I’ve been waitlisted for UC Santa Cruz.
From UCSC website:
Q: Can I appeal your decision?
A: If you have new or compelling information that pertains to your application, you may appeal the decision, whether or not you are on the waitlist. Appeal procedures can be found in UCSC’s Information for First-Year Students Not Offered Admission (available soon). Please note that if there is nothing new or compelling, an appeal may not be appropriate. If your senior year grades have gone down, or if you have already earned a grade of D or F in any ‘a-g’ course in your senior year, an appeal will not be granted.
Are the chances really slim? And if they deny my appeal, does my admission go from waitlist to declined or stay on wait list?
UCSC accepted no waitlist students in 2014 and 2105, but around 4000 in 2016. Much depends upon how many admitted students enroll by May 1. If you have a good reason for the appeal, it is worth it to try.
Can you suggest me what to avoid/what’s appealing as I’m appealing? I’ve never wrote an appeal before, so I’m not sure how entirely the process works.
Q: Can I appeal your decision?
A: If you have new or compelling information that pertains to your application, you may appeal the decision, whether or not you are on the waitlist. Appeal procedures can be found in UCSC’s Information for First-Year Students Not Offered Admission (available soon). Please note that if there is nothing new or compelling, an appeal may not be appropriate. If your senior year grades have gone down, or if you have already earned a grade of D or F in any ‘a-g’ course in your senior year, an appeal will not be granted.
Q: How did you select students to be offered the waitlist option?
A: Students offered the waitlist option were selected as the best-qualified students who could not be offered admission because of enrollment limitations. All 14 faculty-approved selection criteria were taken into account when making that determination.
Q: Are there restrictions on who can be on the waitlist?
A: Yes. The waitlist option is limited to freshman applicants by invitation only. If invited, you must opt in by 11:59:59 p.m. (PDT), April 15, 2017.
Q: Am I on the waitlist automatically?
A: No. If you have received a waitlist offer from UCSC, that means that you were granted an option to be on the waitlist. You need to tell us if you want to be placed on the waitlist. Here’s how to accept your waitlist option:
Under the menu in the MyUCSC portal, click on the Waitlist Option link.
Click the button indicating “I Accept My Waitlist Option.”
Once you’ve completed that step, you should receive an immediate acknowledgment that you’ve accepted your Waitlist Option.
Remember, if you want to be on the waitlist, you MUST let us know by 11:59:59 p.m. (PDT) on April 15, 2017.
Q: If I am on the waitlist for UCSC, what are my chances of being admitted?
A: That’s impossible to predict, since it depends on how many admitted students accept UCSC’s offer, and how many students opt in for the UCSC waitlist. Applicants will not know their standing on the waitlist. The Office of Admissions won’t know until the beginning of June how many applicants – if any – will be admitted off the waitlist.
What do you plan to include in your appeal?
Here are UCSC’s guidelines: http://admissions.ucsc.edu/apply/appeals.html
Possibly family low in come issue, how they work for almost the whole entire day, how I’m mostly home because they want me to stay home since I live in a sorta bad area, (nvr mentioned in my essays) then just use the time I have to stay home and learn and teach myself thing for ex, intro lessons and more in depth to coding(mentioned a simple coding project in my essays)
Were any of these issues you mentioned stated in your insight questions?
I never mentioned low income since I’d assume they’d know through applications, and I’ve never mentioned about living in bad area, but I mentioned about teaching myself how to code and stuff at home, so basically autodidact throughout my entire life was on my essay
Write about the hardship of being low income and living in a "bad’ area. Also submit your transcripts and any LOR’s from teachers/counselor that can confirm these issues.
My teachers/counselors doesnt really know about the areas I can’t really get a LOR, but I do have a connection with my algebra 2 teacher, when I submit my transcript my C in calculus isn’t going to look good is it? But the GPA I got for that semester is 4.0 with 3 AP classes. Nor do they know how many hours my parents work, etc
If you want your appeal to be considered, you need to provide UCSC with some kind of documentation to substantiate what you are stating in your essays. If you cannot, then accept the waitlist and hope for the best.
So if I say I’m having low income struggle along with parents working way too many hours, I’d have to provide a tax return to prove it?
Did you fill the FASFA? If so, UCSC would have that information.
Yeah I did file FAFSA, so does that mean I can’t use low income as a appeal?
If UCSC has your financial aid information, this would not be new and compelling information. How did your low income status affect your academics? Did it limit your ability to participate in EC’s?
Why should UCSC accept you over other low income applicants?
You need to give them something other than I am low income so I deserve a place at your university. What has changed since you first applied? Any significant awards? Your GPA shows a significant upward trend?
My low income status made it so I can only apply to 4 UC’s, but it also affects my preparing academically since I cannot buy AP Barron books so study and prepare for the exams. My parents wanting me to stay home all the time definitely limit my ability to participate in EC’s, they have to take me home right after school and head straight to work all the way until midnight, so I was rarely able to stay after school for tutoring or just any EC’s in general. I can only go tutoring during lunch time, so that’s basically the only time I have to ask the teacher stuff aside from during classtime. I haven’t had any significant awards, however, my first semester of senior year was a 4.0, my junior year was like a 3.8 first semester, 3.6 second semester with 2 AP classes, right now as a senior I’m taking 3 AP classes, but I had a C in calculus so I’m not sure if that’s considered as a significant upward trend, but yeah.
If this information was not addressed in your personal insight questions, then write your appeal essay based on this information, send in your transcripts and see what happens.
If they deny my appeal, do I stay on the waiting list or will they fully decline me and take me off the waiting list?