Welcome prospective Anteaters. It’s that time of year again as the UC application has now opened and submission starts October 1 through November 30. I am @Gumbymom one of the two UC Forum Champions/Moderators. My Co-Forum Champion is @lkg4answers and we are knowledgeable on the increasingly complicated UC admissions process and hopefully we can help any prospective UC applicants with their questions.
UC Irvine like all the UC’s are test blind and will use 13 areas of criteria to review Freshman applicants. Each campus will weight the various areas of criteria differently so one size does not fit all. The UC application website has plenty of information that can help determine if UC Irvine is a good option when applying. Below is some admit information specific to the school.
Very important : Academic GPA, Personal Insight questions, Extracurricular activities, Rigor of secondary school record, Talent/ability, Volunteer work, Work experience
Important : Character/personal qualities
Considered : First Generation, Geographical residence, State residency
Note: Demonstrated record of academic preparation, educational engagement, talent and skills important.
UCI admits into the University first and then into the major. In the case that UCI is unable to accommodate all qualified applicants in their first-choice major, those students who indicate a valid alternate major may be offered admission in that major or Undeclared.
Hi, was reading last year’s admission discussion thread and saw a lot of Rejected or Waitlisted CS applicants, many of whom seemed very strong. Did all of these applicants not put an alternate major or their alternate major was in another super-selective college, such as Samueli School of Engineering?
Really, how can there be so many superb STEM applicants? Hope this bodes well for our technological prowess for the next few decades.
UCI has gotten more selective over the last several years which is true for all the UC’s along with getting an increasing # of applicants. There are just far more qualified/competitive applicants than spots available.
If no alternate major is listed, then the default major is Undeclared but yes some applicants that applied to highly competitive majors such as CS/Engineering/Business Admin etc… may have also listed another selective major as their alternate major.
UCI’s most popular applied majors. It was stated that 56% of the applicants chose these majors:
Biological Sciences
Business Administration
Computer Science
Psychology BS
Nursing
Undecided/Undeclared
Mechanical Engineering
Computer Science and Engineering
Criminology
Economics
UCI Preliminary Waitlist information for Fall 2022. UCI took a cautious approach to admissions last year and utilized the waitlist more than previous years. I will be starting a new discussion thread in February 2023 for Waitlisted applicants with much more information and data.
Waitlist offers: 23904
Waitlist admits: 4818
Checked the website code; the dot is a close button for a chat bot (Gecko Chat Widget) that doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. Doesn’t mean anything!
Historically CHP (Campus Wide Honors) and Regent notifications were posted in Late February. This is the timeline for 2022.
UCI: CHP admits March 11, 2022. The rest of the Decisions on March 18, 2022.
I believe Regent notifications went out on March 18, 2022.
If I chose undeclared social science as my alternate major am I at a disadvantage because I put business administration as my primary. should I try to change it to something else like business econ?
I always suggest you select the majors in which you want to pursue. If Business Econ is a better option for you vs Undeclared Social science then I would change it if possible. You are not at any disadvantage other than if you get admitted into a major you have no interest in studying.
Also UCI will admit students into Undeclared if their first two major options are oversubscribed.
Thanks for the reply,
When I asked the UCI bot if major affects admissions it said “Because we admit by major, you want to select the major(s) that you are truly interested in when applying.”
"You have both a primary choice and alternate choice in the UC Application.
Make sure you utilize both options while to maximize your chances of admission to UCI "
I’m just worried I might be screwed because I put Business admin as my primary major
