For the Regents Scholarship - I read that they offer up to 100 scholarships. Does anyone know how many people get the invitation to apply? I read somewhere that the top 1.5% of freshmen applicants are invited to apply, so that would be about 2,000 people (based on last year’s numbers) - is that right?
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Thats what I heard
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@HumbleTeen: The 100 or so Regent scholarships offered also includes transfers. I cannot find a breakout of how many Freshman vs. how many Transfers, but I would guess the majority are Freshman.
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Out of the 2000, how many actually get admitted regardless of whether they get the scholarship or not?
I have yet to hear of a Regents candidate who has not been admitted. If it happens, it is extremely rare.
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Our district talked about doing guaranteed As but decided against it after getting input from the UC and CSU systems and being told they wouldn’t accept it, so I doubt many/any districts went the guaranteed A route. We ended up with one semester of pass/fail, which I think is typical of most districts.
This is a good summary of CA school district grading policies
My goodness. Honestly, how can they really do the contextual evaluations with so many variables?
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If you look just at high schools, there aren’t really many variables. There are basically 3 systems: pass/fail (aka credit/no credit); grade was frozen at whatever it was before school went online; or A,B, C … grading system continued, but final grade wouldn’t be lower than before school went online. It’s about as fair as it could be under the circumstances. I’m not sure it will have much impact on admissions decisions (not sure about scholarships because I don’t know much about those) since UCs evaluate applicants in the context of their high school and everyone in a particular school was in the same boat.
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Agreed about the limited variations. There is probably a disadvantage to having pass/no pass while applying to OOS schools. And of course if your kid had a great semester you would rather have that show on the transcript rather than a generic pass. In my son’s case it wiped out an all As semester off the transcript.
True. It did the same for my child all A’s except one.
However, maybe it helped some who were struggling.
Agree on OOS. Same for my son on wiping out an all As semester, which was a bit of a disappointment for him along with other disappointments, like only one opportunity to take SAT, zero opportunity to take PSAT, impact on ECs, etc, etc. It’s been a good life lesson for him that life’s not always fair and you make the best of it. Best of luck to your son. I’m sure he’ll have some great options!
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Yes, I second that! @10s4life knows everything about the engineering program…answered lots of questions from me when my son was admitted in 2019 (Undeclared Engineering). Now my twins are hoping they get in!
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Question for UCLA alumni scholarship essays:
My kiddo is planning to reuse one of his UC essays.
Is that okay?
Do the Alumni committee which decides on these scholarships see the original UC application?
Appreciate your insights.
It’s ok, the Alumni readers don’t see your UC application. But I’d question if it’s worth bothering if you aren’t going to write something original: it’s really tough to get picked out of the pile, and a recycled essay from a different prompt probably won’t cut it.
Whether you apply for the Alumni scholarship has no bearing on whether you get in. So think about this as a completely independent process: if you were applying for say a Coca-Cola scholarship, would you just recycle something? Or would you (like many people) not bother applying because your chances of winning are low and you’d need to put in a lot of effort to make a credible application.
My S18 did win (with an original essay, he’s a super strong writer), but while he considers it nice to have been given $1500 a year and to put it on his resume, it’s made no difference to his college experience otherwise (unlike Regents which gives you housing and class registration priority).
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Thank you, and I appreciate the detailed feedback.
I suggested that he write something based on his experiences, and he thinks that essay fits the prompt in question.
I believe he is fatigued at this point - he applied to over 15 colleges, and the thought of another essay is just messing him up.
Will prod a little more.
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The UCLA Alumni website says the award would be between $6k-$20k paid over 4 years (sounds like your son got the $6000 award, but that is the lowest one and so there is an opportunity for a higher award with this scholarship).
And the other benefits seem incredibly useful, especially for creating long-term relationships that could lead to internships, job and other opportunities in the future.
Sure seems worth the effort to prepare the essay and application.
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I don’t view it as a bad thing to “just recycle something” if a prior essay answers the prompt. These students spend a great deal of time writing essays and if they have already written one about leadership for example that addresses a prompt about leadership, why would they try to come up with something different about leadership? Obviously edit the prior essay as needed to ensure it addresses the prompt but otherwise, I can’t see why it would be a bad thing.
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The higher awards are mostly need-based and there are literally a handful of additional awards: back in 2018 they picked the top 10-15 winners out of 150 to compete for the higher level prizes (at an event the week after Bruin Day). Not sure if they have that competition day any more.
I’m not saying don’t bother, but to be realistic. If your kid is entering lots of competitions like with the local Rotary and other organizations, then go for it. But you’d probably have a better chance of winning those other scholarship competitions.
We had also hoped that the other benefits could be useful. However, in practice that can depend on who sponsors your scholarship (you typically get a named donor or group like the Class of 1969) and if it’s a bunch of old ladies in their 70s, then that’s not necessarily a useful set of contacts. The 20 hours of “community service” needed for renewal was tedious rather than educational. And many of the best alumni engagement activities (like dinner for 12 strangers, which is great https://d12.alumni.ucla.edu/) are not restricted to the alumni scholars club.
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Our D22 received an invitation but decided not to apply for the alumni scholarship. I hope choosing not to apply is not going to hurt her chances of admission.
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