Everyone gets disappointed with release dates, decisions and what not when it comes to the month of March. I am making this thread to allow people to vent away with others that are disappointed by rejection, annoyed with admission date promises, and overall nervous for the future. Best of Luck to everyone and if not you are welcome to vent away on this thread 
Havent been rejected yet, but I love this idea!!!
First post here. Really appreciate all the great info, wish we’d started studying all this much sooner!
/rant on
Brilliant S transferred from elite magnet program to private parochial HS mid-10th due to medical issues and rampant cheating. He would not cheat and paid the price. Recovered fully. Had to remediate some classes. New counselor assigned few APs and Honors. Lives and breathes CS, not just wanting to code for dollars, probably will be a leader in academics.
Timing could not be worse. Every other kid suddenly wants to do CS. (Example: This year, Cal Poly SLO had 4377 freshman apps to CS for 140 spots IIRC.) So, a fine academic record looks pretty pale by 2017 standards.
UC GPA: 3.6W
New SAT: 1370 (660M, 710V)
ACT: 30
Essays: 9/10 I think
ECs: moderate (tennis team, cross country, started programming club, church volunteer)
Accepted: CSULB, as pre-major
Rejected: UCD, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO
Pending: UCI, UCSB, UCLA, UCB, UCR, Cal Poly Pomona
So…my rant. Back in the day, with zero parental support I bootstrapped through general ed at CC working full time, transferred to UCSD as a sophomore, still working 30 hours/week through undergrad, on to UCSF for med school. Quite affordable in retrospect. I had to pay full price for UCLA MBA, but that was later. The 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education helped me, the state’s economy, and thousands of my patients. Multiply that by the countless Californians who entered the work force with a great education at a reasonable price over the first 40-50 years of the Master Plan. Magic, and very smart public policy.
Now, not so much. California kids with solid (and even spectacular) academic records are being shunted into $70K/year private schools or forced into CC/transfer pathways. Why? Perfect storm. Demographic wave, massive popularity of certain STEM majors, unjustifiable tuition driven by Federal financial aid, cumulative state budget cuts. And the one that really gets me–around a third of coveted UC freshman spots being offered to OOS or international students willing to pay full boat.
My wife and I are approaching retirement. We have two more in the pipeline. From 3 in diapers to 3 in college, yikes!! Children of working professionals get no FA other than loans. The ROI on private undergrad education cannot be justified according to any math I ever learned in business school. So, it’s public or public, and if that doesn’t work, then public. Fortunately, we have denied ourselves a lot and saved in 529 accounts from birth, so a public education for each kid is essentially funded. IF THEY CAN GET IN. Aaargh.
/rant off
@PadreDeTres I would recommend looking at some out of state public with automatic merit benchmarks for scholarships like Ole Miss and Miami Ohio.
In my opinion, after a son graduated chemistry from UCB, we felt that he was unprepared for anything other than grad school-which he attended.
UC’s are expensive, ridiculously competitive (rampant cheating-I guess they learn how in HS) and over-all disappointing in our experience.
My close friend has a pre-med son at UCD and she feels the same way.
Rejected at UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, waitlisted at Davis. I fear these decisions don’t bode well for what’s to come.
Waiting for UCI and UCSB. Will be so frustrated to work so hard just to come up short
As a mom who graduated from college in California in the 90’s I can concur, it’s a different world out there. D17 thank God was accepted at Cal Poly, rejected so far at Davis and SD. I’m nervous about the other UC’s now. With the record number of UC apps this year how high can their yield possibly be? I’m hoping for some waitlists at this point. When I went to college it certainly didn’t cost 25-35k to go to an in state public.
@dragonmom3, all true. S and both Ds prefer to be in state to be close to family. (Be still, my heart!) We learned belatedly about the WUE program and will encourage up-and-coming Ds to apply more broadly.
http://www.wiche.edu/wue
None of this excuses the cheating and gamesmanship that seems to go unchallenged in our dysfunctional educational system. Weigh 'em and count 'em, choose whoever comes out on top, never mind quaint concepts like strength of character, critical thinking and academic integrity. Aaargh x 10!
And don’t get me started on Common Core–I’ll go way off topic! As a victim of the New Math and the Oregon Curriculum in English, I pity the kids who are going to have to learn everything again from scratch once they do get in to college. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.
As tough as this hyper-competitive environment is for the kids themselves, I think the parents suffer at least as much because we see the big picture. And it stinks.
Denied UCSD, Cal Poly SLO and SDSU. Just hoping for one UC to come through. Either UCSC, UCSB.
If not-it will be Purdue or CSUMB
Until today, I never seriously considered CSUMB but after seeing all of the rejections from students with test scores and GPA’s higher than mine, I should be grateful I got into a CSU. I can graduate debt free because of my dad’s Cal Vet status. I got ELC status (in state) so I am guaranteed UC Merced. But no offense to anyone who currently attends, I went up there and I cannot see myself living there for 4 years. Anyone know anything about CSUMB?
I got into Berkeley Regents as a music major (classical Double Bass) but my full intention is to apply to haas and switch to econ in doing so, while having music as a minor. I feel bad because I did not get regents at Davis, and so far have received no academic/merit awards, and therefor feel academically unqualified for Berkeley. I feel like I just stole from the UC system. How bad is this?
You are not unqualified for Berkeley for not getting scholarships at UCD! If anything, you are just a better fit for Cal 
OK, I’ll take a turn. So my son was rejected by UCD, but that was not a surprise; it was a reach for him, as are the remaining UC’s. BUT he was also rejected from SLO, CSULB, and SDSU. But here’s my concern in all this: we came from a very non-competitive community prior to high school. We were all about letting the kids be kids, and enjoy a play-filled childhood. So, when my son started high school, we started slowly, in lower-end classes. He has (with the exception of a rough sophomore year) thrived, and gotten more and more intellectually inclined, and this year, his senior, been thoroughly enjoying a couple great honors classes, where he is in the top of the class. He is well-balanced and has started all four years on a very competitive football team. He loves every part of school, and is excited for college. His teachers love him, and see his enthusiasm and freshness. Don’t we want people to be like this!?!?!? But alas, this is not the path to a competitive state school, and now most of them are.
I don’t fault the schools for their choices - they have to be “fair” * to the kids who have worked so hard after all - and I certainly don’t fault the high-achieving students who worked very hard from probably a young age. I just think it’s sad, AND I think schools might turn out perfectly ready young people, even without this push to start earlier and earlier, achieve higher and higher grades, and with more and more rigor.
Good luck everyone. This will all be a small blip when you are thriving where you end up.
*Post script, off topic: and how fair is it that probably the majority of the highest performing kids are coming from districts and families where kids have all the advantages of good early academic advising, and the opportunity for expensive tutoring and test prep? Off topic, but it irks me when parents think it’s “not fair” that their kid didn’t get in to X school. Maybe it’s “not fair” all the advantages your kid has had, and maybe to some that’s of even greater consequence than not getting to go to one’s dream school. (I’m not a socialist, and not arguing that some advantage is just how it’s going to be…but when those advantaged people cry that “it’s not fair” that their kid didn’t get everything they wanted, well, that’s when I have an issue.
@ANormalSeniorGuy You earned your Regents at Berkeley, why do you feel bad?
In CA, though people don’t like to mention it, the intense academic focus, competition for top grades in AP classes, and the multiple rejections of great students because they don’y measure up is without doubt a consequence of mass immigration of tech workers-first and second generation Asian and Indians.
Just research the names of spelling bee winners, science and math competitions, speech and debate winners, National Merit Finalists…it’s just a fact.
Everyone has to play the game a new way or be left behind.
Is it good or even healthy?
I guess we’ll soon find out.
@beepybeetle Because I believe I got in illegitimately. I applied music knowing full well that I will apply to haas and declare econ if not that. I essentially lied. I dont feel qualified
@dragonmom3 is right in a sense as far as Indian and Asian immigrants, culturally there is a big difference in the emphasis put on school. If that is not your culture you think, shouldn’t my kid have had a childhood, shouldn’t they be well rounded? Well, if you want to go to a UC the answer is increasingly no. With the outlaw of afirmative action the UC’s have become increasingly Asian, often times because these students are afraid of suffering from being an over represented minority in admissions at top tiers and ivies elsewhere. What bothers me more as a parent is the out of state applicants. We are paying taxes to support schools to which our kids have no chance of going to. From our high school you would need to be in the top 1% of your class to even have a chance at getting into UCLA anymore. I don’t mind my kid losing a spot to an in state Asian student with higher stats, that is fair and appropriate. But we don’t need to give away a quarter or more of the coveted spots in our top state schools to out of state and international students. Something is going to have to give on that front.
@ANormalSeniorGuy Honestly, with how intensely competitive college admissions are, your actions are understandable. I can’t say that what you did is right - after all, you might’ve taken the spot from someone who genuinely wanted to study music at Berkeley. But it is still each person’s prerogative to do as they think is best.
Since you’ve already been accepted, I think it’s more important to consider what happens if you choose to go or not. For example, if you do choose to go to Berkeley and declare Econ, but ultimately find out that you’re not as qualified as your peers - then you should understand that that’s a consequence of your own actions. As long as you’re willing to face that & work hard to earn what you got in for, I think it’s fine.
@Teumessian Thanks. I mean I know I can handle Berkeley Econ and Pre-Haas as my best classes are Business and Econ, and I did do research and college classes in econ, but my fear is that I was accepted early unfairly because they saw my stats as a music major, where as for an econ major they would be average.
thankful for being accepted into my selected cal states getting rejected by both ucsd and ucd on friday. definitely crushing to a point. but really hoping that other uc’s will accept me… anyone else on the same boat?
am in same boat staystrong.
I’ve lived and worked in CA my entire career, and as such, paid CA state taxes, of which approx 50% go to our public universities. After being rejected by UCSD, and waitlisted at UCSC (really???), we believe it is unlikely my son (with his 4.15 w GPA, 31 ACT, 790 & 660 SAT II, 9 AP classes (all As & Bs in them, with 4s & 5s on the exams), 8 honors level classes, 3 sport athlete, and runs his own dog sitting biz, will get into a UC (with the exception of Merced or Riverside). My husband and I both graduated from UCs and have told our son that if he takes on a rigorous course load and is active in his community and school, he too will have the good fortune to attend a UC. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case, and my son will likely accept one of his OOS opportunities.
We pay for the UCs via taxes, and will pay again in OOS tuition (unless he accepts a WUE school). Add in the fact that owning a home in CA and having a CA salary immediately excludes us from being eligible for any need-based aid whatsoever, we’re in triple jeopardy.
This whole college process has become such a racket. Sigh!