Why did I get waitlisted?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
1

<p>I applied to irvine as a safety and got waitlisted. I was wondering if anyone could tell me why. I'm not bitter, but I would really like to know my mistakes.</p>

<p>*GPA- UW- 3.52, Weighted: 3.83
Pretty tough schedule. Max honors classes freshman, sophomore year, junior senior a little easier
*SAT-2190 (Math-770, Writing-720, CR-700)
*SAT 2's - Math2-800, Biology (taken freshman year) - 760
*AP scores: Bio-5, Statistics-5, Psychology-5</p>

<p>EC's
*Cross country (10, 11,)- lettered 11th grade, went to NCS.
*Track (9, 10, 11, 12) - lettered 11th, went to MOC's, and NCS. Won most improved in 10th
*Center for kids with special needs (6th grade,7,8,9,10,11,12) - won volunteer of the year award, have 300+ hours from this place.
*Piano since sixth grade.
*creativity competition 10,11,12). Team captain 10th, qualified for worlds (2nd at states), not competing but historian of club 12th.
*Senior buddy, helping freshmen adjust to highschool (summer after 10th)
*Internships at childrens website company(summer after 10th)
*Volunteer at local hospital (10th summer, 11, 12)
*Interned at a hospital. (summer after 12th). Learned how to take blood, blood pressure, basic eye checkups, properly dilate an eye, pulse, weight, watched eye surgeries, do basic diagnosis of easy eye problems (cataracts, terigiums, etc.)</p>

<p>In total I have about 550 service hours, and 300 hours work experience (I counted that internship which I did for nonprof as work experience)</p>

<p>Classes outside of school:
*Class with atdp summer after 9th
*AP biology with atdp (berkeley) summer after 10th
*Chemistry at community college 12th</p>

<p>Essays:
*Everyone who read them thought they were good. I did recycle an essay I was using for my first choice, but it was a good essay and applicable to the prompt. </p>

<p>Other
* State: CA
* School Type: Public
* Ethnicity: Asian
* Gender: F
* Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):none</p>

2

<p>GPA? Your GPA isn’t even really a “mistake” it’s still good, but not like 4.0+. Everything else is pretty good though. What major did you apply for (it looks like something bio related?)</p>

<p>UCs can be pretty random, so if you got rejected from other UCs on the same level or higher as well, then I would wonder what’s wrong with the admissions process. Sometimes to me it seems like they know another higher ranked school will accept you, but idk.</p>

3

<p>Looking at your stats, I have no idea either.
It’s much more impressive than mine, and I also have been waitlisted.
I’m pretty sure it’s just the lack of space because a lot more people are applying to UC’s this year…</p>

4

<p>I got rejected from UCSD and UCLA too! I dunno honestly im pretty ****ed off at this point.
You think they could’ve made a mistake and mixed me up with another applicant or smt? I just cant figure out why. Should i call them and ask?
My self esteem is being destroyed.</p>

<p>And yes, bio major.</p>

5

<p>Your GPA is kind of low for the three mid tier UC’s. Yes, your SAT’s are great but they don’t weigh those as heavily. You have great EC’s but there were a lot of applicants this year…and a lot of prospective bio majors. You didn’t make any “mistakes”, its just UC’s are always getting more competitive. I’m kind of surprised you didn’t get SD…because they have this lame point system and you probably got mass points for those high SAT’s and being first generation. Then again, it probably came down to the GPA again. UCLA was probably a very high reach in the first place. At least you’re on the waitlist for UCI though. Did you apply to any other UC’s as safeties? Or did you get into SB/D or another school already? Cause sometimes they just don’t have that much space and they don’t want to take you if they’re not sure you’re attending…</p>

6

<p>^well i got into a reach school that was my first choice so im set for college, but im honestly feeling like crap bc i didnt get into these schools that people with a lot worse than me got into.</p>

<p>Thanks for the explanation though! I guess GPA was number 1.
Im not first generation lol</p>

7

<p>^Whoops must have misread. Yeah congrats though! You’re going to college. :slight_smile: You should feel happy for those people though. Some people actually want to go to Irvine badly too :P</p>

8

<p>sd took out the pt system this year so its hollistic review</p>

9

<p>@oceanpartier
Thanks
I guess I should feel happy, and I really was good until now until irvine came in. BAHH stupid pride. </p>

<p>Irvine prolly woulda been my pick if i hadnt gotten into my reach school and got into LA/SD/Berkeley, so i guess it hit close to home.</p>

<p>And sd took out the point system? WHAAaaa. The irony lays in the fact that the hollistic review isnt hollistic at all LOL</p>

10

<p>Does anyone know the percentage of people who actually get taken off the waitlist and get accepted? :/</p>

11

<p>^I think it was last year that all of them got accepted, but they might’ve waitlisted more this year for that reason.
After looking around on collegeconfidential a lot of people said it was tufts syndrome at uci. I’m starting to agree with them. So many kids got into UCB,UCSD, UCLA and got rejected from UCI. Then there was the kid who got into MIT and westpoint and didnt get into UCI.</p>

12

<p>I don’t mean to be a dick, but it sounds like you’re just trying to justify what happened. I really, really don’t think UCI has “tufts” syndrome. </p>

<p>If they did then why would they admit anyone with 4.3 gpa, 2300+ SAT score and good EC’s? Like 99.9% of these people are getting in, and it’s almost certain they would get into UCLA or Berkeley as well.</p>

13

<p>I have a 3.5W gpa and a 2300 on the SAT and was rejected. I think maybe your grades were a bit low, but I also think it’s possible there was some other reason - a reason that doesn’t make sense, but maybe has to do with some technicalities or something. I too applied as a bio major.</p>

14

<p>@spookyaction
I think that UCI has a policy where they dont admit people below a certain GPA into the honors program, and for those that dont get into the honors program (but are of a higher level) they wl them bc they probably will not attend uci. Thats my theory anyways; I honestly cant think of any other way to explain it (though I am still open to explanations, I would like to know the whyy). Just a theory which I will believe until i come up with, or someone proposes a better one
@enfieldacademy
true, my grades were a bit low, but a lot of people from my school did have lower grades than me. I applied as a bio major too :/</p>

15

<p>Perhaps you’re right. The only issue I see is that lots of people with very high stats (like those I mentioned in my post above) are getting into UCI but not getting into the honors program. Also, I was admitted to the honors program two years ago with exactly the same gpa as you (I had a really, really good essay and great ec’s, though).</p>

16

<p>just glancing at it, your gpa is a bit low, but not that low. maybe it’s because your sophomore/junior classes weren’t hard (or so i’m guessing since you only took three ap classes). it also could have been that your essays were rather generic. other than that, it’s strange that you weren’t accepted.</p>

17

<p>Looks like a mistake since I got in last year with stats all under yours…3.5 weighted GPA, 2140 SAT, 300 community service hours, no sports or anything, and leadership in two clubs. I think you might get in with the waitlist…</p>

18

<p>@OP, You stated you were Asian but under hooks you listed “URM”. Asia is a big place and may have populations that are underrepresented in American higher education but if you are of Japanese, Han Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese ancestry you are not a URM, you are an overrepresented minority (ORM), particularly at UCI, and that could have hurt your chances. Proposition 209 officially ended URM preferences but I have heard that many admissions officers at the UCs privately disagree with it and favor affirmative action.</p>

19

<p>^@Popped
No, my class schedule was pretty tough. max honors (3) sophomore year, 4 weighted junior year. I did not take sciences my junior year (but i did take all three: AP bio, AP chem, and CP physics (senior year class) and anatomy if it counts); I had planned out my schedule and had no more sciences to take.
@yahoowizard
Meh I dont want to go to irvine anyways, im just trying to figure out WHY i didnt get in
@lemaitre:
NO i didnt. Sorry if it looks like that, but that was the template i used for posting stats (and i would edit it but i cant), and if you look closely it says none.</p>

20

<p>@ OP</p>

<p>Your stats are pretty good, the only thing I saw that was a bit low was your GPA. </p>

<p>But since you got into your reach school, why are you complaining about UCI? Especially since you said yourself you didn’t want to go there?</p>

<p>If you did get in, you would be taking someone’s spot who honestly did want to attend the school.</p>

<p>Be happy with your reach school and be a success there. :)</p>