I got waitlisted to UCSC for fall 2016. UCSC was the school that wasn’t a dream school, but a realistic choice for me. I know students who got in with worse stats than me.
Major: Biology (General)
UC GPA Uncapped: 3.67
APs: 5, one UCSD class offered by high school
In state
SAT: 1590
Low socioeconomic class
White
Essays: good
Last semester GPA: 4.0 (UW) 4.2(W)
I plan to write an appeal on my mom’s boyfriend’s verbal abuse. Is there any chance?
Accepted: UCR
Denied: UCD
These are the appeal stats from 2014 and I was unable to find the stats for last year:
305 appeals
54 admits
(half were already on waitlist)
There is always a chance, so you have nothing to lose.
contact your local assemblymen and you’ll see miracles happen
@2020ucgrad How so?
An appeal is usually used to provide new information that wasn’t included in the original application (Like a mistake on the school’s part of your admission app). You can try it, but usually, it’s a long shot.
Contacting your congressman usually involves students who want to go to a military academy. They typically don’t get involved with the UCs. Your waitlisted status appears to have had a lot to do with your GPA and SAT.
@aunt bea Why does everyone on this forum act like anything but a 4.0 is awful? As of last year admissions, that was better than average.
It’s not awful to have under a 4.0 if your test scores are high. The awful part is that every other applicant also has high GPAs and high test scores.
Unfortunately, you’re competing with thousands of students, not just from California, but also from OOS and international schools who have good stats. Our UCs are really popular with anyone who wants to come to California for the sunny TV version. They don’t know what you and I know about living in our state.
Additionally, the universities use stats as a type of predictor in how you’ll do at their school. So, they can afford to be picky.
If you’re on the waitlist, give it time. You’ll be notified somewhere around the first week of May. Accept UCR, so that you will have a school to go to. When you get admitted to UCSC, you then let UCR know that you are canceling your SIR to that school.
If you are low socioeconomically, you may stand a better chance for UCSC.
Send a positive appeal- “I will attend Santa Cruz and am very interested in continuing to wait for any available spot. My senior grades demonstrate my commitment to learning with my upward trend.”
Good luck!
@auntbea technically my weighted GPA is a 4.0 now as of last semester.
Unfortunately, they look at unweighted to balance the scores.
An appeal is technically for students who were denied.
You weren’t denied, you were waitlisted, so that shows they liked you but didn’t have the space yet.
You are sending a letter of continued interest. They typically don’t like added documents after decisions, but you can try.
Keep it light and positive. (They don’t like “sob stories” no matter how awful or bad.). If you wanted to refer to your abuse situation, you would need to phrase it in a manner that makes you look good, like:
“I would like to indicate my continued strong interest in Santa Cruz and would happily attend when admitted. I have continued to boost my academic skills (despite a contentious home environment, familiar to my guidance counselor) and hope to take advantage of office hours at Santa Cruz.”
Does this make sense to you?
@auntbea The waitlist is anything but reliable- there’s 10,000 people on the waitlist who are chosen completely at random. An appeal is my best bet, and I would consider an abuse situation “new and compelling information” considering it wasn’t mentioned on my application whatsoever.
Anyone who did an appeal should get a response this week
Any responses yet?
I appealed and still haven’t got anything…
Is it possible i might have messed up my decision after being wait listed initially?
Unfortunately, all the acceptances off the wait list or appeals were sent out on Wednesday. If you haven’t revived a response by now it is likely that you will not get in.
@barbariandaze how do you know this is certain?
Just based on the precedent of previous years, we can infer that all the accepted appeals were notified this Wednesday, while all the rejected appeals are sent out today. Although I am not 100% certain about this year, in previous years UCSC has accepted their appeals a couple days before the response deadline (the 22nd this year), then on the deadline they send out the rejections. Of the handful of students I know that appealed (both online and in person) many of them were accepted Wednesday.
@barbariandaze if you don’t mind me asking, what were some of your friend’s appeal reasoning? Or stats
@barbariandaze I think they changed their system! I just got admitted from my appeal today at 1:00!! So don’t give up hope guys!
@uc2020yee stats? Appeal or not? Email or portal? Thanks
@Whitelightninggq
uc gpa 3.61
sat 1770
act 26
major MCD Biology
appealed to explain reason for low grades during fresh and soph year + show them my 4.0 from this year and my extracurriculars from this year
they emailed me, the portal doesnt reflect the accpetance but they said it would take 24 hours to show my new status.