I emailed someone who deals with freshmen recruitment at UCLA and when I asked him about the movement of the waitlist he replied,
"The majority of wait list movement occurred in early May followed by a smaller set of offers made in late May. As we approach mid-July, we begin encountering a phenomenon in our world known as “melt”. For some, UCLA is a “backup school” and students will retain their admission offers until their “dream school” admits them via wait list. For others, UCLA is a dream school until the first tuition bill is due and finances prevent them from coming to campus.
These situations occur during the summer and students drift (or melt) away and therefore vacate their spaces. We can’t predict how often it will happen so while we cannot say the wait list is definitively closed, we keep it open in case someone melts away between now and the first day of classes.
Spaces will only become available if a student declines our admission offer in favor of another institution or if finances prevent them from joining us."
I am still confused about how my son, ranked 2 of 400+ at a good Silicon Valley HS, with A’s in several community college math courses, did not receive acceptances from UCLA or Berkeley (not even waitlisted to Berkeley’s L&S). Cooper Union and Davis offered great deals and opportunities, but he settled into Irvine weeks ago and it does seem to be a great fit. Still, he too is waiting on UCLA and GT and if offered, I think he will seriously consider them no matter how late the offers might come. Not easy times for many top notch students or their parents.
Try to find value in the choices you have and come to terms with the misfortune of being a HS graduate in the Covid era. Think of this situation as a character building experience/opportunity, because it is.
Totally, a character building life experience in face of multiple adversities. We have to make plans for the OOS college where he has committed (UMD College Park for CS major), flight and hotel bookings, etc. Hence want these colleges to decide quickly, which with the new Covid variants rising, and more unknowns in the future, they may not.
Is there any way to know if the waitlist list is closed so we can move on? Honestly this is agony. Might have been easier to just get rejected so that there’s closure.
It is true. This year admission is very frustrating for the students. My DD is a valedictorian with 11 APs. And also couple of advance level Math course from UC Berkeley with A+ grades. She was denied from almost all UCs except got regents from UC Davis and finally got off the waitlist from UCLA last month. I was telling her that she will do good no matter what school she attends. I know it is hard to let go ones dream school. But life will always have alternatives and opportunities. Bottom line is not getting into dream school is not the end of the world rather it opens up for new exploration.
My DD just saw that she was offered admission this past Thursday. She is OOS and was given 72 hours. She is passing. Too far down the road with Virginia Tech. VT is likely a better choice as she is going pre-vet. She also had gotten into UC Davis but didn’t feel the fit when we visited. We never got a chance to visit UCLA. Hoping someone on here gets the next message. Hang in there folks!!