Only one small example from D20’s HS but can you give an explanation regarding below:
Student A (waitlisted)
Non-impacted major
GPA: 4.0(u), 4.44 UC capped, 4.7 academic (straight A’s all throughout HS)
10 APs + a few honors classes.
ACT 34
4 Yr Varsity Athlete
Club president
Average volunteer, community service hours
No hooks
Accepted to UCSB, UCSD, UCD, CalPoly SLO among others
Student B (accepted)
Non impacted major
GPA: 3.5 (u), 3.7 UC capped and academic GPA
No APs, a couple of honors classes
ACT 28
3 Yr Varsity Athlete (didn’t play senior yr)
Club president (national level)
No hooks but has a learning disability where he was given extra time for ACT
Rejected: UCSB, UCSD, UCD, and CalPoly SLO!
I know admissions can be unpredictable but I am scratching my head on this one. Possible explanations:
Student B’s essays and LORs were amazing?
UCB and UCLA “talk” to each other and UCB will likely accept Student A next week?
Student A’s application did not show any particular high interest in UCLA and they were yield protected. Student B’s disability lead to some discounting of GPA and scores, and their passion through their national-level position was appreciated. Obviously, very subjective, as admission officers at other UCs did not feel the same way.
UCLA parent here - These questions pop up every year with UCB and UCLA admissions (and SDSU and Cal Poly admissions, etc.). I remember when Stanford’s admissions came out one year, I knew students who created spreadsheets to see why certain kids were admitted and others weren’t. Our neighborhood high school sends a lot of students to UCLA. My kids were accepted, though only one chose to go there. Like @yourmomma wrote, it is a total crap shoot. I know plenty of students who were/are admitted to both Cal and UCLA.
Did Students A & B apply to the same program? If not, maybe one program had more competitive applicants this year. What I know about UCLA is they divide the applications into no, yes, and maybe piles. It sounds like these applicants were probably put into the maybe pile, and ultimately, Student B’s essays and any supplemental info received were considered very strong in the eyes of those processing the applications for UCLA. UCLA is really a way different campus with a way different vibe than UCSB, UCSD, UCD, and Cal Poly, and so they do process their applications according to their own lens.
Forgot to add one important part - Ultimately, Student B will need to come into UCLA (if they choose to attend) with a solid game plan for success and a safety net plan filled with resources on how to get over any academic bumps. Though they were admitted, those scores are in the bottom quarter of admitted students’ stats. In all their classes, they will be competing against students who came into the school with a stronger academic foundation. Can Student B succeed? Absolutely! But, they will need to be very tenacious, driven, and focused from day one. UCLA’s quarter system, especially if this student has a South Campus major, is a toughie. It’s also a California public university, and all students have to be comfortable in advocating for themselves or else they will be absolutely lost.
Blaming yield protection for not getting into UCLA seems a little bit much. UCLA is the top public university in the country with very selective admission, it’s a crapshoot like every other elite university.
Every applicant that has competitive stats and is not accepted into their choice university wants to blame on it yield protection, first generation/ethnic diversity etc… The truth is that each school has their own criteria to determine which students are the best fit for their specific campus.
Overcoming adversity such as in a physical/learning disability is a compelling reason to look beyond the stats and see what kind of person that applicant become and what they were able to accomplish. I keep saying this but Stats alone will not guarantee admission anymore. There are so many factors involved in the admission process and with over 100,000 applicants, most applicants will not be admitted. The odds are against you the minute you apply.
A possibility with any holistic admission system is that some readers may be “hard graders” and some may be “easy graders”, despite training to reduce that difference. Perhaps one of them got two “hard graders”, and the other got two “easy graders”.
But also note that the essays are important, and outsiders typically have no way of comparing how they compete with the whole applicant pool. Or if a given essay looks unusually good or bad to a specific reader
UCLA has over 100k applications. They aren’t comparing Student A to Student B. There could be 100 reasons why Student A didn’t get in, from an admissions panel that just didn’t like him, didn’t like the essay, didn’t think he tried his hardest in high school.
I think it proves UCLA isn’t just taking students by stats. If so, then the highest stats would always get in.
With so many factors involved in the admission process it’s feels like a lottery. I would like to think that stats hold a majority of the the decision. From what I’ve read and heard, and what other have mentioned here are some factors: the major(how competitive), other applicants from your HS, how you fit into their college, essays(subjective readers).
It’s a frustrating process for all.
A few points. Historically, at my D’d high school, the last 3 years, kids with at least a 32 ACT and 4.2 GPA almost all have gotten in to UCLA. For 2018, we had a 25% acceptance rate, 40 acceptance out of 156 applications. In general, the UCs are rigor, GPA and test score heavy.
To my OP, they both Student A & B applied to non-impacted majors. Will be interesting to see the Naviance results for 2019…
these figures are from 2018-
“As part of a push to expand access to students from all backgrounds, many of the campuses, Berkeley included, offered admission to a higher percentage of first-generation college students than ever before. At Cal, 36 percent of those admitted — both freshmen and transfers — would be the first in their family to go to college, compared to 34 percent the year before. In total, 46 percent of students admitted in 2018 would be first-generation college goers.”
" Just 12 percent of in-state applicants to UCLA gained admission in 2018, and just 17 percent of would-be Cal students were offered a spot, a decline from last year in both cases. "
If student A has a capped GPA of 4.44 and an UW 4.0 that means they only took 18 semesters of A-G requirements from summer after 9th grade through summer after 11th grade. That is quite low for a competitive applicant to UCLA. If they took no summer classes at all that means they took 2 semesters with only 4 classes and 2 semesters with 5 classes.
