<p>Every year we talk about the kids that feel they got jipped, and the kids that got jipped. Can someone please openly and honestly tell me which one I am so I can either choose to appeal or not.</p>
<p>My Art History teacher in junior year told us if we passed the AP she'd give us an A both semesters. I got a 5. & Our administration changed and wouldn't let her change both semesters. If I can appeal to get my grade changed by our principal, my GPA would raise from a 4.27 to a 4.31. </p>
<p>My application GPA was 4.27. It would be a 4.31 (only including sophomore and junior year and a 4.33 including senior year - 1st semester)
My ap scores were:
AP Biology: 5
AP Art History: 5
AP US History: 5
AP World History: 3
AP Literature: 4
AP European History: 4</p>
<p>This year I'm taking AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Language & a community college psychology class. </p>
<p>I am currently a yearbook section editor.
I was ASB commissioner of technology and public relations junior year
and this year I am ASB vice president
and our Inter Club Council president.
I am in our American Cancer Society Youth Club
Was the Chairman of our high schools Election Convention
I have taken classical piano lessons since age nine and have taught piano for community service all four years of high school.
Was the summer intern recipient for a military research lab and will work there again this summer.</p>
<p>My SAT Subjects
Literature: 680
Biology: 700
US History: 740</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning
Reading: 720
Writing: 620 (My essay was atrocious)
Math: 640 (I'm definitely not so great at math.)</p>
<p>My appeal would feature the grade change and the new gpa and my chairmanship as "New & Compelling" information. </p>
<p>I really do feel like I got jipped. The people I know that did get in had as many activities as I did, lower SAT scores and the GPA I would have with a grade change. </p>
<p>Please let me know if I should appeal or not. Thank you & God bless!</p>
<p>Presuming you didn’t apply for Engineering, you’re borderline. If you applied for Engineering, you’re on the low end and I would just fold my cards. You’re not up to par.</p>
<p>Being borderline means that an overturn from an appeal would probably be unlikely but its worth a shot. I don’t think the 0.04 difference in your GPA will really make or break you so it would not be your most “compelling” premise for an appeal. As a matter of fact, as an outsider, I don’t feel what your Art History instructor offered to do was right.</p>
<p>If you’re going to appeal, I think you should focus on your letters of recommendation. You seem like an involved student. Emphasize your ECs and hope for the best.</p>
<p>it’s worth a try…in your case you got your chairmanship and grades as the “compelling” reasons. If you do decide to appeal, however, I’d do it as early as possible. My friend who got rejected from henry samueli engineering school literally appealed right after he read his rejection notice online and got an acceptance letter within a week. </p>
<p>Your letter accompanying the documentation for the above changes should also CLEARLY demonstrate why the compelling reasons above qualify you as a desirable candidate and your desire to attend UCLA. Again, I emphasize that you send this is as soon as possible. It’d be even better if you can hand in the appeals in person at Murphy Hall. Good luck</p>
<p>No, I’m not an engineering major. I applied undeclared.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether AP tests are ethical justification for grade changes. When my instructor gave us our syllabus the first week of the year, I realized that my life was going to be so busy between ASB, a part time job, teaching, playing and four AP classes that getting a B by doing a significant amount less busy work and having more time to keep up my other grades was the more logical option because I’m very confident in my aptitude in history and knew I would pass the test and get the A in the end.</p>
<p>I was also contemplating whether or not to explain why I got the grade change. If it would be more effective to explain the above, or just explain that our administration underwent major changes and that the grade change process was tangled in red tape because of it. </p>
<p>My recommendations are from my ASB director and our school Assistant Principal (It’s well written about my leadership ability) and a recommendation from the Commanding Officer of the research lab I work at. The letter from the Captain is very professional and convincing. </p>
<p>My chairmanship would just be an added extracurricular, I’m not sure how much it would weigh in. If I can get the grade changed in the next week I’d send the recommendation in before the end of March. I’ve already written two drafts of the appeal letter and have my recommendations ready.</p>
<p>I think you probably deserve to get in, so you could try appealing, but your “compelling information” isn’t that significant. the change in your gpa wouldn’t be that much higher. you do seem very involved though and seem like you manage your time well, so i don’t know what happened.</p>
<p>For your appeal to be considered, you must prove that you are a much stronger candidate than what was presented in your application. Specifically, you must present **new **and **compelling **information that was **not previously available **to the admissions office. One grade in one class is unlikely to be significant in terms of proving you are a better applicant.</p>
<p>My frustration is that I have the highest of the GPAs that were rejected. Every person I know with a 4.31, which would be my new GPA, was accepted. Every person I know with a 4.27 was rejected.</p>
<p>I think you’re being superstitious; but, even if you’re right, the people who review your appeal might not be the same people who reviewed your initial application and any speculated formula they used to accept/reject students from your school would probably be forgotten. </p>
<p>I’d just leave the 0.04 GPA difference off the appeal. You’re wasting room on your application and, as I’ve said before, you risk an officer frowning down upon the contract between you and your teacher. It also makes you look kind of petty, if you know what I mean. If you elaborate on how you could have gotten an “A”, an officer may even think you’re a slacker for not putting your best effort if you don’t have to. Fighting for that incrementally higher GPA comes with too many risks to be worth the effort; especially, when you’re such a talented pupil with so many better things to say about yourself.</p>
<p>I agree with sentimentGX4. I applied for college in 2007, and one of my classmates (student body president) really got whooped in the butt with UC rejections: across the board UCI, UCSD, UCLA. Funny thing was, he was the guy with the million extracurricular activities, charismatic personality, decent writer, very good grades. He appealed to UCLA using a GPA booster reason similar to your case (only it was a true computer messup and not an AP score/change semester grade appeal). The difference was not very much; I only remembered thinking his chances for appeal would be slim to none because the GPA difference was less than 0.05. </p>
<p>Result = he didn’t get into UCLA using the appeal. However, he never regretted actually going through with the appeal, and guess what? He transferred two years later and is now at UCLA in the MIMG department. If you truly believe that you will only be happy if you come here as a freshman, then I say go for it. If you have alternatives, then think about what other routes you can take to get into this school; being a transfer seems to be far more beneficial, economically and academically, in the long run.</p>
<p>actually, i look down on transfers. the academic abilities of transfer students just aren’t as high as regular ucla students. does anyone seriously think getting straight A’s at a cc is an indicator that one will do well at college X? i highly doubt it.</p>
<p>from their perspective anyways, they lose out on the networking/friendships you make freshman/sophomore year and live isolated from everyone else in the quiet dorms(delta terrace+canyon point?). i doubt that this is a true ‘college experience’ for them.</p>
<p>Isn’t that generalizing a bit though? I know quite a broad number of transfers who admit that UCLA is a lot more competitive than their respective CCs, but they do just as well, if not better, than those who came to UCLA as freshmen. Even in my regular courses (I am in HSSEAS), I see many transfer students who make the transition from CC to UCLA without a hitch. </p>
<p>More importantly, it depends on how motivated the individual is for their academic and social “success” to be fully measured. Freshmen dorms and relationships in the first two years of college are important, but I don’t think that being a transfer will make one a social pariah of sorts. It all depends on your own personality and how much you like the extracurricular activities on campus.</p>
<p>Wow you’re involved! I mean that as a compliment for sure.
I say it never hurts to try! But I do think that you do have to present some new information that’ll make you stand out… like it’s been said, people with really good GPA’s and SAT’s of like 2000+ and who are involved in a number of activities have been rejected, leading me to believe that essays really made a HUGE difference for all these very qualified applicants.
I would try including information in your appeal that somehow makes you come across as a unique and vibrant student. They don’t just care about the grades and the test scores, they look at EVERYTHING, because if you have so many applicants with around the same academic data and you’re looking for a well rounded school, what would stand out to you? Not another resume of achievements and cliches.
I hope this helps. Best of luck!! And remember, it’s not the end of the world, it just means the universe means for you to go in a different direction. And like everyone said, there IS always transferring.</p>
<p>Kpier, did your friend transfer from a community college or another university? </p>
<p>I live in San Diego, and I felt UCSD would stunt my growth, so I only have acceptances from Cal Poly SLO and UCSB. I was thinking about eventually transferring, but wasn’t sure about whether it would be better to do so from SLO or Santa Barbara. I’ve heard a community college is easier, and it definitely would be better for my family financially (my dad just lost his job.) But I don’t know if I can handle another 2 years in San Diego for a “maybe” transfer and miss out on getting the best all around education I can. </p>
<p>My appeal would focus on the grade change and then mention a few extra curriculars and community service opportunities I left out. Possibly explain my drop in grades sophomore year because our house flooded and my mother went into nervous breakdown mode and didn’t leave her room for a few months. </p>
<p>& My recommendation from the Captain really is amazing. It was a really amazing internship and I regret not using it in my essays. I wish there was more than a small bio on the application to explain it.</p>
<p>I’m going to be brutally honest with you. Your gpa is awesome dont get me wrong but your standardized test scores are garbage. 2 out of ur 3 SAT1 scores are low 600’s. and your highest SAT 2 score is in UShistory which isn’t really considered one of the more rigorous of the subject tests and its not even 750+. And you honestly can not play the compare game with your friends because maybe they saw something in your friends they didnt see in you, considering ucla does do a “holistic” approach now.</p>
<p>^well, i know people who’ve gotten sub-1500 SAT and still gotten in. And my SAT2 scores were about the same as hers. So no, I don’t think her score was garbage - esp. with GPA like that. What’s it to you if “its not even 750+?” </p>
<p>however, like senior said, UCLA does holistic. Think - what can you bring onto the UCLA campus? Start a program to benefit undergrads? Continue participation in community service, especially to a population within LA? A bubbly, friendly personality ready to explore you interest in ___? id say tell them more about yourself, make it personal, make it interesting - come off as a person the adcom would want to know more about, and can emphasize with.</p>
<p>If you want to appeal you need to really convince the school that 1. you really really want to come here and 2. you are a good fit for the student body.</p>
I mean that as a compliment for sure.