I just got waitlisted from UCSD but since UCSD is one of my top choices, I’m thinking of submitting an appeal.
I’m not sure if this is a good enough reason but one of my honors world language class was not considered as an honor class on the UC application. I checked in with my teacher and my school if it was a UC accredited class and they told me it was. I labeled it as an honor course on the application and wrote a side note about the situation but when I checked the UC a-g course list last week, it was still labeled as a non-honors course.
So, I’m thinking of appealing for this reason but in case, my appeal does fail, will it affect my chances on waitlist? And is this a good enough reason for an appeal?
It’s hard to know without more information. What was your GPA? SAT/ACT? How were your essays? ECs? If you were rejected and the only issue you can find is with that one course, I don’t think you have a strong case.
My major was Political Science.
Stats were
GPA: 4.2 UC GPA if the language course was considered an Honors
SAT: 1380
Essays: I think it was pretty good but who knows
EC: might be weak. Some volunteers, a little sports. Nothing out of the ordinary.
@west123 I’m in the same boat as you 
Unfortunately, waitlisted students cannot file for an appeal. Only students who were straight up denied. (My dad searched it up) Regardless, appeals are 99.999999999% impossible. We’d have better chances on the waitlist. I know, not the news that you and I wanted to hear, but hopefully you’ve made it into some other great schools! It’s all politics and well… geez… huh… they are missing out on students like us. Best of luck to you!
Maybe the appeal rules have changed. My son is a current UCSD senior. He was originally waitlisted, filed an appeal, and was admitted less than 2 weeks later. Appeals on the Waitlist have been allowed until very recently, but that may have changed. I would definitely check to be sure.
how do you submit an appeal?
Not sure of current process. From 4 years ago, you logged into your portal and somehow got to a link to appeal. It was difficult to find. The appeal could only be submitted on-line; they will not consider an email or mailed appeal. There was also a very strict word count- I remember it was very limited and my son had a hard time cutting it down. I would suggest calling if you can’t find the link.
You can only weight eight semesters at UC San Diego. Are you saying without that class you only had 6 weighted semesters? Because most UCSD candidates have far more than the 8.
Appeal Information from UCSD website:
Can I appeal the decision?
A: Note: Successful appeals are very rare. Your application has already been reviewed thoroughly by at least two readers.
To provide new and compelling academic information that was not in your original application, follow the link to submit your appeal online. If you base your appeal on an emergency, family or medical-related situation, you will need to provide documentation of your circumstances. However, please do not attach any documentation to your appeal at this time. If we need to review additional material, we will ask for it.
@west123: I have never heard of an Honors World language class being UC approved in the 5-6 years that I have been involved helping prospective students in the UC application process. If your HS went through the UC accreditation for that course, there should be some form of documentation you could submit to show proof.
@VickiSoCal Yeah I only have 6 weighted semester without my honors French class.
@Gumbymom Thanks for the info, I will ask my teacher for a copy of the documentation.
@randomkid98 I think waitlisted people can submit an appeal too?
@west123: Did you check this link for your HS’s approved classes? This is updated yearly and will show which HS courses are UC approved.
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution
Type in the name of HS and select from the list. None of my area HS’s have UC approved Honor’s language classes, only the AP level classes are UC approved.
@Gumbymom I did, my French IV H course was approved as an honors accredited course according to my school and teacher but on the a-g course list, it isn’t listed as an honors accredited course. I checked it a few weeks ago and it was still the same for both 2016-2017 year and 2017-2018 year.
The only way your appeal will be valid is if your school can give you documentation that the course is indeed UC approved.
@Gumbymom Yeah, hopefully my teacher and school will help me out. I told my school about this error in November, but my school just told me to write a note on the side of the application and didn’t fix the error. Also, do you know if submitting an appeal will affect my waitlist status? Thanks for all the help!
My understanding is that you cannot appeal if you are on the waitlist, but I would contact UCSD admissions on Monday for confirmation.
This is from the UCSD Waitlist FAQ’s:
Can I appeal the decision?
A: Successful appeals are very rare. Your application has already been reviewed thoroughly by at least two readers. More information is available in the FAQs for Applicants Not Offered Admission. We strongly encourage you to opt in to the waitlist.
Sorry, but I don’t think this is a valid reason to appeal. It is not up to the school to make all of their classes UC accredited. It is up to the student to check the a-g list to see if a course offered from their school is UC accredited/approved by the UC system. I think the appeal just shows you didn’t do your homework or weren’t aware of something that you could have been. Which btw, happens to a zillion kids every year. There are tons of classes that high schools offer that aren’t UC accredited. Which to the next point, do you really think that course not being honors is the sole reason for being waitlisted? Kids with super high stats are waitlisted from there in very high numbers.
@blueskies2day The course was accepted as UC accredited by the UC system (It was accepted last year). My school does have the documentations with the proof. However, for some reason, the UC system didn’t update the status of the course. I also talked to my school about this error in October and again in November. My school told me and my classmates that they will contact the UC about this but it never got fixed.There are probably other reasons to why I got waitlisted, but I think my chances might be better if my UC GPA was a 4.2 instead of a 4.1