UC Davis Freshman Class of 2027 Waitlist/Appeal Thread

Also, when did u get off?

I’ll apologize up front as this will likely be a bit of a manifesto to get some things off my chest. My son was finally notified he is off the waitlist at Davis, but it’s too little too late for him. As an Aggie alum, going in to this process in the fall I had secretly hoped he would have an opportunity to attend UCD. Also, his brother is a junior, so thought it would be a familiar and comfortable transition for him (in state, close to home). Parental bias aside, he’s a great student (4.0 UW, I think when he applied it was 4.3 W), 5’s in all of his AP tests save one 4, great ACT scores (submitted), good volunteer experience, Eagle Scout, state qualifier in his sport two years and All State Jazz musician. I have always preached to my kids they need to be well rounded to stand out. Long process to get to this decision, but he decided to only apply to schools in CA. One private school was recruiting him for sports, small LAS (won’t name it, don’t want to bash). He applied ED1 and after a pre-read and support from coaching he was feeling confident in Nov. He still applied to 7 UC’s to round things out. Yeah I know that’s not enough schools, but more on that later. Well, late Nov came and a flat rejection from the private school and everyone on that campus ghosted him…no response, no offer on feedback or options, nothing. So he turned the page and waited patiently for the UC’s and in the end one school offer an acceptance by the end of March. He was waitlist at Davis and one other UC, but at this point it took a significant toll on his psyche and he ended up in counseling to work through various things as the stress was too much on him. At the end of the day he made peace with his one acceptance, committed to that one school mostly because he just needed to be done with the process and didn’t need more rejection. In comes the parental viewpoint here, but this system is broken, that’s the only way I can rationalize what happened. After a few months thinking about it, too many students apply to too many schools. I feel this board fed in to my conclusion I’m making, as I read over and over how students received multiple acceptance to multiple top schools. Well, here’s a story to try and balance that out, it didn’t happen in my son’s case. There are various opinions I have on why, which I won’t expand on given they are opinions, but one main reason I’ve concluded is because there are too many students being accepted to multiple UC’s at the same time. I’ve spoken to many people in the last few months about their experiences, and one story I’ll share is from a colleague who attended university outside of the US. She was limited to applying to 4 schools, and rank stacked. They had specific conditions that had to be met in order to be able to add them to their list. I know this will go nowhere in the US (or in California where it seems like a larger issue), but I feel a system like this would be best….limit students on a fix number of schools they can apply to. There’s just no reason to apply to 20+ schools. Alright, grip unloaded, and in the end I’m happy that my son’s happy. I still have one more child to suffer through this process in 5 years and it’s already causing me anxiety.

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What school did your kid choose?

Why is it too late for Davis? I would think if he really wants Davis, he can still choose to go, the only thing is that he/you lost the SIR fee for the other school and maybe housing deposit.

Hallelujah! I am a mother of a very similar son. 4.0, Eagle Scout, great, AP scores… We are also California based, local to the area, and I am a UCD alumni. My son also decided to apply to mostly schools in the united states/California; thank goodness he applied to one international school. My son is still waiting on the waitlist at UC Davis. Rejected From all the other UC’s. And excepted the international school with reluctance. He is young and really not ready to move so very far away. This process has completely broken his sense of belonging and ambition. He feels rejected by his home.
The system is utterly broken, and the promises made by the university of California to the people of California have been sidestepped. When the University of California was granted the land on which they built their system throughout the state, the promise was that they would Educate Californians. During the master plan in the 1960s that promise was solidified and if you managed to get into the top 9% in your high school and your high school was accredited. Then you would have automatic admission into your local UC. At the moment, that automatic admission comes in the form of admission to UC Merced , a school my son did not even apply to and yet somehow got admitted. I feel like that is a total Cop out of the local promise. Further, throughout the state, there is an acknowledgment that the community college system and the supposed guaranteed transfer admission, is a difficult and often lengthy process which causes most students to divert from their original goals because of their inability to get classes. I can attest to the fact that a guaranteed transfer admission student has no guarantee of gaining admission as my nephew recently enrolled in his fifth year at a community college, and has driven hours, to classes within the California community college system simply to try and get his required transfer courses and transfer to a UC.
I will be a bit more explicit, in my opinion. The openly stated emphasis on providing preferential admission to students in “disadvantaged high schools “ is already having a detrimental effect. People are being driven out of the state of California in part because their children can’t succeed here anymore. Middle-class, tax paying families are supporting the UC system and being specifically left out of the admission process upon the assumption that those families can afford to find other opportunities for their children further away, or in private schools. This assumption is false, and the admissions system is deeply flawed and damaging many students in California.

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should we expect no more admits from davis at this point?

@Davisn8t @IDmanners I too, am a parent of a high school senior, just completed the college app season. Although son’s result is ok, in fact, he did poorly with private colleges but rather well with public universities (out of state and in state), I have friends whose children did not do too well. One of them was also only accepted by Merced and is now committed to our local community college. Luckily this kid will be playing his sport on the community college team where our club coach also coaches. One of them only received UC Santa Cruz and is heading to an out of state public college where they did not get any financial aid. A fellow parent said that once upon a time, the UC system has a match/ranking system so the applicant will receive the highest ranked school. I wonder if that could help with the college app madness in recent years. @Davisn8t Maybe one option is to attend Merced then apply for transfer to Davis? A colleague’s daughter was able to transfer from UCSC to UCD a couple of years ago. @IDmanners Now your son is admitted by UCD, is he taking on the offer? I hope he does! It’s never too late to get off waitlist of a place one likes. A few years ago, my older son’s teammate got off waitlist (Stanford) in end of July and happily attended. In the hindsight, we are just relieved that son did apply to 20+ schools (including all 9 UC campuses, 6 campuses in the Cal state system). It’s not more work than applying to 1 UC and/or 1 Cal State U, just a bit more application fee. I joke about just go out to dinner fewer times to pay for the app fees:)
Good luck to all graduated high school seniors heading to their new adventures!

This is part of the problem - the way people view each individual UC campus.

Decisions should not be made based on the overall ranking of a UC but rather the opportunities available to that particular student at that particular campus. Phrases like ‘only UC Santa Cruz’ or ‘only UC Merced’ are not helpful in the long run.

My daughter’s example: she chose UC Santa Cruz over UC Davis because she’s interested in the gaming industry. UC Santa Cruz has a huge gaming department with multiple options for study and further study. It’s on the doorstep of the silicon valley and is ranked #2 in the state for that particular subject. (USC ranked #1). Davis is nowhere on the list. It cannot offer her the same opportunities.

Just as you wouldn’t choose UCSB over UCD if you wanted to study animal medicine.

Time and time again far too much emphasis is put on these supposed overall ‘rankings’ when what we should be doing is teaching our kids to search for the right college that suits their individual needs, not looking for which one carries the most perceived ‘prestige’.

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His mind is made up, so it’s a no to Davis (as much as that pains me)

Santa Cruz, MCD major. It’s a good program and he’s at peace with his decision.

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Yes he could have accepted the waitlist offer, but he doesn’t want to change his decision as this point.

is it too late to write a loci

UC Davis has stated they will not accept additional documentation other than opting into the waitlist and updated grades which were due April 15.

No letters of recommendation, transcripts or other documents are needed.

There is no evidence that individuals which claim they submitted an LOCI were admitted off the waitlist due to this submission since UCD has stated the following.

The process is very specific to courses of study and the capacity of our campus to support all of our admitted students. Because of this, the list is not ranked and the number of offers extended will depend upon the number of spaces available and how many students we expect to accept the offer.

You can submit a LOCI, however will it be even looked at by admissions or help your chances???

i just want to make sure they haven’t forgotten that im on the waitlist :sob::sob:

Now I wonder when people quote GPA’s are they quoting their high school transcript GPA or the capped UC GPA? These two figures are quite different for my student due to the UC system cap.

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anyone knows if UCD has sent rejection letter yet? last year was June 10th.

Last year they closed the waitlist on June 10 with all waitlisted students still waiting for a decision, getting a rejection email.

If they follow their usual process, denied students would have posted on this site and you would have been notified the waitlist has been closed which appears to be not the case so far.

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Still on the waitlist as far as I know and just checked the website.

Seems like there is no movement in terms of people getting off of the waitlist.
Don’t know if its only for CS Major or for all others too.
Can somebody still have hope?

No decision = No decision. Until you are denied, you are still on the waitlist and there is still some hope. Just remember the longer the process drags out, the lower the chances that many students will be pulled from the waitlist.

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