UCLA is a top U.S. choice for freshmen

Parents Forum
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<p>According to the L.A. Times, "The university's 50,694 applications for fall entry may be the most in the nation. Increased interest from blacks and Latinos pleases officials."</p>

<p>My niece is not going to be thrilled when I pass this along to her - she is one of the throng that applied to UCLA (she also applied to Riverside) - online - for the fall freshman class:</p>

<p>"UCLA said Wednesday that 50,694 students have applied for the fall freshman class, up 7.1% from last year. UCLA officials said the figure appeared to show that the campus, as it has for nearly a decade, had attracted more applications than any other university nationwide.</p>

<p>UCLA leaders also said they were happy about an increase in applications from African American and Latino students, two groups considered underrepresented at most University of California campuses and in the UC system as a whole...</p>

<p>UCLA this year is using a new "holistic" approach in admissions, one in which all facets of each applicant can be considered at once by admissions reviewers. The new model, which will make UCLA's admissions process more like UC Berkeley's, was spurred partly by concerns about the dwindling numbers of black students, but UCLA's acting chancellor and faculty leaders say they think the change will also lead to fairer admissions for all applicants.</p>

<p>The campus has set an enrollment target for the fall freshman class of 4,675, admissions officials said. Applicants will learn April 1 if they made the cut.</p>

<p>Across the UC system, meanwhile, the number of high school seniors applying for admission in the fall rose 5.3% this year, with 87,213 students hoping to win spots. Those from California students were up 4.7% this year, while international freshman applications jumped more than 20%, according to figures released Wednesday by the UC president's office.</p>

<p>(The figures, which are compiled earlier in January than those released by the campuses, often vary slightly from those reports.)</p>

<p>According to that UC report, the number of freshman applications for 2007 increased for every campus except UC Santa Cruz, where 76 fewer students applied than last year. At UC Irvine, 39,910 students applied, up 4% from last year. At UC Riverside, four more prospective freshmen for a total of 19,797 — applied for 2007 than did last year.</p>

<p>Applications from college students hoping to transfer to one of the university's 10 campuses were down slightly, from 23,943 last year to 23,781 this year.</p>

<p>And UC officials said nearly all students hoping to win admission this year — 99% — filed their applications online. "</p>

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<p>This impressive number of 50,694 is up from over 47,000 applications - according to the UCLA website. In terms of selectivity, the campus generally is able to admit about one in four freshman applicants for the fall term. That is an amazing number of apps to handle holistically: each application is read twice in its entirety, "by professionally trained readers. After independently reading and analyzing a file, the reader determines a comprehensive score that is the basis upon which the student is ultimately admitted or denied. In addition, admissions managers conduct multiple checks for consistency and completeness throughout the reading process. While this evaluation process is based on human judgments rather than a system that quantifies factors and incorporates them into a numerical formula, the extensive reader training, comprehensive reading of files, as well as other monitoring procedures, ensure that the process is highly reliable."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/FrSel.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/FrSel.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>It's a great school at a decent price (for in-state, OOS is something else altogether.) But I wouldn't recommend it for the shy, insecure kid... UCLA is just too large for that.</p>

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<p>All state schools are the first choice for hundreds of thousands of applicants.</p>

5

<p>It is a great school; my D was one of the lucky OOSers to be admitted last spring. Unfortunately, UCLA did a horrible job of making the OOSers feel welcome/wanted at the Accepted Students Day we attended. We were not the only ones who felt that way. I realize that the University's first priority and allegiance is to its in-state students and their needs, but the overall attitude of "If you're not Cali, you're s**t" was a real turn-off.</p>

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<p>So ColoradoMom - did your D decide to go there? Or was the turn off enough that she went elsewhere? Just curious.</p>

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<p>She actually ended up going to UC-Boulder, good old State U. She was also accepted to Georgetown EA and we both LOVED the kids that already attended there and the group of accepted students that were at the Accepted Students session. Warm, engaging, and smart. Parents too. </p>

<p>She decided that since she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do, but whatever it was was going to involve going to graduate school, it was a wiser financial decision to stay in-state and get her undergraduate degree here. Plus, with 37 college credits due to her AP scores, she actually started CU as an almost second-semester sophomore. At first H and I were disappointed because we thought about how great it would be to say that our D went to a "name" school - frankly the parent "ego" got in the way for awhile. I'm not ashamed to admit it; it's the truth. But we got over ourselves and D is very happy and challenged, so it's all good! Plus, it's a HECK of a lot easier when the time comes to write the tuition check.</p>

<p>I did end up writing to the UCLA Director of Admissions. Not a nasty letter at all; just suggesting they might want to consider modifying their approach a bit. Got a very nice reply back; the person was horrified at the thought that OOSers might have felt a little "rebuffed". So I still think that UCLA is an excellent school, it just didn't "fit" what my D wanted at the time.</p>

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<p>I'm amazed at how things have changed since I went there 20+ years ago. Based on my stats, I'd not have a chance in heck of getting in now, but at the time it was the only school I wanted to go to and the only school I applied to. Not so much that I was focused, but probably just had blinders on. :) But I do remember that I knew I'd get in, based on my stats at that time.</p>

<p>My D did not end up applying to UCLA, but to another UC, mainly because her counselor insisted that all the kids eligible for the UCs apply. She doesn't really want to go to the UC (too big for her), but I'm glad she applied anyway.</p>

<p>ColoradoMom - I'm sorry that you didn't feel welcome at UCLA. I don't remember any particular problems between in-staters and the out of staters back then. I know we had a lot of people from out of state, and most of them were just counting the days until they would be considered residents, so they could pay the in-state tuition. I always thought it was pretty cool how many people wanted to come to "our" state for school. But like I said, this was awhile ago and I'm not really current anymore.</p>

<p>No, you don't even want to know what my tuition was at that time. :)</p>

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<p>ColoradoMom - it is good that you wrote and told them and that they responded that way. may help some future OOSers. (funny term - i have not seeen that before).</p>

<p>Funny how that whole 'campus feel' thing works. My D visited both of our larger State Us and loved the feel of one but hated the other. The senior counsellor at the high school says he is always surprised when students apply to both because most people 'fit' better at one or the other.</p>

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<p>The number of acceptances is probably going to drop to more like one in five from one in four. UCLA normally admits about 10,000 to get something like a 4,300 person class.</p>

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<p>last year, several UCs, including LA, were over enrolled, forcing doubles into triples, triples into quads..... Since the UCs don't use wait lists, it'll be interesting to see how many offers they make in March.</p>

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<p>Bluebayou:
You're correct that several UCs were over-enrolled this year including UCLA, UCSD, and UCD. I hope they're more accurate on their predictions for the fall class or it'll be hard to find homes for them all.</p>

<p>ColoradoMom:
I'm saddened to hear of this experience you had as an OOS. I think OOSers add interest to the student body. I know my Ds welcome having OOSers as well as internationals.</p>

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<p>ColoradoMom, I'm sorry as well. I'm passing your experience on to somewhere where it might possibly have a positive impact for the future (besides Admissions, whom you already wrote).</p>

<p>Erin's Mom, a staggering number of UCLA alumni are blown away by the fact that they probably couldn't get admitted today.</p>

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<p>What's so great about LA :)</p>

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<p>Absolutely nothing. Please, nobody else move out here!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>S (UCLA'05 in Design|Media Arts) still considers him very lucky to have been accepted OOS. Although he knows the downsides (large class sizes for GE reqs), he also appreciated the attention he received in a relatively small program (only 55 slots his year).</p>

<p>COMom--So sorry to hear about your experience. A good friend of mine was involved in the parents program there; were she still there, I would have forwarded your info to her. I didn't get that feeling at all during orientation or Parents Weekend.</p>

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<p>Thanks, all, for the kind words. We still like UCLA, so no problems there. D would have received a wonderful education.</p>

<p>LittleMother, glad that your son is doing well.</p>

<p>This could easily be the start of a new thread, so I'll try not to hijack this one. I guess we went into the accepted students day thinking, "Hey, we're from Colorado. This is California. We're both from 'the West' so the people will be like us and D will fit in well." Uhh . . . no. California and Texas are the only two states I've ever spent significant time in where they regard themselves (to a degree) as their own country.</p>

<p>Please don't kill me folks! It's a very broad statement that I know only applies to a minority of people, but I was floored by the observation. Your geographical choices are "SoCal" or "NoCal" and there just wasn't any recognition ON THAT DAY that any place else existed. We probably just caught some people on an "off" moment.</p>

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<p>I greatly appreciate all the replies - my niece, obviously is OOS, and the 1 in 5 selectivity sounds about right. Does this push UCLA ahead of Berkeley again? In any case, she is biting her nails down to the quick at this point. K-niece is on the shy side but I wouldn't peg her as insecure - quite frankly I am not sure how this university "ranks" with her in terms of best fit.</p>