I’m having difficulty understanding this. I assume they are being selective, but they are much more selective than other schools of equal caliber. All of them are around 25% in the acceptance rate field. I’m talking about UCLA, USC, UCSD, Cal-Berkeley. Yet their ACT scores are about the same as other schools who are around 50%.
Is this because there are a lot of people who are from the California area who want to go there, but don’t have good enough grades? I’m just confused here, if someone could help me that’d be great. BTW - i’m out of state, and wanting to go to those 4 schools, but everyone calls them reaches when i’m in their top 50-75% in the ACT.
<p>The 25% acceptance rate is an illusion. For example, UCLA and UPenn have comparable acceptance rates. BUT, the avg SAT score that applied to UCLA was 1180 versus 1390 at Penn. The reason the avg applicant has such low scores is that you can apply to all the UC's one one application. So, someone that might not be qualified for UCLA or UCB etc may apply just for the heck of it just in case they get in.</p>
<p>UC's are a totally different ballgame out of state. The reason is that they have a quota of kids they take from CA (as they are public & state sponsored). This means that there are very few spots for out-of-staters. Very few applicants that are out of state can consider top UC's a match because of this phenomenon. </p>
<p>However, USC is not any more selective out of state and if you are a qualified out-of-stater for the top UC's, USC will be a match or safe match for you, depending on your stats.</p>
<p>Most people in California do not take the ACT, I for one have never taken it. I have a few friends who took it, but I don't think my school is even that close to a test center. I know in the MidWest, like a friend of mine from Chicago told me, and even the East Coast that it is popular and that many take the ACT. It's just not the norm here in Cali :)</p>
<p>Basically, it's hard to evaluate your chances based on ACT alone...</p>
<p>I agree with a lot of stambliark41, and with geminihop. The act OR SAT I is such a small part of your entire application. Your GPA and the difficultly of your curriculum are a much more telling one, although still just a small part of your overall application.</p>
<p>California is the most populous state, while boasting the best public university system. Putting two and two together, it makes sense for the UCs to get so many applications, because those who already live there want the best educational bang for their buck. The sheer numbers driving down the acceptance rates at top campuses like UC Berkeley (~24.7%) and UCLA (~23.0%) can attest to that, and it's not changing anytime soon.</p>
<p>A lot of people come from far away to go to school in CA. The Claremonts are over half from out of state, and Stanford is about half out of state. Occidental has a huge out of state population (relative to its size). Basically, people want to be here. The state has great weather and some great people. Also, flopsy is right- a lot of people do want to save money by going to a public UC, which in many ways compares to the top privates.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> glad i coud clear things up. It's still a great school, just like Berkeley and UCLA, which have even higher in ca populations (about 9-% each). But it is just how it goes- stanford is far more regional than the other elite privates.</p>
<p>Another factor in acceptance rates is what is known as "UC eligibility." Eligibility is a combination of fulfilling UC's "A-G" course requirements, gpa and test scores. California residents who fulfill the course requirements, and attain a 10th-11th grade "A-G" gpa and standardized test score minimum are "guaranteed" a spot at a UC school. The fine print is that they are not guaranteed their first- or second- or even seventh-choice campus. But since if you are "eligible" (something that is easily determined), you fill out an application to be sure you get into some UC somewhere, and then check a bunch of boxes and write a big check to apply to a bunch of UC's, some you know are long shots. Then, if you think you might end up at Riverside, you also apply San Diego State or Cal Poly or Long Beach or some other state university. Which makes their acceptance rates go down. And so on and so on...</p>
<p>Whoa whoa whoa, 1down2togo, what you're saying is true, but not for everyone. The only people guarenteed a spot in a uc school is are those about 12.5% of the top of the class, and i think this may have been reduced to 10%. Other than that, i agree with your post, although riverside has some damn good underrated programs (Biomed, for instance).</p>
<p>OP: grades are much more important than test scores. For OOS, you need an extremely strong transcript, particularly for the top 3 UC's. (USC is private, btw)</p>
<p>All: Don't forget that comparing UC SAT scores is comparing apples and oranges. The UC's will only accept an SAT from one sitting, and will not mix and match scores from different sittings. Also, the UC's have the highest proportion of low income students of any top colleges, who tend to do less well on the the SAT according to CB; this admissions tip to lower income kids, low scoring kids (~33% of class) drives down the AVERAGE scores for the accepted class.</p>
<p>Because there are so many schools in the system and use the same application, it is very easy to apply to lots of the UC system schools, some kids apply to 12 or more, that accounts for so many applications, thus lowering the acceptance rate as well</p>
<p>absolutely correct, with the "Calif Common App" there are many kids who apply to Cal or UCLA (primarily) hoping to win the lottery, when their stats and grades give them less than a 1% chance.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom, you're going to have a hard time applying to 12 UCs, considering the fact that there are only 10. 11 if you count UCSF, but that doesn't really apply to undergrads.</p>
<p>Not absolutely sure, but SAT IIs are twice as important as SAT Is/ACT in the standardized test score section. I'm not sure about out of state, but grades and tests are on a sliding scale for Californians.</p>
<p>The "winning the lottery" theme can easily be seen when camparing cal poly slo to its UC equivalents. UCI, UCD, and Cal Poly have almost identicle admission standards. 3.9 and 1250 SAT have been the norm for several years. However, for this year, Cal Poly's admit rate was 43%. Davis' rate was 58%, while UCI's was 57%. Why the discrepancy? Many students in the normal cal state range apply to SLO as a reach, thus causing a decline in admit percentage. The same happens with the top UC's, as has been noted.</p>