Waitlisted at UC Davis and UCSD, but rejected at UCSB??

State Forums
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I was waitlisted at both UC Davis and UCSD, but rejected by UCSB… I thought that SD and Davis were more selective than SB, so I dont really understand how that went down… I was an electrical engineering applicant with a 3.75 uw, 4.21 w, 2200 SAT, 200+ EC, 4 yr track athlete, and involved in a lot of clubs. Does someone please know why I got these decisions, I am just so confused. Please help!

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What other schools did you apply? What is your safety school?

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@Gumbymom I was accepted to Purdue and Cal Poly Slo for electrical engineering and I am waiting on Irvine, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. My safety schools were going to be UCSB (not anymore), Cal Poly, and UC Irvine.

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I posted on the UC Davis thread, but like I said on the other thread, you have some great options so far. After going through the UC admissions with my two sons, these past few years, I see one mistake most applicants make in that they consider the UC’s (including UCR) as Safeties and many times they are not. You have very good Stats but as you unfortunately found out, UC’s are super competitive and very hard to predict. Best of Luck to you and I hope you have more good choices to pick from by the end of the month.

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The UC schools can be very random with their acceptances, given the insane number of applicants that they receive. Don’t take it to heart that you were rejected from a UC…you got into SLO Engineering which is a huge accomplishment.

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Who knows why. But don’t waste another minute thinking about it. You already have two fine acceptances of which you can be proud. Congratulations.

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I heard a theory (I wouldn’t accept as truth by any means), that most students will get into 2/3 at most of the mid-range UCs (UCI, UCD, UCSB). I got into I/SB, then ended up attending Davis off the waitlist. Who knows why…but I think there is some truth to the numbers, especially since people with very similar stats to me got D/SB, and not UCI, or some other combination.
The student body may be too concentrated from SoCal for instance and is seeking out more NorCal students, they may want to play with their median scores…there’s all kinds of factors that come into play with acceptance/rejections.