UCSC Class of 2026 Admission Results: STATS ONLY

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Cruz
1

Once the decisions have been posted for UCSC, please fill out the template below. This is for students who have been admitted, waitlisted or rejected. Please do not post if your admission status is still pending.

If you would like to join the Class of 2026 discussion, please use this link: UC Santa Cruz Freshman Class of 2026 Discussion

**
**
**

Admitted/Wait-list/Denied

Merit scholarships awarded (if any):

Major (and division if applicable) applied to:

Academic stats:

Calculate your GPAs with https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
UC Unweighted GPA:
UC Capped Weighted GPA:
UC Fully Weighted GPA:
ELC (top 9%):

Comments about course load (including senior year):
SAT Subject Tests (if any):
AP exams (scores in parentheses):
IB exams (score in parentheses):
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars:
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:

Personal Insight essays (details):
Letters of recommendation/Augmented Review:

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
High school type:

Applied for need-based financial aid?:

Reflection

Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:

**General Comments: **

2 Likes
2

ACCEPTED: Undeclared Life and Health Sciences
UC Unweighted GPA: 3.85
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.1
UC Fully Weighted GPA: IDK
ELC (top 9%): nearly but, no (B+ over As really do make a difference!!)

Comments about course load (including senior year): Took rigorous courses with Honors and APs in major area
SAT Subject Tests (if any): none
AP exams (scores in parentheses): 3 and scored 3 on all of them
IB exams (score in parentheses): n/a
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): n/a

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: MANY; son is a woodworker, a surfboard shaper, a state beach lifeguard, and a chef. He has many passions and spends a lot of time pursuing them.
Job/Work Experience: Son held a job since age 16, related to declared field of study
Volunteer/Community service: rather minimal if I’m honest
Summer Activities: state beach lifeguard

Personal Insight essays (details): I thought his essays were very strong…he talked about his passions, how he will apply these passions in college and beyond.
Letters of recommendation/Augmented Review: ??

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): CA

High school type: Suburban, mid-sized (1400 students)

Applied for need-based financial aid?: FAFSA only

Reflection

Strengths: EC’s and work experience
Weaknesses: GPA only 4.1
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: this is the first admission decision he’s received - waiting on Cal Poly SLO, UCSD, UCSB

**General Comments: **
Good luck to everyone. I feel like I deserve an honorary doctorate for dealing with all the decision anticipation!!!

3 Likes
3

Wait-listed

Merit scholarships awarded (if any): none

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Undeclared

Academic stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 3.78
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.06
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.06
ELC (top 9%): probably not

Comments about course load (including senior year):

3 AP’s total: AP Span Lang, Span Lit, Music Theory

AP exams (scores in parentheses): AP Span Lang (5)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: not many
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: 200+ hrs of being a jr counselor, helped out at senior house

Personal Insight essays (details):
Would rate an 8/10 for 2 of them and a 8.5/10 for the other 2

Letters of recommendation/Augmented Review: N/A

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): CA
High school type: Pretty big (competitive well known in Silicon Valley) 2000 students in total

Applied for need-based financial aid?: yes, FAFSA only

Reflection

Strengths: community service/EC description place
Weaknesses: GPA, essays (sort of)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Definitely b/c of my GPA, it is pretty low for all of the UC schools.

**General Comments: **
Good luck to all applicants, and congrats to those accepted! Go Banana Slugs <3

4

Accepted (Feb. 25th, early batch)
no merit scholarships
major: Global Economics

UC Unweighted: 4.0
UC Capped Weighted: really confusing for OOS applicants so I honestly don’t know. I’d guess it is about a 4.1-4.25 ish
UC Fully weighted: ^^

3 APs: AP Spanish lang, Stats, US Government
8 Honors Classes
3 Dual Enrollments (2 were taken @ community college)
Awards: NJ Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish

Extracurriculars: not too stand out. President of World Language club, freshman mentor, few other clubs, freshman soccer, that’s ab it.
Job: sales associate at GAP for 1.5 years
volunteer: math tutor, local food pantry stock help

PIQs: I would say they’re one of the strongest parts of my app. Wrote about my creative thought process, LGBTQ+ identity, growing up mixed race, and my love for foreign languages.

State: New Jersey
Public High School, average-slightly above average ratings

Strengths: Academic record was strong, same with PIQs
Weaknesses: ECs were a bit average, nothing crazy. Don’t have a lot of community service, just a little.
My only acceptance so far, as it has been my only decision so far entirely. I’ll update with more decisions later.

Also ranked 20/281 in my hs. My HS has my weighted GPA as a 4.39. That is out of state though.

5

Admitted

Merit scholarships awarded (if any): Nothing yet

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Computer Science

Academic stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 3.35
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 3.59
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 3.88
ELC (top 9%): No

Comments about course load (including senior year): Have taken 3-4 AP Classes every year since 10th grade, everything else honors except math. Also took 3 CS dual-enrollment classes online at local community college.
SAT Subject Tests (if any): None
AP exams (scores in parentheses):
AP Comp Sci Principles, APUSH, AP Lang - 3
AP Comp Sci A, AP Bio - 4
IB exams (score in parentheses): None
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: None
Job/Work Experience: Tons, did a web design internship for a local college, work with kids teaching programming, social media manager for a podcast
Volunteer/Community service: None
Summer Activities: Summer camp counselor

Personal Insight essays (details): Just talked about CS from the perspective of the prompt for the majority of them, last one I wrote about how I have a lot of potential because I’m not done developing (really pretentious but it was my best one)
Letters of recommendation/Augmented Review: None

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant): N/A
High school type: Public

Applied for need-based financial aid?: No

Reflection

Strengths: Lots of work experience, (I think) essays were really strong
Weaknesses: Middling GPA
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Work experience means a lot to the UC’s, that’s why I invested in it. Ultimately my GPA is low because I take a lot of hard classes, leading to the major gap between weighted and unweighted.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Denied from UC Davis, San Jose State. Accepted to University of Arizona, ASU, Barrett Honors College at ASU, CSUN (local)

2 Likes