@oneyear I have mixed feelings about this. I feel like some departments care more about extracurriculars than others, but I also think that a long list of extracurriculars that you clearly don’t care about or obviously were involved in solely to make your application look good doesn’t do you too many favors either.
Boring essays would probably get you rejected to be honest. If your essays are boring, it signifies to the school that you didn’t really care about the application, didn’t really care about the major, or (even worse) didn’t really care about the school. And you have to consider that literally thousands of people are applying. Someone out there has a 4.0 GPA AND good essays, and those good essays give him/her an advantage over the applicants with “meh” essays.
I feel like the process is just as holistic for transfer applicants as it is for freshmen applicants. In both cases, they have too many applications and too few spots to accept everyone with a 4.0 GPA. Now, for majors and departments that are more interested in whether or not you can pull off the workload, they’ll most likely focus on GPA more than they will for other majors or departments, but your essays still carry a good amount of weight in both scenarios.
Despite how big of a factor GPA plays in the major in question, interesting essays that demonstrate your passion for the subject and your aspirations involving that subject are guaranteed to give you a relatively big boost, especially at a school like UCLA. Extracurriculars where you actively displayed and built on this passion will also give you a boost, but I have to emphasize unless it’s clear that you actually cared about the extracurriculars you were involved in, they probably won’t play as big of a role as your essays will.
hey y’all i tried logging in and this is what it says
Note: If you applied to UCLA for fall quarter 2019 and reached this page, don’t worry. We’re still in midst of processing applications and hope to have the remaining entered into our system by December 14, 2018.
@africangirl97 Hey, it’s going to be ok! Remember that the “trick” isn’t too reliable. It worked for some people in the past. We’re only 3 days away. Trust me, this whole day I’ve been doing nothing but browsing here on CC and constantly going on to myUCLA (instead of working on my paper that’s due tomorrow lol). It’s unhealthy, I know. But we’re all anxious at this point. You will be fine. Just hang on tight
@oneyear I wrote a couple unique essays last year and I think that might have been part of what got me in but nothing can replace a good GPA and having the required courses completed. All the extracurriculars I put in last year were from high school because I forgot to put in anything I did in college, ha. I did have honors/awards and work/volunteer experience from college though.
Fun fact: I thought I had no chance of getting in because my GPA was in the bottom 25% of transfers for my major (2017) on the UC site. Turns out, my year (2018) the average GPA of accepted students was lower and mine was in middle… so if any of you are worried because you’re in the bottom 25%, you still have a chance!
Hey guys, quick question. I took 5 classes in the fall semester. I finished with 2 A’s and 3 B’s. (3.8 GPA applying for Psych btw. No TAP). Is that considered a good upward trend?
@HarleyTheQuinn I work (on campus, Federal Work Study in FinAid dept.) until 5 PM. So like I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. Get a study room in the library and open it in there? Or go home, but wait until my bf comes home around 8 PM to open. ORRRRR I could like not open it until … or I could just not open it…? lol I’m freakin’ out y’all!!! I know everyone else is too, but OMG!
@Princetonian9 I’ve got a brand-new, never been worn UCLA shirt that I just ironed and hung up in my closet so that, when I get in on Wednesday (like my optimism? Lol), I can wear the shirt Thursday and be like haaaaay friends your newest Bruin right here!
It says I don’t have access to myucla so idk! I am really tempted to SIR to berkeley rn ahhh I’m too impatient I just want to be able to write my college in my social media bios lol
@holatomm I was hesitant to buy a UCLA sweatshirt when I was on campus for STOMP, so I decided I’d just head to Target and buy a t-shirt if I got in, haha!
Do you know when the release date is??