I really don’t see why I got the email if it truly is based on ECs and essays. I know my ECs aren’t super impressive compared to what I’ve seen on CC.
Info on Alumni Scholarships:
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@bvkmisc Thanks for posting that, you saved me from having to rewrite the post 
Thanks for the info! But what does “identified by UCLA” exactly mean?
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@10s4life, for this year (and previous 2020), is the Alumni invite sent to selected few (12k or so), or to all as suggested by @Twoin18 on earlier post?
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I think a LOT of people got the email this year based on Reddit.
There are actually a number of “training videos” put out by UCLA to train “readers” for this program on Youtube. When you watch the videos you can see that they clearly do not want their alumni readers reading 100K plus applications, so there is some kind of screening done prior to sending the e-mail invites. In the videos, they specifically say we don’t want you reading 50 applications from students who won’t be admitted.
How this screening is done or what methods they are using clearly tries to limit applications to make it more manageable to the alumni readers. Criteria used for this was not discussed in videos, but I might have missed this. I think one said they get a list of about 12K…but I could be mistaken or it might have been an older video.
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This question has been answered @ #117
See this thread from last year: Didn't get UCLA Scholarship Invite
In particular note the statement in post 33 that “I called the Alumni Association this morning…Regarding rumors that “everybody” got the email this year, I was told that everybody didn’t get it but they did in fact send it to a larger group than previous years.”
I don’t think anyone knows the size of that “larger” group but receiving the invitation is clearly going to be less well correlated with admission than in 2018-19 when the invitation was targeted to what was presumably deemed a more qualified subset of applicants.
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here is a poll that looked at 193 reddit users who applied for Fall 2020. Most of them received the Alumni scholarship email, while the rest didn’t.
Assuming everyone was honest, please take it with a grain of salt. Obviously it doesn’t reflect EVERYONE who got the email but it definitely points out the fact that not everyone receives it.
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Thanks Twoin18.
Interesting info, I spoke with our high school counselor today and she verified that there is typically a correlation between the e-mail and acceptance, but there are of course exceptions to the rule. She said that typically it means the first reader liked something in your Essay or ECs and a second reader would do a review as well. Our HS usually admits 35-40 to UCLA so I assume she has had lots of experience with this.
I should add, as there was a follow up e-mail from the counselor…the second reader she said would have to agree with the first to move along the process. I would not go buy a UCLA sweatshirt yet, in her opinion it is just a first step and it is simply a verification that one reader liked something in the first review…now you wait to see if the second reader agreed. Again, a HS counselor’s info so take it with a grain of salt…she doesn’t work in admissions.
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Is this the email everyone is discussing? Is this the one that ‘everyone’ (or most) received?
My dd received this in first paragraph:
“Dear _____,
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.”
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That’s the one I got
That’s the one my daughter got also.
That’s the one my son got.
yep, I got it as well.
Can someone help me please understand
I am a parent of 1st generation “hopefully” college bound student I thought this scholarship was only for students of Alumni?!? Having read these posts it is a scholarship “awarded” by Alumni? My daughter should apply to this?
Thank you all
It is a scholarship funded by UCLA alumni so yes your daughter should apply for it.
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I’m a first generation student also, and I knew absolutely nothing about this scholarship prior to the email invite. Kinda still learning more as I go.
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