I think they are masked but if someone plays a sport that is 99 % one gender or if students mention these in essays I can imagine it could influence some readers.
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I believe they are trained to treat them just like any other EC/Club. Sure, there may be some readers who simply canāt help themselves from forming an opinion based on speculated ethnicity, but for most, they are looking at the substance of involvement, rather than ethnic/racial focus.
That seems a bit like grasping at straws, imo. Again, the focus is on the substance of involvement, not in trying to sleuth out personal details of applicants when there is a clear prohibition on considering those details. Sure, I have no doubt that some readers just canāt help themselves. But I want to believe that most are professional enough to abide by the legal requirements of their job.
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This is why Iāve counseled my DD (waitlisted from her top choice UCLA) to avoid the Instagram details of those crowing about their UCLA admission so she wonāt compare their stats/apparent intelligence/etc to hers and see how theirs are ālacking.ā Comparisons are odious and do no good. Itās (arguably) more fun/healing/productive to commiserate with the 90% of highly qualified applicants who were rejected or waitlisted from UCLA on Friday like her.
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Instead, ask your DD to show you some of the hilarious TikTok videos kids are making about NOT getting into UCLA (among others) - some kids are so clever, and it made my kid (and me) laugh out loud! 
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Good post and I like how you are discussing some elephants in the room. My DD is also white and will be a 4th gen UC (if she chooses a UC). She knows only 1st gen is in vogue now, but Iāve explained to her that the 1st gens compete against each other for 40% of the seats set aside for them, while the non 1st gens compete against each other for the other 60%. All need to be exceptional and accomplished students regardless, and UC needs to serve Californians and if 40% are 1st gen, so be it. (I do know that >60% of Americans donāt have a bachelorās degree.)
I like what you noted about UC Merced and UC Riverside. I think UC Merced was an opportunity lost 15 years ago thatās now being rectifiedāvery few students want to attend a college in the āmiddle of nowhereā (more so than Davis or SLO) where (for one thing) you need to take a 20 minute bus ride to the non-thriving town that only has 1 pizza place and 1 burger place and thatās it. Now the town and UC Merced are finally planning to grow and merge closer together. I think that will increase the appeal of UCM to non-Central Valley teens. It could be as attractive and as appealing as UCD then (or even more so maybe with the much newer buildings and dorms).
UC Riverside also is already becoming much more appealing than a few years ago. Iām not sure what theyāve been doing to attract more enrollment (advertise how close they are to Disneyland? lol) as I think the CS major like almost everywhere is impacted there. With more CS students enrolling there, increasing excellence within that entire student body will follow. . .
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Do UCs/CSUs review CAASPP exam scores? Is that included in transcripts? And if if they donāt, do you think they should look at these test results given that all CA high schoolers need to take it?
Q: Do UCs see the applicantās name?
I think you still have a good chance of getting admitted from waitlists. What major(s) are you waitlisted for?
Any student can opt out of CAASP testing. And many do. I do not believe it is used in college admissions.
Edited to add: Sometimes high schools are not clear about the right to opt out of testing because if they donāt have a certain percentage of students taking these tests then they fall in school rankings. So schools often benefit from participation. But nonetheless, every Californian student has the right to opt out, and many exercise that right for various reasons.
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My son is on a senior trip right now. He and the other four kids at the top of his class were all rejected outright from ucla Friday. They had a moment of commiseration that no one from their school got in, then they moved on and talked about where they are accepted, what theyāre leaning toward, etcā¦
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Whites are the least likely to be 1st gen (in CA anyway).
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Definitely. Merced has a lot of potential. Since it seems like the UC system is Governor Newsomās latest priority, evidenced by all of the discussion regarding his new budget, Iād welcome a pouring of all that surplus budget he was bragging about a couple years ago into Merced.
There are plenty of great schools across the nation āin the middle of nowhere,ā from Ivies like Cornell to solid schools that enroll tens of thousands like Texas A&M. Merced has the UC brand and already a bit of infrastructure through the neighboring town. Itāll just take a few years of sustained investment and soon enough, the university will thrive.
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Since you mentioned Chico State is still accepting applications, Iāll put in a plug for it here. My DS3 is a soph Computer Science major there, and loves it. Itās similar to UC Davis in many waysāa bit agricultural, a very cute and classic college town, good weather during the school year, and not far from it in fact. The professors at Chico State really seem to care about the students and their success. And my son is getting coding job/internship offers already right and left (and in fact works P/T remote during the school year as a software engineer already).
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UCs do not review CAASPP. Applicants have option to send CAASSP to CSUs. It is not required.
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I believe I was the first to mention CAASPP up thread. I feel that if California is going to provide the opportunity for a free standardized test (taken in oneās junior year too!) anyways, then students should have the option to have that be reviewed within their application.
It ignores many of the arguments regarding standardized testing, since it is free, taken during the school day so itās already accessible anyways, and largely just tests on standard public school knowledge, which is redundant to test prep for. Since the test is the same throughout CA, thereās no argument that it varies by school either. Iād support a shift to implementing the CAASPP into deciding applications, especially if it reduces the unnecessarily subjective āholisticā aspect.
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UCs donāt consider CAASPP scores (and of course they donāt get transcripts during the application phase). I guess they could see a CAASPP score if a student reported it somewhere in the app, but itās not part of the scoring rubric and shouldnāt ācountā for anything.
No, UCs do not see applicant names.
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Maybe. But to what degree do these tests just reflect the quality of teaching at their schools? In other words, do they advantage (the already advantaged) affluent with access to excellent high school while disadvantaging those who have the bad luck of living in an underperforming district that isnāt adequately teaching the kind of information captured on these tests.
And I donāt know that thereās any easy answer to it. I think people want to find some kind of truly objective measure by which to compare students, but 1. The UCs donāt really seem to have a strong interest in doing that and 2. Is it ever really possible when humans are so messy and complicated. Is there such a thing as subjective measurement, and would it even be meaningful? It would probably help us all sleep at night, knowing that admissions are āfair.ā But I personally think itās more complex than that and Iām not sure thereās any answer at all that will make everyone happy (not that the UCs have an obligation to make everyone happy).
Also fyi for anyone reading - 3 of the 4 CSU campuses mentioned (Chico, East Bay, Stanislaus) also are members of National Student Exchange, which provides an opportunity for students to spend up to a year at another OOS NSE campus while continuing to pay CSU tuition.
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Not sure. Race is hidden, but the person I talked to did allude to using name, PIQs and activity list/additional info section. Perhaps it differs per UC?
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This is the other school my D23 is looking at!
She even used the words, āItās like a mini UC Davisā - where both her sisters are. Lol.
She is choosing between UCSC Games and Playable Media and CSU Chico Computer Animation and Game Development
Both have great programs. If we are interested in rankings, UCSC game major ranks in the top #10 and Chico in the top #20.
My D23 is actually leaning towards CSU Chico right now, but we will see how she feels after weāve participated in both admitted studentsā days.
Chico is not impacted, does not have a housing shortage (to my knowledge!), offered her an option to apply for honors, and you are admitted straight into the degree unlike UCSC who offer a āpreā major.
Whichever campus my D23 chooses, sheāll have our full support!
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The two biggest predictors of K-12 success have been shown to be 1) the presence of books in the home and 2) the presence of at least one desk in the home. The quality of teaching in schools is not as big of a predictor. The CAASPP seems like a great idea to meāprivate high schools currently donāt require it in CA but they sure would if UC and Cal State required it. But I agree that UC seems uninterested at this point in history in any kind of standardized testing (except maybe the AP tests).