Not sure for all the UCs, but I did hear from the UCI admissions director in his podcast specifically state that the name/race is completely masked from the AOs. But he also mentioned that if the student mentions it in his/her PIQs, then there’s no way around that. I can’t find the link but you can find it in the UCI threads here.
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No, they do not. They have been unable to do so for years following Prop 209. All that info is stripped so readers don’t even see it. If you write an essay about it, obviously they will know. But it’s not something they can take into consideration.
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Do you know if gender is stripped from apps as well? The M/F acceptance rate disparity at UCI is surprising (persistent ~10% acceptance rate gap girls>boys at UCI engineering). Might just be girls disproportionately apply to less competitive engineering majors (biomed, chemical, environmental), but a sizable acceptance rate gap in engineering is surprising to me (34.2% v 21.1% last year). Any insight @Gumbymom?
Race/ethnicity/gender are all hidden on the UC applications. Basically all identifying information.
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UCI’s 2022 enrollment stats indicate that the undergrad student population is approximately 40% male. Engineering is approximately 60% male.
I’d bet disproportionate applying by gender based on the type of major and even type of engineering major. Keep in mind that men are only 40% of US universities, and falling, and men are only 30% of UK universities, and falling. If anything colleges need to be doing something to recruit more men to apply.
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if it is done by computer, i would assume there is some weighting for different APs based on rigor.
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True, but girls represent <30% of UCI engineering applicants and will have the same sociodemographic distribution as boys (unlike interracial comparisons). Three possibilities: 1) a significantly smaller applicant pool has a larger number of outstanding applications (to be admitted at a rate 1.5x that of boys), 2) girls are applying to less impacted engineering majors, or 3) gender is being used indirectly (I.e., high reader value of girl-related ECs such as participation in girls who code, SWE events, etc.). I hesitate to guess on sensitive topics like this, which is why I was asking for any insight/data.
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Or it just simply meant that the students admitted were qualified to be admitted to engineering regardless of their gender. There was a study about a research grant that went to mostly male candidates and to the ones (mostly males) who were already well-known in the fields. But when the applications were masked the name and gender, the grants ended up being given to more females and newer candidates. To say that the girls got into engineering because of their gender is unfair to the girls. 
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I said no such thing… I’m trying to understand the admissions disparity. If the answer is “the girls applicant pool was just better on average,” as a society we should find out why our high schools are failing boys in that regard. It is similar to the ‘OOS v in state’ discussions in that the released data typically shows ~all applicants are qualified, but some groups have significantly higher acceptance rates. It is easy to understand that disparity; colleges are just trying to pay the bills and make up for past reductions in state funding. In this case, the only discriminator from available data appears to be gender, which is masked to AOs. Assuming gender has no influence on admissions (per state law), and lacking the necessary data to show disparate applications by engineering major, it begs the question “How are high schools preparing girls better than boys for pursuit of an engineering degree in college?” It could very well be a combination of factors that do not include gender at all, but no data is available to make that assessment either. I like data… maybe too much. I like transparency in public institutions even more. When admissions data indicate disparities, whether they be racial, gender-based, socioeconomic, regional, etc., it calls for questions and more data in my book, not giving the benefit of the doubt. The alternative is akin to accepting disparities as ‘just how it is’ which rarely turns out well. I’d rather understand the nature of the disparities before passing judgment on whether they are natural, acceptable or require remedy.
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I have a new question. Does anyone following this thread know how UC’s take into account senior year grades for a student that takes a gap year and applies during the fall after their high school graduation when the entire 9-12 grade history is shown on the submitted transcript?
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I would imagine 12th grades from gap year applicants would be treated the same way as 9th grades. Reviewed for completion of the A-G courses and HS rigor but not included in the UC GPA calculations.
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Another new question… does anyone know how the various UCs weigh # of A-G courses v UC capped GPA? Health is an A-G-approved course at a minority of schools and even required for graduation at some (all?) of those schools. Anyway, a required, non-honors A-G course will lower UC GPA for most qualified applicants in selective majors… is this considered given the 8 grade point cap within the automated UC GPA computation and academic weighting?
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An admissions podcaster and his guest talked about this and his guest, who I believe is an admissions officer, said that in their experience girls applications came across as much stronger and essays read so much better. They were talking about engineering at the time and said the girls added so much more dimension to their essays. This was alarming for me… are the boys in general lacking writing skills? less reflective? not interested in the types of activities that the AOs find appealing? Describe it in more mechanical terms but experienced the same thing?
I have no idea if apps for UC Engineering align with their statements but I found it interesting. And sadly I can’t find the episode to refer to you. I have also heard that private colleges absolutely do try to gender balance so your chances as a female in certain engineering majors at a private school would be higher than for a male and vice versa for nursing.
As much as I’d like to believe that readers are blind to gender, I think in many cases this information is either disclosed or hinted at or assumed. I am skeptical that the process is as level as they tout. We all have our bias and the schools do have admit goals.
My husband reads for scholarships and he is given a clear rubric. I do not always agree with his scores and I see the same rubric… we are VERY different in the way we view and interpret the world, what we see value in, etc.
Are there more women who read for admissions? More men?
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These are some of the right questions to be asked IMO, and relate to my question of ‘how are schools not preparing boys?’ (if that is the case). I personally think essays are weighted too heavily in some STEM field admissions, where technical writing and communication are paramount, as well as interpersonal skills in a team environment. That is not to say boys are better than girls in these areas or vice versa, just that too much emphasis may be placed on essays if the institutional objective is to graduate a class that will benefit the state and reflect positively on the university throughout a graduate’s career (maybe that is no longer an objective). PIQs having significant influence on UC engineering admissions seems misplaced to me. Having reviewed hundreds of manuscripts for professional journals and technical conferences, I can state with a high degree of confidence that technical writing ability is a challenge for many (most?) engineers (men and women); effective verbal communication is also a struggle for some. I’m not sure engaging PIQs are predictive of downstream technical communication abilities. My question to AOs: how are PIQs considered in engineering admissions and how do they think they relate to educational and career success?
Well, health is yes a non-a-g course but it tends to be required in 9th grade, as is PE, and as UC doesn’t look at 9th grade grades that works out. But I share (shared) your worry as it occured to me recently that DD4’s private Christian high school required a non a-g class every year to graduate (a religion class–theology, etc). I realized that she might not be able to tally up as many a-g classes as others due to that requirement. And then it occured to me that the data shows the more a-g classes, the better for UC admissions. Like–the majority of admits have 25+ or something like that. (She’s my 4th child to apply to UC/Cal State colleges but counting up a-g classes to ensure there were 25 never occured to me before.) But thankfully it’s working out very well so far as she’s been offered admission to two of the 7 UCs she applied to. (So grateful and relieved.) Presumably admissions knows each high school and their offerings and requirements pretty well.
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The removal of the SAT also disadvantages a certain type of boy. For example, all three of my boys did better on their SATs than their GPAs would have predicted (and with zero test prep). Some (relatively) smart boys just do enough in high school to sort of get by with Bs, not caring to please the teacher, not particularly interested in reading The Joy Luck Club and other female-focused assigned books, etc. But they may be great at chess and programming, and maybe have some ADHD, and can do well on an SAT, and would THRIVE in college when they can finally choose what they want to study. Like–late bloomers. Test blind SAT policies overlooks them. I don’t know about the essays and PIQs–all my kids seem to be pretty good writers even though only two of them actually read for pleasure. But I imagine that overlooking brilliant male future scientists and coders because their ECs and PIQs aren’t as stellar as the girls’ are could be a huge problem (not sure this is happening or not though). Dare I say that ChatGPT will make such writing obsolete soon enough? My DD’s high school principal is scrambling to introduce new policies as a result of ChatGPT already (such as more Socratic discussions in class vs essays, written assignments by hand in class instead of at home, etc).
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Health IS an A-G course at some high schools (e.g., Mission San Jose), and even though it is required, sometimes there is insufficient capacity to offer it to all students their freshman year (as in my son’s high school). So, some students take it freshman year and it does not factor into UC capped GPA, some take it during summer after 9th or in 10th, so it does count toward UC capped GPA. It is conceivable, I guess, that two students with identical courses/rigor/numA-G and grades from the same high school have different UC capped GPAs. Are AOs aware of this possibility, or do they only see the computer generated GPA? Or is health counted as an A-G course where it is approved, and not counted in the UC capped GPA? It all seems very strange to me!
Edit: wait… does the A-G count also only include from summer after 9th to summer after 11th? If so, one student will have more A-G course, the other higher UC capped GPA?
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FWIW, your description of a generally unmotivated boy in HS, with little interest in some subjects hits very close to home (as in that was me)… straight As in math and science classes, Bs in rest… AP Calc was a cakewalk, 5 on the test, great math SAT, middling English score, advanced from AMC to AIME without even knowing what it was… teacher just said ‘show up Saturday at 9AM if you can’. Won lots of awards in engineering category of regional science fair… Didn’t include either on college apps because I didn’t know anything about effective applications, mid-year updates (if they were even a thing that long ago) and got zero counseling from HS or parents. I just thought, ‘yeah… you send in your grades, write the essay in response to the prompt and they decide.’ Only got into my state school (guaranteed admission at the time), enrolled in aerospace and ~same pattern repeated itself, except ~all my classes were now math/science, so thrived in college and grad school… BECAUSE IT WAS NOW INTERESTING! I think that describes lots of smart kids (girls and boys), but with admissions these days, some give up on more demanding majors or think they have to go to a top school (UC or bust!) to have a fruitful career in a field that interests them. I feel like the whole system is broken in so many ways.
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They just said that the academic score was done via a computer algorithm, I think they may have said that it was processed separately from the regular admissions process, I can’t remember.
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