My daughter was waitlisted for class of 2023 for UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Davis. Admitted to UCSC.
I would like to hear from parents or students who previously got in to any of these schools off the waitlist.
Did you contact the schools, write any letters to augment your chances? When did you find out the decisions?
Did you first accept the UC you got into and change? Thank you.
You can appeal while on the UCI waitlist if you have some new and compelling information.
UC Davis requires a waitlist statement to be submitted so you want to show why you want to attend UCD.
UCSD used to have a waitlist statement but no longer accepts any documentation.
My advice is do not submit anything beyond what is required to remain on the waitlist and consider a waitlist as a soft rejection. Move on and get excited about the other options. Love the school that Loves you.
Waitlisted students will hear after May 1 unless spots open up prior to that date. Expect decisions around May 15th. Everything depends upon how many students enroll so there is no way to determine an applicants chances.
@Gumbymom thank you. I read some old thread here on CC for UCI where a couple of users were accepted on appeal. So we’ll do that for UCI.
I wonder if my daughter submitting her UC application as an undeclared major negatively impacted her?
1310 SAT, 30 ACT, 3.92 weighted GPA.
And she was rejected from UCSB, but waitlisted at Davis and UCSD? Wow. Times have changed, Santa Barbara used to be easy to get into.
still scratching my head over my kid’s UC results. Rejected at UCD, UCSB, UCLA, UCSB, Cal; Waitlisted at UCSC; and Accepted at UCI for mechanical engineering. Very grateful for UCI… but surely he should/could at least have been waitlisted at Davis or SB!
@sf94121 what were his stats?
@CalifMom2Twins: I do not think her results are due to selecting Undeclared, it think it has more to do with her Weighted GPA of 3.92 which is below average (believe or not ) for all but UC Merced and Riverside. UC’s tend to be very GPA focused and stats alone do not get you into nor rejected from the UC’s but with 6 of the 9 UC campuses having UC Weighted GPA’s above a 4.0, it makes it really tough for many students as the competition continues to increase.
Also the # of applicants that apply to all the UC’s have steadily increased. UCI had 56,515 applicants in 2012 and now 7 years later there was 95,556 applicants for close to the same # of spots.
Even the # of waitlisted applicants have increased as the application numbers of climbed. It was unheard of 5 or 6 years ago when my son’s applied to be on multiple waitlists.
Again take UCI for example, in 2013 they waitlisted 3732 applicants, 1624 accepted the waitlist and 1621 were admitted. Last year, there was 12522 waitlisted, 6428 accepted the waitlist and 136 were admitted. Waitlists are dependent upon how many applicants enroll by May 1, but with the increased competition, increased applications and a higher standard to be accepted, it can be tough to get an admit.
wait-lists are highly variable year to year. You can pursue both of them but, unfortunately, they the will string you along until after the housing and freshman classes start filling up at other schools. The top housing options and popular freshman courses will fill up at UCD and UCI - so you get stuck with left-overs. It is really important, while you wait to secure a spot elsewhere.
If it were me, I’d buy a Banana Slug sweatshirt and shift my focus to UCSC.
@CalifMom2Twins - 3.9 UW GPA, 35 ACT, 800 SAT II Math, 750 SAT II Physics. sports 4 years, light community service, volunteering at STEM camps for kids. i can see why this would not be as competitive against alot of other applicants in general, BUT… dont understand how he was accepted to UCI, but rejected from Davis/SB and waitlisted at Santa Cruz. Although with most of the campuses each receiving 100,000 applications, i can see alot of room for random decisions being made with no particular reason why hundreds of similar/.identical applicants get accepted or rejected. it’s humans making subjective decisions, so i dunno–maybe one decision maker was having a bad day and rejected an applicant who had the same last name as his ex. 
@NCalRent thank you. UCSC won’t be a bad choice, if that’s what we end up with.
as a random note: I was a Cal grad, and many of my fellow alums agree we would likely not get in today 
@sf94121 I’m shocked at your kid’s stats not admitting him to Davis and waitlisted for UCSC. Random decisions indeed. I do wonder how much race/gender/first gen to college is factoring in these days.
@Gumbymom are the “6 of the 9 UCs” having weighted GPAs above 4.0 all but Merced, Riverside and UCSC?
@CalifMom2Twins: Yes
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71
i went to davis 25+ years ago, and would NEVER get in today. and one of my sisters went to Cal, despite FLUNKING trigonometry in high school–she retook it in summer school and got an A… but she would never get into Cal today either.
My son’s applied 5 and 6 years ago to the UC’s and many of the CSU’s and would not have had as many acceptances if they had applied now. Definitely getting more and more competitive.
We are appealing waitlist for UCI and UCD, with submitted appeals. UCSD you cannot submit supplemental info.
We visited UCD again over spring break and met with an admissions officer. It appears that personal enthusiasm/commitment and contact with their admissions people and personal contact with faculty does not make a damn bit of difference to acceptance off waitlist. Unlike private colleges.
UCSC is the default and not a bad school ---- just not dynamic enough an environment for my D and I think is better suited to those in sciences than political science/communications/ arts.
Maybe start there, achieve high grades and look to transfer.