Not all Colleges on each UC campus admits by major for Freshman applicants however, for Transfers you are admitted by major. Yes, the transfer info is great.
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It’s the number of AP semesters.
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Alright well it’s March and that means admissions season!
Hey yall! I’m a current first year Computer Engineering student who was admitted for the Fall 2022 cycle.
I was curious and did a FERPA review of my admissions file – I got to see what the admissions officers thought of my application.
Link:
I’ve just about finished midterm season for my second quarter here at UCSB and I have a little bit more time now 
Please let me know if you have any questions at all, about social life, academics, whether UCSB is a party school, admission etc. I’m happy to share my experiences, good and bad.
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How to request the FERPA review? Just email the admission and request a score?
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Just to clarify in case anyone isn’t familiar — this is only available for your application at the institution where you end up enrolling.
Thank you for sharing Edward. Would you be able to tell us about co-ops/internship opportunities at UCSB? Also, how about job placements?
Any idea if the kids didn’t take community college classes - Will he get accepted?
Community college classes aren’t required to be a competitive applicant. My '21 grad attends UCSB and took none. She demonstrated academic rigor through numerous AP classes.
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CC classes are weighted the same as UC approved Honors,AP and IB classes. The UC’s want to see that you have challenged yourself by taking any of these type of rigorous courses.
As noted CC classes are not a requirement to be competitive.
Though AP and college class treated the same for application/GPA calculation purpose, AP credit cannot be use to fulfill General Education requirements in “some” UCs. For example, my son got 5 in his AP World history, AP psychology, AP English literature and AP calculus AB classes, he majors in computer engineering at Davis. Only AP calculus and English literature are used to fulfill calculus 1 and freshman English writing courses. The others AP are just converted to university credits without fulfilling any classes/requirement. He also took one government and one US history class from CC during dual enrollment in high school, these 2 classes fulfills both high school’s and college’s government and US history requirement.
Yes, UC Davis and UCLA are two schools that do not allow APs to be used for general education. However, UCSB does. If you want to check which APs can be applied towards general ed credits at UCSB, you can look at the AP Chart in their catalog or on the University of California website.
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Hello,
My name is [EDWARD] and I’m a current First Year Computer Engineering student at UCSB. I was admitted to UCSB during the Fall 2022 admissions cycle.
I am writing to request access to and a copy of all documents held by the UC Santa Barbara Office of Admissions pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA. This includes a complete copy of any admissions records kept in my name in any and all university offices and all associated content (including without limitation the qualitative and quantitative assessment of any ‘readers’, demographics data, etc.)
FERPA prohibits the imposition of a fee to review documents (per 34 CFR Sec. 99.11(b)).
If you choose to redact any portion of any documents responsive to this request, please provide a written explanation for the redaction including a reference to the specific statutory exemption(s) upon which you rely. Also, please provide all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material.
As per 34 CFR Sec. 99.10(b), these records must be made available for my inspection within 45 days of this request.
I look forward to receiving a full response within 45 calendar days.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
[EDWARD]
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Didn’t take a single community college class, was still admitted!
Context - am a Bay Area Asian male attending a competitive public high school.
GPA - 4.27 weighted capped, 4.55 weighted uncapped. I believe something like 3.95 unweighted?
Some of my other results:
UC Berkeley - EECS, Rejected
UC San Diego - Computer Engineering, Waitlisted->Rejected
UC Santa Barbara - Computer Engineering, Accepted
UC Santa Cruz - Computer Engineering, Accepted with Honors College and Regents Scholarship
UC Davis - Computer Science and Engineering, Waitlisted->Rejected
UC Riverside - Computer Engineering, Accepted
UC Merced - Computer Science and Engineering, Accepted
UC Irvine - Computer Engineering, Waitlisted → Rejected
a few OOS schools:
UIUC → Computer Engineering → Accepted
Georgia Tech → Computer Engineering, Waitlisted → Rejected
Purdue → First Year Engineering, Accepted
UW Madison → Computer Engineering, Accepted
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I can only speak to the situation for Engineering students since I’m a Computer Engineer, and I can only say so much since I’m only a first year student.
- In my experience, there are quite a few local companies that recruit very heavily from the school’s ECE department for interns. The Santa Barbara area’s main industry in terms of tech is mostly for the defense industry. Goleta, CA is actually the closest city to campus and it’s filled many companies, mostly defense contractors, who heavily recruit students. Look on Google Maps, north of campus is Hollister Road, where a lot of the companies are located. For example, Raytheon has a large facility, right outside campus. A ton of those companies I’ve had contact with. Bigger companies like Amazon and Microsoft also come to the career fairs to recruit.
- With that being said, this is a large public university after all and jobs and internships won’t be just given to you. The university does a good job in my opinion with directly sending undergrads job listings, but they won’t apply for it for you. I think it’s very similar to the other UCs.
- I don’t think we have any co-op programs that I know of, but like I said local engineering recruitment is pretty strong.
- UCSB makes it quite easy to get into undergraduate research, ESPECIALLY as an engineer. The school has an unusually low number of graduate students, which actually opens up a lot of opportunites for undergrads. We were told that this was intentional, to give undergrads a richer experience.
Specifically for the College of Engineering, I think one of our biggest strengths is how small the program is! The UCSB College of Engineering is only around 1500 undergrads total, and I believe it’s actually the smallest engineering college in the entire UC system. For reference, UCSD has more than 6000 undergrads. I remember that this was a very important factor when I chose UCSB, and it definitely bore fruit. In my major of Computer Engineering, there are typically only around 60 entering CEs per year! I believe the ECE department also has a student to faculty ratio of 6:1.
I like to think of the College of Engineering as a STEM-focused liberal arts college within the university! Because the program is deliberately kept small, there really is a sense of community among the engineers here. I’ve never felt lost in the crowd, or anything like that. It’s also meant very good class sizes and excellent access to faculty.
I have a friend at Berkeley, and his intro level CS class (CS 61a) has nearly 2000 people! That kind of situation is unthinkable to me. My intro CS class last quarter (CS 16) was only 125 people, with enrollment priority given to EEs, CEs and CS. I feel like I can really access my professors really well here. Meeting with faculty is as simple as going to office hours and talking one on one or sending an email. My Berkeley friend told me a story about having to wait a long time until he could get help with an assignment at office hours.
Please let me know if you have any questions at all 
I’m happy to share my experiences.
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Thanks for providing excellent information.
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Thank you so much Edward, couldn’t have asked for a more detailed answer. This has helped immensely in our understanding of UCSB, hoping that this comes through for my child!!!
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Can I ask for a review from any UC? or only UCSB allow this?
The FERPA review applies only to the college in which you eventually enroll. It’s not something you can just ask any admissions office for.
Here’s an explainer (in the form of a post with very poorly worded title, because the answer to that question is, “you can’t”): How Do I Access My Admission Files at the Colleges That Denied Me? — College Confidential
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It is a shame that our top CA students got accepted to flagship public universities in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin but were rejected by our in-state mid-tiered UCs. They should refund portion of our CA tax money.
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