I was waitlisted from UCSB today. Would appealing give me a better chance to be accepted or would it not make a difference since I am on the waitlist already?
I was also waitlisted and wondering the same thing
Hey guys I was in your position last year, and I feel obligated to share my experience. If attending UCSB is your goal being waitlisted can be an extremely stressful process. I sent an appeal on the basis of having significantly stronger grades my senior year along with another strong non-academic award I won while in high school. In the end I never was accepted off the waitlist and my appeal was denied, finally hearing back in early July. That 4 month wait was excruciating, checking the portal everyday. In addition, a very small number were accepted of the waitlist as well (im not sure exactly, but I think it was less than 5%). Obviously every year is different, but don’t fall into the notion that you have good chances, as that mindset will only eat away at you. I realize this is not what you guys want to hear; however, it is the honest truth and you need to be prepared to accept it. Furthermore, if attending UCSB is not your goal and you received a waitlist offer, PLEASE do not accept it “just to see if you’d get in.” There are people who are depending on getting of the waitlist and you doing so only hurts their odds. My final piece of advice would be to just move on, pretend as if that waitlist offer was a rejection, and continue your academic future as if that were the case.
In my case, since I was rejected from every other school I applied to, I went to community college. At the end of my senior year of highschool, I self studied 3 AP exams in addition to the 2 AP classes I was taking, and passed all 5 of those exams (AP psych and AP enviro were super easy to self study for I picked up a crash course book and read it two nights before each exam and passed both of those with 4’s). I took summer school at the cc and took a heavy fall course load and spring course load but was able to reach the 60 units I needed to transfer to a UC in one year. It was far from easy, but it is completely doable. I worked my ass off and finished with a 4.0 and now write this after just being admitted as a transfer student to UCSB. So even if you feel discouraged, and dread the thought of spending two years at a CC (like I did) realize that there are options. I also should note that transfer acceptance rate is around 50% for SB.
I wish you all way more than luck, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Thank you for sharing your experience, we are in the same boat and looking at options of CC. Which CC did you attend and were you in a TAG program?
if you end up going to a CC one to consider is SBCC near UCSB. I wrote a post about that in http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-santa-barbara/468098-backdoor-way-to-get-into-ucsb.html
@Doitandmakeit I attended Irvine Valley College and took some courses at Saddleback College as well. I was part of a TAG program with UCSC because SB’s tag requirements were difficult to achieve as a one year transfer, but it is super easy if you are a two year + transfer,.
How determines if we can do TAG in a year or 2?
@Doitandmakeit you submit your tag in september and UCSB will decide if you meet all their requirements, if so your tag will be approved. I am fairly confident in saying no one year transfer can TAG because you need 30 semester units by fall of the year you submit your tag, excluding AP Credit. Meaning if you wanted to tag you would have to take over 30 units in the summer, which is not only absurd but likely not even feasible.If you transfer in 2 years you can easily meet that requirement of having 30 units by fall of the year you plan to apply. Just in case you don’t know, not being eligible for tag does not make you ineligible for admission. I was admitted despite not being eligible for tag.
I was waitlisted too and I sent in an appeal. I hope everyone hoping to get off the wait list hears back asap!
well, it’s officially may now. hope we all get in!
Can you please explain what TAG is??
Did anyone get a response today?
no I think they come out in mid-may
nope
My daughter was admitted this morning off waitlist - first major pre-biology. We appealed, but since it’s after May 1st, I don’t think it was because of the appeal. She also appealed her waitlist decision to UCI and was admitted 1 week before the SIR deadline, so she sent in her SIR to UCI. Going through her UCI portal, she recently found out that she was indeed admitted because of her appeal. I think she will not be taking the UCSB offer now that she has UCI in her back pocket.
I also heard that many are being taking off the wait list at UCSD (yesterday afternoon) and are leaving UCI since UCSD was their first choice, freeing up spots for people on waitlist at UCI. So for those of you on the UCSB waitlist, there is hope. I think there will be a massive shuffle of students between most of the UCs, shifting their SIR’s to their first choice schools. In fact, my daughter withdrew her SIR to UC Davis after being taken off the UCI waitlist. And later today, she will let UCSB know that she will not be taking the offer, freeing up her spot for one of you 
It’s been a really wacky year for UC Admissions, lots of waitlist and rejections of excellent students (in favor of higher tuition paying, lower stat oos students (repeating a theory that’s on many threads)). So I think this will also be a wacky year for waitlist, with a lot of people being taken off…hopefully
update to my post above - she found out on her portal that she was admitted to UCSB because of her appeal to the waitlist decision. Her portal says “Appeal Status: Approved” and “Admission Status: You’re Admitted!”
I still did not find out yet
@overlyworriedparent What’s your D’s appeal based on? Any thing not already on app? Or just appeal itself shows your interest?
@overlyworriedparent congrats to your daughter! do you mind sharing what her stats are? like gpa, test scores, extracurriculars, etc. I just want to know like what kind of people are getting accepted off the waitlist