***uc santa barbara class of 2023 decision thread (stats only)***

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Barbara
41

Decision: Admitted

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Electrical Engineering

Academic stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 3.93
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.2

Rank, percentile rank, or percentile range (if available): 15%
Comments about course load (including senior year): 4 Honors, 10 APs, 4 College level classes
SAT (total and sections): 1550, 750 R/W, 800 Math
SAT Subject Tests (if any): 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 19 Essay
AP exams (scores in parentheses): World History (4), Biology (4), Chemistry (5), Calc AB (5), Physics (5)
Comp Sci A (5), AP US History (5), Calc BC (TBD), Physics C (TBD), French (TBD), Comp Sci Principles (TBD)

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Technology Student Association 7 State Level Awards & 4 National, National History Day 2 State, 2 National

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: Cheerleading (Captain 11 & 12), First Robotics (Asst Team Lead, Team Lead, Driver), French Honor Society (Secretary), School Mentors Program (Planning Committee Lead), NHS, Tri-M, TSA, Cross Country, School Ambassador (tours of the school to potential students and community outreach), Band Section Leader
Job/Work Experience: Summer Camp Counselor
Volunteer/Community service: Tutoring, Community Cheerleading coach (6 hours a week throughout the school year 10th, 11th and 12th grade)
Summer Activities: Fundraising for Community cheer organization, Summer Camp counselor @ STEM camp

Essays (topics, details): Creativity using Legos ad K’nex, Spending time with my Grandfather, Leadership with Cheerleading/Community cheer, Significant Challenge Overcome

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): Nebraska
High school type: Private

Gender: Female
Race/ethnicity: White

Applied for need-based financial aid?: No
Pell grant eligible?: No

Highest level of parent education: PhD and Masters
Living with both, one, or no parents?: Both
Relation to alumni of college: None

Reflection

Strengths: Excellent Math & Science related courses with all A’s. Interesting STEM related Electives
Weaknesses: A couple of questionable grades first semester of freshman year. All A’s with 2 B’s since.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think I was accepted because of my decent stats and excellent leadership experience.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: Georgia Tech, Purdue, UIUC, CU Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, UC Davis, UCSB. Deferred: Cornell. Still waiting for: UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley, Duke

42

Decision: Accepted

Accepted for Undeclared (not accepted for first or second choice major)

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1150 Math:620 R/W: 530
ACT (breakdown): 23
SAT II:
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 3.87
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 24/596
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World (2), AP Chemistry (1), AP Spanish and Culture (5), APUSH (2), AP Lang (2),
AP Calculus (Currently taking), AP Physics (Currently taking), AP Government
(Currently taking)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Government, Yearbook, Economics, AP Physics, AP Calculus AB, AVID, Computer
Graphics, Advanced Composition and two dual enrollment classes: Intro to Arduino and Intro
to Robotics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): AVID Club, Interact Club, Chicano Latino Club (Treasurer), National
Honors Society, California Scholarship Federation, Calculus Club,
Yearbook
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: Community Service with AVID Club, Interact Club, Chicano Latino Club, National Honors
Society, California Scholarship Federation. Community Service included helping local
churches, city events, holiday events, rose parade, food banks, tutoring. (Total Approx
150+)
Summer Activities: Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (11th)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Not a great writer so I would say about a 6
Supplemental Review or LOR submission:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Computer Science
State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 30k
ELC Eligibility: No
First Generation: Yes

Reflection

Strengths: Extracurricular, first generation, community service
Weaknesses: GPA, SAT
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Extracurricular, first generation, community service
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: Cal State Fullerton
Rejected: San Jose State
Waiting For: UCI, UCSD, UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly slo

General Comments
If this doesn’t give you hope than I don’t know what will

43

ACCEPTED :smile: BIO MAJOR

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1170 Composite 640 English, 530 Math
ACT (breakdown): 25 Composite, 25 English, 19 Math, 31 Reading, 24 Science
SAT II: N/A
Capped Weighted UC GPA: idk tbh
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 52/432
AP (place score in parenthesis): Ap euro (3) Ap lang (3) Ap enviro (2) ( not on my apps lol) ap us (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): none
Senior Year Course Load: ap spanish, ap lit, speech and debate, AP psych, ap gov, honors pre calc , student government
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student government 4 years, speech and debate 4 years (state qualifier, vice president) , link crew, cheerleader, track and field
Job/Work Experience: almost a year @ topgolf
Volunteer/Community service: girl scouts for 10+ years
Summer Activities: work, community service, volunteer at CA state fair
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 8/10, wrote about overcoming life challenges and being able to push through things that have set me back
Supplemental Review or LOR submission:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Aquatic Bio ( pre bio)
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: medium-large
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Low-income
ELC Eligibility: Yes
First Generation: no

Reflection

Strengths: Extracurriculars, leadership, volunteer
Weaknesses: GPA ( only 4.1) , SAT/ACT
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
I think my leadership and extracurriculars is what helped me the most
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: Sac state, Hofstra, ASU, tulane, Baylor, pepperdine, UCR, CSUSM, LU
Waitlisted: None
Rejected: SDSU (not sure why)

General Comments:
UC’s look for the full package of a student; only having academics or extracurriculars will not help you. You must have a variety of everything.

44

Decision: Admitted

Merit scholarships awarded (if any): None

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Pre-Economics & Accounting, L&S Honors Program

Academic stats:

Calculate your GPAs with https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
UC Unweighted GPA: 3.90
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.23
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.64
ELC eligibility (Top (9% HS): I don’t know

Rank, percentile rank, or percentile range (if available): school does not rank
Comments about course load (including senior year): all possible honors classes, AP Human Geography, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Psychology, AP US History, AP American Government, AP Microeconomics, AP Physics 1, AP English Literature, AP Statistics
SAT (total and sections): 1540 (760 RW, 800 Math), 17 Essay (7/3/7)
ACT (total and sections): N/A
SAT Subject Tests (if any): 760 Math II, 710 US History, 700 Chemisty
AP exams (scores in parentheses): AP Human Geography (5), AP Chemistry (4), AP Calculus BC (4), AP Psychology (5), AP US History (5)
IB exams (score in parentheses): N/A
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Eagle Scout, Eagle Palm, National Merit Commended, AP Scholar with Distinction, won medals at multiple international taekwondo tournaments for sparring (58 kg)

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: Senior Patrol Leader (Boy Scouts of America), Assistant Senior Patrol Leader (BSA), Taekwondo 2nd Degree Black Belt, Takewondo Sparring Competitor, Track and Field, Librarian (BSA)
Job/Work Experience: Private Tutor (2.5 hr/wk during school year), Taekwondo Instructor (2.5 hr/wk during summer)
Volunteer/Community service: Shadetree Partnership at UCI, Merit Badge Instructor (BSA), Orange County Public Library, Personal Finance Club Officer
Summer Activities: West Point Summer Leaders Experience, US Naval Academy Summer Seminar, COSMOS UCI, Taekwondo Instructor

Essays (topics, details): Eagle Scout Project (discussed my creative approach to the project, how I got inspiration from the McDonald’s menu board, and execution of the project), Tutoring (went over background of my tutoring business and how I made adjustments to manage time better), Overcoming learning disability (pretty self-explanatory, discussed need for tenacity to overcome obstacles), ROTC/Military (talked about my experiences at the service academy summer programs and how I realized that I want to pursue the military during college via ROTC or enlistment in a civilian school setting)
Letters of recommendation: N/A for UCs

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): California, In-State
Country (if international applicant): N/A
High school type: highly competitive public school with graduating class of around 800 students

Gender: Male
Race/ethnicity: Asian; Chinese/Korean

Applied for need-based financial aid?: Yes
Pell grant eligible?: No
Maximum Pell grant (FAFSA EFC = $0)?: N/A

Highest level of parent education: Bachelor’s Degree
Living with both, one, or no parents?: both parents
Relation to alumni of college: None

Reflection

Strengths: SAT I, GPA, course rigor, focus on a few extracurricular with heavy involvement
Weaknesses: SAT IIs, essays, lack of a number of extracurriculars
Why you think you were accepted: SAT I, GPA, course rigor, focus on a few extracurricular with heavy involvement
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: awarded Army ROTC scholarship (conditional on acceptance to schools and medical quantification), deferred from Georgetown EA, accepted to Santa Clara with half-tuition merit scholarship, deferred from UMichigan EA, deferred from UVirginia EA, accepted to Cal State Fullerton Business Honors Program, accepted to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

General Comments: Good luck to future applicants. Work on your application throughout the summer and set deadlines for yourself so that you can have more free time during the first half of your senior year.

45

Accepted !!!
In state
Undeclared college of Biological sciences
UC GPA: 3.9
SAT: 1430 (710 English 720 math)
Other: Nationally ranked and medaled fencer, 75+ hours volunteer word, student body Vice President, president and founder of high school honor society, took 2 UC Davis classes over the summer (sent as a separate transcript) and received As in both, violin player in one of the best orchestras, good essays, first generation American
Admitted: SFSU, Saint Mary’s, NJIT, Hofstra, Fordham, Boston College, University of Minnesota,Temple Honors, Reed, Brandeis
Waitlisted: UCD, UCSC
Rejected: George Washington

46

Son Admitted
Major:Mechanical Engineering
SAT 1480
GPA Unweighted 4.0
GPA UC capped 4.33
UC Fully weighted 4.58
Class Rank 4/728
11 AP classes including senior year. All 4 or 5’s for tests taken
Internships, work experience, sports all 4 years including team captain in 11th and 12th, tons of community service and active in youth group and church service
Accepted: UCSD, UCSB, UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, CSULB, SDSU Honors, University of Arizona (full scholarship)
In State
Will likely go to Cal Poly SLO (his first choice and better fit for him personally)

47

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 700 Eng 590 Math
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10
Senior Year Course Load: AP Eng, AP Econ, Lab Assistant, Human Anat./Phis, Spanish
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Black Student Union (Publisher/VP), Feminist Coalition
Volunteer/Community service: Sickle Cell Anemia organization
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 10, really thought they were phenomenal

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Pre-Biology
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Large
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Low
ELC Eligibility: Yes
First Generation: Yes

Reflection

Strengths: Essays,
Weaknesses: GPA
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I’m still in shock. I never though it would happen!
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Waitlisted for Wellesley, Rejected at UCLA, UCSD & USC :frowning:

General Comments:
I’m really happy that I have UCSB as an option! It’s a great school :slight_smile:

48

ACCEPTED

4.05 UC Capped
4.00 UW
ACT: 30 (W: 8)
Chem AP: 4

49

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1560 (790 Math, 760 Eng)
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 48/537 Weighted
AP (place score in parenthesis): 4 (APES, World, Lang) 3 (Bio, Phys 1)

Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Chem, H Economics, PoliSci 150 (college), Eng 103 (college)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): CA Legislature Leadership

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4 Wind Ensemble/Marching band (3 years as a student leader), 2 years of DCI

Volunteer/Community service: CSF
Summer Activities: DCI
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 7.5

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Econ (pre-Econ)
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public
Gender: M
Income Bracket: Middle class

50

Decision: Rejected
Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Biochemistry

Academic stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 4.00
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.89
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.44
Eligibility in Local Context?: yes

Rank, percentile rank, or percentile range (if available): 2
Comments about course load (including senior year): 12 aps
SAT (total and sections): Total 1580 MATH 790 ENGLISH 790
SAT Subject Tests (if any): Chem 800
AP exams (scores in parentheses): Calc 5 Stats 5 Lit 5 Chem 5 Bio 5 Physics 5 US History 5 EnglishComp 5

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: ASB President, 4 year varsity baseball (2 year captain)
Job/Work Experience: 1 year as a company driver, 1 year at Kohls
Volunteer/Community service: 200+ hours at local hospital, and smaller events
Summer Activities: Baseball, college courses

Essays (topics, details): role as asb pres, relationship with mom, making school videos, importance of my agenda

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
High school type: large public

Gender: male

Applied for financial aid?: yes
Highest level of parent education: none
Living with both, one, or no parents?: one
Income bracket: lower class

Reflection

Strengths: Academics
Weaknesses: Perhaps my essays, however I was given a lot of help from college professors and editors. I felt they were strong.
Supp: I got the supplemental questionnaire too and answered both questions strongly maintained A’s.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: No clue :frowning:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: A lot :frowning:
Accepted: Cal Poly SLO
Waitlisted: Davis
Rejected: UCSB

General Comments
I’m destroyed, I haven’t gotten into a UC and probably won’t. SB was my number 1, still waiting on Cal but looking like I’ll be attending Cal Poly SLO fall 2019. Getting a good gpa and test score and decent ec isn’t enough I guess, feel like all my work has gone to waste.

51

Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): didn’t send
ACT (breakdown): ACT Plus Writing Composite 32

ACT Subscore - English 35, ACT Subscore - Math 30

ACT Subscore - Reading 35, ACT Subscore - Science 26
ACT Subscore - ELA 31
SAT II: didn’t send
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 4.11
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calculus AB (4), Statistics (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): History of the Americas HL (5), English A HL (6), Psychology SL (5)
Senior Year Course Load: IB English HL, IB Psychology SL, AP Statistics, IB History HL, and two electives.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): School musicals and plays, five total; original student run plays, three total (wrote and directed); student-run literary magazine (Content Director, Editor-in-Chief); female student-run acapella group (Leader, Arranger)
Job/Work Experience: Hom Korean Kitchen (restaurant, worked there for nine months)
Volunteer/Community service: none
Summer Activities: student-run literary magazine
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Wrote my UC essays about my experience with music, overcoming personal struggles, one of my greatest skills, and my leadership experience
Supplemental Review or LOR submission: I had LORs written by my junior year AP Calc teacher and my junior year IB History teacher

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: Pre-Psychological and Brain Sciences
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public high school
Gender: female
Income Bracket: upper middle
ELC Eligibility: no
First Generation: no

Reflection:
Strengths: Extracurriculars, AP/IB
Weaknesses: grades in sophomore year (U/W gpa: 3.4), essays
Why you think you were accepted: I feel like I’m pretty well-rounded and I devoted a lot of my time to things outside of school
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: University of Washington, University of Puget Sound, Willamette University, San Diego State, Oregon State, Whitman College
Rejected: University of Southern California, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, UC Irvine

General Comments: To be honest I hated UCSB at first but now I’m so glad I’m going here. It already feels like home :,)

52

Decision: Accepted

Objective
SAT I (breakdown): 1520 (720 Reading, 800 Math, 5/6/6 Writing)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (35 English, 33 Mathematics, 34 Reading, 36 Science, 8 Writing)
SAT II: 800 Math Level II, 740 Literature
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 4.27
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 22 (out of ~600)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geography (4), World History (3), Chemistry (4), Language and Composition (4), US History (4) [Senior Year (scores not considered for UC deadline): American Government (3), Calculus AB (2 lol), Pyschology (5), Macroeconomics (3), Literature and Composition (3)]
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: 5 APs (mentioned in AP score section above), 1 free 6th period
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Congressional Award (worked for my congresswoman), 3x Presidential Gold Award for Volunteer Service, City Achievement Award from Mayor, American Cancer Society Excellence Award

Subjective
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Promoting Youth Advocacy (President), NHS (Exec Board Secretary), CSF (class secretary), Environmental Leadership Academy
Job/Work Experience: Online Business icubemart.com (COO/CDO), Office of Congresswoman Judy Chu (Intern)
Volunteer/Community service: Library Rubik’s Cube Program (Founder/Host), American Cancer Society (SoCal Chinese Committee: Youth Chair)
Summer Activities: attended Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies (Java & Robotics), Brown Pre-College Program (Econometrics), Georgetown University Summer Institute (American Politics), took community college courses, ran library program, service events
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 6/10 based on my personal expectations. I know I’m not a poor writer, affirmed by my peers/teachers/self lol. But I didn’t let any uniqueness show on the UC essays: I wrote about discovering my passion for politics despite my Asian immigrant parents frowning upon it, elaborated on my time volunteering in the American Cancer Society committee, learning advocates’ struggles through trying to lower my school district board voting age, and how art strengthened my perfectionist/calculative-ness despite being a creative outlet. **MY MISTAKE: The essays were well-written, but they lacked originality. Write about niche things, be edgy, even if it is the UCs. I felt much more comfortable stepping out of the box in my private school essays, but I wish I didn’t shy away in the UC essays either. It really would help you stand out. My friend got into UCLA by submitting a poem, a short dialogue, and two tiny weeny essays. It’s not a risk if it’s well done.

Supplemental Review or LOR submission: Wasn’t asked to submit any

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Political Science (did emphasize my want to double in Economics)
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $250-300k
ELC Eligibility: Yes
First Generation: No

Reflection
Strengths: strong extracurricular activities, solid (not the best) grades/rank, good test scores
Weaknesses: essays fell short of special, kind of your stereotypical Asian-American resume (minus majoring in PoliSci), didn’t do anything especially outstanding that stretched past my community
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: my stats were easily above the threshold for UCSB and I wasn’t applying in a super impacted major
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted to UCSD, waitlisted for UCLA/UCI/Georgetown/NYU, deferred from Brown ED (then rejected), rejected from all the Ivies I applied to and Stanford

General Comments: Definitely feel like I got scuffed from some conventionally “better” schools, but I’m committed to UCSB and could not be happier. If anyone still in high school is reading this and has questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to me!!