Does anyone know the acceptances rate for people who get the supplemental questionnaire?
When you say getting an invite to fill out the alumni scholarship, you don’t think it goes out to everyone? I received this email 2x. It seems like a general email?
“As a UCLA applicant, you are invited to apply for one of the university’s oldest and most prestigious scholarships offered by the Alumni Scholarships Program.
This is an opportunity to be considered for a merit-based scholarship ranging from $6,000 to $20,000 and to be a member of the esteemed Alumni Scholars Club. Students who receive Alumni Scholarships automatically become members of the Alumni Scholars Club (ASC). Under the umbrella of the UCLA Alumni Association, ASC functions like a student club, but with many more professional development opportunities. These include general quarterly meetings, alumni mentorship, community and UCLA service projects, mixers and social activities, career and leadership workshops, and networking opportunities with alumni.
Please note that this invitation to apply for the Alumni Scholarship does not constitute an offer of admission nor does it infer any likelihood of admission. UCLA’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office will select the recipients after an initial evaluation by the Alumni Association Scholarship Review Committee. The first round of Alumni Scholarship winner notifications will be included on the Provisional Award Letter with the release of Admission Decisions. Further Alumni Scholarships will continue to be offered to incoming students throughout the summer.
The Alumni Scholarship Application can be found on the UCLA Prospective Undergraduate Scholarship Portal
Deadline to apply: March 5, 2021
We look forward to receiving your application.
Go Bruins!”
Interestingly this is a very different process to previous years when the evaluation was solely by the Alumni Scholars Club and included shortlisting after admissions were released followed by regional interviews (about 1 in 3 interviewees received the scholarship) and an announcement of recipients in early April. Previously the UCLA financial aid office played no role in making the award.
I don’t know what caused the change (possibly a huge increase in applications, possibly COVID limitations making it harder to coordinate the reading sessions). But it wouldn’t surprise me if the end result is more of the Alumni scholarships being directed towards applicants who have been disadvantaged and overcome challenges rather than middle and upper class applicants who’ve done a lot of impressive ECs and come across well in an interview. Exceptional applicants also used to be able to win both the Regents and Alumni scholarship, but with them now being coordinated that might no longer be the case.
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So do you think everyone got the email about the Alumni Scholarship? This probably sounds bad, but I don’t want to take the time and do the essays for the scholarship if I have no chance of getting into the school which I actually think is the case. I’m all essayed out ha ha ha
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I’m not saying everyone got it. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the number of recipients of the Alumni email was expanded last year, previously it had been quite limited, filtered to perhaps 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 applicants. Now it could be 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 or even more, we don’t know. But the chance of winning, which used to be maybe 5% (150 out of several thousand applications) with a 15% chance of being shortlisted for interview, might now be only 2% if they get 10K-20K applications and most of those are admitted.
My main point is that what they are looking for may not be the same as the recipients in previous years, where the stereotypical profile (at least based on my kids class) was that the kid with 4.0/36 got Regents and the Senior Class President got Alumni.
So I would just consider both of those factors in deciding whether it’s worth applying. What would make them pick you as the winner out of a pile of say 50 applications? At the very least your essay needs to stand out a lot for someone to pull you from the pile for further consideration.
is the supplemental questionnaire the same thing where UCLA would ask you to submit mid-year grades etc.? Is this sent to borderline applicants?
No, not just for borderline applicants.
How do you know this?
I disagree. I don’t believe the scoring rubric for the Alumni scholarship has changed. I think the financial aid office is involved so that scholarship recipients are notified on decision day. Normally the scholarship applications don’t get read by Alumni until after decision day and students don’t find out about the scholarship until several days/weeks later. In the meantime, they are looking at other schools with attractive packages. Since this scholarship is used to entice top students to attend UCLA, I think it helps if admissions is able to show students all of their awards at the time of admissions decision.
The email is not inviting me personally, it says as a UCLA applicant you are invited to apply so I think it’s inclusive of all UCLA applicants. Maybe some others on here have an opinion.
Well the “rubric” has changed in that there is no longer an interview so applicants are not “scored” on interview performance. That will change the outcome because applicants who interview well are less likely to win and conversely those who interview poorly are more likely to win.
Whether there is an additional more active effort to target scholarships at disadvantaged applicants is unclear, but that would be a plausible hypothesis when they have widened the pool of invitations rather than just encouraging applications from a smaller subgroup based on a simple (possibly stats based) screen.
It seems especially likely that there will be a change in emphasis in view of the pressure to admit more disadvantaged applicants, which led the UC regents to back Prop 16 and forbid consideration of allegedly discriminatory standardized tests in future years.
But it’s all speculation at this point about what exactly will get an application picked out of the pile.
Yes we are in state.
Thank you. UW Gpa 4.0, Weighted 4.69, UC Cap4.62. Took 9 APs by end of junior year. All 5s. He also got into Caltech early action so he is leaning towards Caltech got now.
EDITED: UC Capped weighted is really 4.32. Typo by OP.
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Congrats! Just curious, how do you get a 4.62 capped?
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It is not possible to get a UC cappend weighted GPA of 4.62. Maximum is 4.4, so either a typo or miscalculation.
Maximum Fully weighted UC GPA is 5.0.
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Sorry yes a type. It is 4.32 uc capped. Was thinking of something else.
UC Forum Champion note: The original post now has the correction.
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@Tallmathkids Wow, your son has an awesome stats! Well, no wonder he could get the UC Regents and also got admitted into Caltech. He is well deserved! Again, congratulation to you and your son.
Do we believe that all Regent invites have been sent?
The Jan 22 email had a name attached to it. Dear C???. The reminder email did not.
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How do you get that capped GPA?