@CABoyMom Hear, hear. Ditto the sigh.
It’s the changing demographics of our state.
I’m glad this thread actually has some discussions and genuine people gathering together.
I got rejected from Davis and San Diego and am awaiting the rest of the UC’s that follow. Stay positive to students and kudos for these supportive parents.
@CABoyMom: I’m sure you’ve seen this, but it sounds as if there’s a chance to get in from the UCSC waitlist: http://admissions.ucsc.edu/apply/waitlist-student-faq.html. Also, although you might not think of Riverside as a desirable campus, many departments are very good and I personally know more a couple of UCR alums (scientists both) who have done very well in their careers following graduation.
Really sorry to hear : it is unbelievable bc your son’s have high stats indeed? What major is he applying? Still hopeful ! last year UCSC admitted quite a lot from waitlist - Something is v wrong? Is 4.15 UC GPA?
I applied to 8 schools overall and have been accepted into 4 of them so far, waitlisted at 1(UCSD my first choice and dream school for the past six years), rejected at ucla (not surprised that was a reach school), and I’m waiting to hear back from 2.
Looking back, yeah, it was a little weird that when I got my 4 acceptances I wasn’t over the moon ecstatic. It was all because the one that REALLY mattered to me was UCSD. When I saw that I was waitlisted I cried for the entire weekend. Now, one week later, yeah I am still upset about it, but there is not much I can do about it at this point. My brother had written an appeal when he got waitlisted back in 2013 and it ended up being a “waste of time” as he got no response and was eventually denied.
It really bothers me that I’ll most likely have to move relatively far away ( I live 15 min north of UCSD -_-)
A lot of people have told me that I’m ungrateful and that I’m being a “brat” about not getting into UCSD but… I don’t think I am… I hope I’m not. And if so, I think I should be allowed to be a little upset. The type pf people I hang out with have been accepted to ivies and the UCs with regents… so 99% of them haven’t experienced a rejection of any kind.
I don’t really care that I was rejected from UCLA as I had low stats for their type of applicants anyways.
Regardless of the minor letdown, I’m grateful that I have other wonderful choices that I’ve now come to appreciate.
ACCEPTED…SDSU Honors
ACCEPTED… UCI Campus wide Honors Program
ACCEPTED… Cal Poly SLO (will apply for honors)
ACCEPTED…Uc Davis
WAITLISTED… UCSD
REJECTED…UCLA
YET TO HEAR- Cal Berkeley, UCSB
@randomkid98 let yourself grieve but then pick yourself up and look at the other schools with an open mind. CHP at UCI is nice and it isn’t that far from home. Join the FB group or Group Me and see if you feel like it might be a good fit. Are you able to go to the CHP open house on 4/6?
If you want to live at home then you should probably look more closely at SDSU. Their open house is today.
I’ve been really frustrated at UCI. These rolling admissions suck, I wish they’d just tell me if I got in or not! Like 15+ kids in my school got accepted already, but I didn’t. And I’m not saying this to be mean but there’s kids in my classes who flunked classes and they got accepted to UCI with a bio major. How does that make any sense?? I thought UCI was really hard to get into. And I never flunked any classes, I’ve only had As and Bs in high school, and I’m probably going to get waitlisted or rejected! I just feel like I put in all this hard work for nothing… And kids in my classes who cheated on tests or flunked classes got accepted. 
I mean I’m happy they got into a school. Some of them are really nice people. It just upsets me because I always tried to work so hard and be honest, and now it feels as if it got me nowhere!
Then again I should be grateful I got into San Diego and Davis. It just seems weird to me… And Irvine was one of my top choices, I actually liked it better than San Diego.
@CABoyMom really?? That sounds crazy to me. How were his essays?
Did he hear from ucla? My friend got rejected from UCSD, but got accepted to UCLA. Sometimes admissions are really weird.
@RetainerBaby I feel you… Hopefully the admissions have been random and there will be more acceptances on Monday. I also got into Davis but it is so far from me (LA area) that I’m not sure I’ll be attending. Fingers crossed for Irvine though
@blnz11 good luck 
hopefully everything works out!
Just wanted to add my thoughts here. With a son a sophomore at udub and a daughter heading off to college this fall, I feel I can talk about the current circumstances.
Getting into a UC has gotten progressively harder every year. Depending on where you live and which high school you attend(gunn high school as an example), kids with straight As, APs up the wazoo, decent ECs, are a dime a dozen. The competition has gotten extremely fierce. Even kids with such fantastic grades etc aren’t getting into these mid tier UCs.
To parents of children applying next year, make sure your child’s application list is heavily weight with safes. Reset expectations.
Thinking about what you posted here, and rejections kids are experiencing, I think the problem must be grade inflation. It’s a numbers things. If all these kids are getting straight A’s in AP’s and Honors classes, and taking test prep classes, and then applying to the same UC’s which have limited spots, there will be plenty of rejections of students who otherwise seem qualified. And sadly, of students who felt a promise of a UC for their performance. Might the problem be grade inflation? How is it possible that all these kids have such great grades? Whatever happened to A meaning exceptional? Grading on a curve would give the top students a more realistic idea of their college chances. Kids with A’s would not be a dime a dozen, and then it would be reasonable to expect admission to competitive UC’s, because they would be the exceptional ones. It’s sad. It’s not the UC’s fault. It’s the high schools’.
Well I don’t think it’s an issue of grade inflation. At least not where I am located.
Take a look at demographics and the rise in grades is directly proportional to the massive increase in asians.
I believe asians are now a significant majority at most UCs and at some of these high schools the percentage of asians is well over 60%. For the incoming freshman at some of these high schools it is projected at around 80% Asian. In my opinion, there is just a massive spike in exceptional students.
The kids work hard, no doubt.
These-what we used to call “overachievers” - are changing the curve forever
Here in Silicon Valley, most are the children of H1B’s and their life is literally a single-minded trajectory from pre-K-focused on outperforming the competition…meaning mostly each other.
It’s hard for the locals to keep up at the frenzied pace they set… private tutors, summer academics, self-studying AP’s, speech and debate, DECA, math and science competitions, …and SAT and ACT prep that starts in middle school.
Some local schools host 50+ (over 80 at Mission San Jose in Fremont!) National Merit Finalists (and just take a peak at their names)
It’s unhealthy for everyone.
Over 80 national merit finalists(class size around 550) for a single year. That says it all.
Not to downplay on the National Merit Finalists (NM), in one of my district schools, there were about 65 NM out of about 550 students. This was disproportionately highly compared to the other 3 schools in the district averaging about 10 to 15 scholars with each of the school having about 550 students. The surnames of many of these NMs are Asians (primarily E. Indian, Chinese and Koreans), especially the school that had 65 NMs. Many of the parents of these kids are foreign born and as soon as the child reaches grade school, they start the long journey in the preparation to get into the best colleges and prepare for the SAT early, which helps with the PSAT to determine NMs.
My son had a girlfriend (who has foreign born parent) who was a NM. She studied for the SAT at least a year before taking the PSAT in her junior year. In her competitive high school, she also struggled in AP Calculus and got a “C” grade.
In the old days when I was in high school, kids did not prepare for the SAT early (not even the kids with immigrant parents). Kids just went in and took the PSAT and SAT cold with very limited studying. My high school was an all academic college prep high school (the only one in the district) and there were about 12 NMs out of a class of 600. The other schools in that district would be lucky just to have 1 or 2 NMs, The NMs in the old days were the truely smart ones.
My point is: I know there are still some very smart kids today, but it seems like NMs today have been “diluted” compared to the ones decades ago. How times have changed. This is just my opinion.
I couldn’t agree more. My kid has handled the process better than I have. What this process has taught me is if your kid doesn’t take Senior Seminar or pay for a college advisor than you may as well not apply to top tier UC’s. I’m so thankful for schools like Cal Poly SLO who use the MCA system so that kids who work and have EC’s and take AP classes are put on a more level playing field. Personal insights are very subjective and I believe introduce a way to identify ones race or ethnicity without being blatantly obvious. The system is supposed to help those kids who may not have the best scores or grades due to a socioeconomic or other reason to put up barriers that others do not have to overcome. However, why does it have to hurt the high achieving kids who can succeed at the UC’s but don’t have a tragic story to tell?
I don’t think we can assume that rejections have anything to do with tragic stories or race. There are a lot of ways that one can approach their essays to hopefully standout in a positive way. I think it makes sense to include everything. Numbers alone don’t say enough. All of that sad, man, it’s just sad what has happened.
You are right, Jesse’s girl. After I reread my post, it sounds a little bitter. The kids who get in deserve the best college and best experience that CA offers. It’s definitely frustrating and exhilarating for everyone involved in the process. No matter the outcome, every kid will make their college experience their own. Best of luck to all of the great kids out there!!!