I think it’s also perception and location. The perception that California is the place to be (lots of OOS apply and hardly any local students do NOT apply). Also the location of some of the UCs are spectacular (i.e. UCSB, UCSC) they are like resort towns.
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I appreciate everyones comments/opinions on the UC holistic review and fit. My son and I are just in disbelief that not one UC he has applied to sees him as a fit for their university. His stats: In state, 4.33 wgpa, 24 years A-G, 8 Ap’s, 2 college classes, volunteer exp, 2 sports, clubs, work experience, well written and personal PIQs. Applied for Cog Sci/psychobiology/or similar major for all. To add, he attended UCD soccer ID camp end of Feb and coach sent emails that he is very interested in him as walk on if he is offered admission and to keep him updated.
Waitlisted UCD, UCSC, UCSD
Denied UCI, UCLA
Waiting (not hopeful) UCB, UCSB
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My complaint is not the UCs, and I’m grateful for my daughter’s acceptance to UCI and Davis. However, she was waitlisted at UCLA but her good friend got in. All along we figured she wouldn’t because she didn’t take four years of Spanish, never took the hard APs, literally missed half of junior year because she didn’t feel like coming to school. Her father on three occasions that we know of, threatened the school with a lawsuit if she was given a B. I had my daughter deal with her B, even though she was .5 away from an A. On her application, this girl claimed to be Native American (kids tell their friends everything), she is not. They hired an expensive counselor because they are very wealthy. There are probably dozens of kids that deserved this more than this girl. It is so hard as a parent to watch the horrible example of ill-gotten gains. My poor kid is not the only one who tried so much harder. And by the way, I have no problem with URM being given priority. This is not that. This is lying and cheating, and being rewarded for being privileged. I have told my daughter that her friend will never survive in the real world. How can you keep a job if you don’t show up? But I am fearful that this is a larger commentary on America. Just venting…
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California students still have the option to attend CSUs or CCs, if a UC doesn’t work out. No one is forced to go out of state. Also, especially for higher stat students, some could go OOS for less money than a UC might cost.
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It sounds like your son may be accomplished musically. That can sometimes really help at some schools, particularly small schools and LAC’s like Pomona and Swarthmore. It would not matter at all at UCLA since they have a separate music school that requires an audition.
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The CSU and CC option in particualar is not a good option for all. Our local CC is awful, the kids who attend are so bored they watch day time soaps to pass the time …
Great vent. This is why I said upstream. The biggest vent I have is no one fact checks these claims.
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Absolutely! I have personally seen kids who have fibbed their way through the PIQs and that definitely makes it harder to deal with the rejects. Many many kids lie on their PIQs.
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But the UCs don’t consider race/ethnicity in their admissions, so whether or not she lied about being NA made no difference. The readers don’t even see that information when reviewing applications, so what was there to fact check in this case?
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Correct and it’s the short term view of it as well. You pay high state income taxes for decades and an OOS parent pays higher tuition for 4 years … Doesn’t make sense. And to be fair my kid got into her dream UC, but I understand people’s venting.
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They are not supposed to, but it’s subjective and let’s not be naive, first generation is a very strong surrogate for race. Again, my kid got into her dream UC but I’m not going to pretend the UCs are fair.
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Unless there is direct or indirect reference to race in the PIQs?!
Maybe it is, but as far as we know she didn’t claim to be first generation. She claimed to be Native American - my understanding is that the readers do not get demographic information when reviewing applications, so they would not see this, and would not be able to give any preference for it.
UC application readers do not see race information (or any other identifying info). URMs are not given priority in the UC application process.
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This in a nutshell is my gripe about college admissions. We’ve taken away SATs from the mix in the name of equity. But, relying on ECs and Essays (which are very sensitive to $$$) and institutional priorities (First Gen, Low Income etc.) leaves those in the middle who don’t have the hooks and don’t have the $$ to invest in ECs, with no value for the SAT scores that may have helped them in past cycles. And the more difficult a college or major is, the more sensitive the admission results are to parental income.
I told this story last year when S22 applied - a well known firm promised a research project in exchange for a small finders fee of $4k. We told them to go pound sand. At the same time, my son went to summer engineering camps at top OOS engineering schools because we could afford to send him away. Many of these opportunities are accessible to truly low income kids but if you are middle class and ORM you are basically screwed when it comes to college admissions. And test optional has made it far worse.
I have no complaints against the spirit of test optional but I don’t think it is serving the right people. Private schools don’t have any incentives to give anything other than an A to their students especially if the parent is shaking their fists all the time. I don’t have the answers but the admissions process is truly broken and does a huge disservice to kids everywhere.
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Unless the PIQ referred to race?! Directly or indirectly?!
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The readers don’t make the final decision , but in that final decision just like being a first gen college student, race is considered. This will never stop no matter what the Supreme Court decides. And I agree with considering race, SES, and first gen. What I am against is the cheating and lying that goes unchecked.
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It is not considered by the UCs, though.
I hadn’t even thought about that, but I bet it did. Gaming the system is an understatement.
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Hit the nail on the head!