kind of confused things above in the thread as I was responding to a point about (and asking a question related) to UCSD, not UC Berkeley. I figure if more acceptances come to those who are still waitlisted for Cal, it would be after next week which is when those admitted yesterday would have to respond by. My point above was related to a different UC.
1 Like
It was from Cal Parents
I received a congratulations for my daughters acceptance.
It was also from Cal Parents.
2 Likes