UC Santa Cruz 2023 Applicant Discussion Thread

@ucsbmarryme: SLO uses different admission criteria than UC Santa Cruz so you cannot compare your decisions. You are a competitive applicant so if you prefer UC Santa Cruz, accept the waitlist and hope for the best. SLO is a great option to have.

Hello all!
I was accepted a few weeks ago into Biology.
3.9 UC GPA
29 ACT
1300 Hours of Community Service, FFA Involvement
Team Captain of Horticulture, Landscape, and Business Teams
Interned with The Salk Institute in Genetic Engineering and Neurology

Yā€™allā€¦the financial aid was so thICC. UCSC has moved up my list now!

Good news! Financial Aid is now in the portal as well as new Regent Scholarship Awards.

@BigTenDad10 Where did you find the regents notification?

Uhh, I got accepted into UCSC but I received literally no aid at all?? So I canā€™t afford the school and the acceptance is null. Iā€™m a california resident. I didnā€™t get any financial aid email notification but i logged into my portal to check right now.

On my to-do list it says:

LARGE PARENT AGI and WAGE DIFFERENCE

The parent(s) wages you reported on your FAFSA differ significantly from their overall adjusted gross income. Large differences between adjusted gross income and parent wages may affect your eligibility for campus based aid, including university grant. Please review your FAFSA information and ensure your parent(s) adjusted gross income and their income from wages are accurate per the information on their federal tax return and wage statements (i.e., W-2, 1099).

My dad swears that his financial information is right.
Rip I have no idea what to do. Is there anything I can even do?

@testingtesting01 I donā€™t know much about it, but if I were you Iā€™d go make sure there wasnā€™t an extra zero on your FAFSA somewhere. Did you receive aid from any other colleges you got accepted to?

Where is the Regents notification. We received only loans but my daughter was one to get accepted first in February. Didnt expect Regents but We were really hoping for something other than loans :-S

@babyblews Ask her to check her email for regents notification

@Ranipetgirl I didā€¦ Nothing. :((

Feeling disappointed and a bit stressed.

I havenā€™t received anything on financial aid, should my portal or something have financial offers by now?

Son just forwarded me an email saying he was awarded a Campus Merit Scholarship of $2,000 per year for 4 years ($8,000 total).! I am not sure if his portal changed, because he is not home now.

He is very pleased that UCSC seems motivated for him to enroll with the CS acceptance, the Scholars Program invite and the scholarship. They must believe that he would be a good fit and maybe that he may not get accepted to higher ranked UCs - ie that UCSC is not a safety school for him. His UC GPA is 4.27, his SAT is 1400, he has very good ECs and wrote good essays. He is still waiting to hear from UCI, UCSD and UCSB though before he makes a decision.

His financial aid info has not processed yet because they say he is not signed up for the Selective Service. He is not 18 until October though, so can not sign up yet. He has filled out the Selective Service form so he will be signed up as soon as he is eligible. We were on hold for a long time today with the Financial Aid office, but no one answered. They must be very busy. We will try to get through again tomorrow.

I got accepted to UCSC with 28 act and 4.5 gpa

My son got the same merit scholarship of $2000/year for 4 years. All of his other offers were in his financial aid tab as well (fed student loans and parent loan). He got an email almost immediately after he had logged into his portal.

do the lower UCS reject students with higher stats for yield protection @Gumbymom

Regent Scholarship notifications were sent via e-mail.

@ucsbmarryme: I am not aware that lower UCā€™s reject or waitlist high stat applicants for yield protection but each campus is looking for students that will ā€œfitā€ into their campus based on their criteria. Although stats are a big part of your application review, UCSC for example considers essays as Very important. Each UC campus wants to accept students they think will enroll and attend.

@VPDad I donā€™t think that sending an email to admissions will help. They donā€™t like extra letters and such and could come off a little pushy.

My daughter was accepted undeclared (GPA 4.25W and 1460 SAT) but she knows lots of people with similar stats that were waitlisted. Everyone she knows that was waitlisted with high stats got accepted already to another UC. Do they take that into consideration? Itā€™s the only thing that makes sense.

But as a shocker, on the same day she got her UCSC acceptance she also got early admission to Cornell! So who knows whatā€™s going on.

Son forwarded me what looks like a second invite to a SoCal Chancellorā€™s Reception in Anaheim this weekend. Not sure if he got the original invite previously. Did anyone else receive this and RSVP? It looks like only one guest is allowed. Was anyone able to register two guests? Both my wife and I would like to go with him.