Admissions Academy Blog

Admissions Decision Time

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on March 24th, 2010 in Admissions, Articles of Interest
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April 1 quickly approaches, the traditional deadline by which colleges will have notified applicants whether or not they have been admitted. Many students are already celebrating acceptances and scholarship offers from their top choices, and many students are already beginning to cope with the emotions of not being admitted to theirs. For both parents and students, spring can present a challenge to understand how or why admissions decisions were made and how to make the best choice for the next four years.

This is also the time of year that spawns articles about making the most of bad news or about how elite college admissions has become even more competitive than it was the year before. The Wall Street Journal, in anticipation of April 1, published an article highlighting “famous ‘rejects’” — from Warren Buffet to Tom Brokaw. All of the successful personas featured in the article were rejected from Ivy League schools — and most were rejected from Harvard — but found opportunities and mentors in their other college choices. While the sentiment that you can be rejected from Harvard and still be successful in life may help comfort students who find themselves in similar positions, what about students who weren’t aiming for the Ivy League? Why focus on admission to (or rejection from) elite universities that aren’t the targets of the vast majority of collegebound students?

Of the profiles in the article, the perspective of Lee Bolinger, Columbia University’s president, struck an important note: that students shouldn’t let other people’s (namely college’s) judgments about them determine their own self-worth. Our counselors keep another article around the office for this time of year: “Dealing with Disappointment.” True, it also comes from the alumni magazine of an elite university (Stanford), but the message of the article is not so much that you can be successful despite Stanford, but that it’s the individual who determines his or her own success.

For students who are dealing with bad news, remember that as much as hearing “no” may feel like a personal rejection, it isn’t. Selective colleges, whether Stanford or San Jose State, have more qualified applicants than they have space available, and the fact that you weren’t offered admission doesn’t mean you made a mistake or that the college didn’t want you. For parents, celebrate your child’s offers of acceptance rather than focus on schools that didn’t offer your son or daughter admission. Moving on from, rather than fixating on, the “no’s” can help students find a great fit in a college they may not have originally considered. Lastly, keep Stanford President John Hennessey’s words in mind: “the experiences [students] encounter and the depth of character they build along the way will mean far more than the name of the institution on their diploma.”

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UC’s implement wait lists and hope to reduce enrollment cuts

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on January 21st, 2010 in Admissions
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The University of California Regents announced at their most recent meeting that under Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, UC’s may not have to reduce freshman enrollment by the full 2,300 spots that they had initially predicted. While the proposed budget allocation of just over $3 billion to UC’s is still less than requested, and still most likely means some cuts in freshman enrollment, it does not represent a further drop in funding from last year’s levels.

Due to uncertainty about both the final budget to be passed in Sacramento and in the yields of this year’s freshman classes, all UC campuses are implementing wait lists. UC Irvine last year piloted a wait list for the class of 2013, although this will be the first time that systemwide wait lists will be used in the history of the UC. Although the number of applicants who will be placed on wait lists remains unknown, this move should help UC’s meet their enrollment targets more precisely, and hopefully allow more of the record 134,029 applicants to gain admission to a UC.

Click here to read the full Regents announcement and to learn more about the record number of UC applications for the fall of 2010.

Updated 2/9: UC’s have announced that UCLA and UC Merced will not implement waitlists this year but that all other campuses will waitlist applicants to cope with a projected overenrollment of 15,000 students.

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UC Application Season

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on November 3rd, 2009 in Admissions
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With the arrival of November comes the one-month window during which students can apply for Fall admission to UC campuses. Coming on the heels of a challenging economic year, here are some updates and tips for freshman applicants to keep in mind:

* Budget cuts contributed to the competitiveness of UC admissions last year, and this year will be no different. At this year’s UC Counselor Conference, Sue Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions for the entire UC system, estimated that UC’s would reduce freshman enrollment by about 2,300 students across all campuses (including Berkeley and UCLA). This translates into about a 4% drop in freshman admission offers systemwide for the Fall of 2010.

* Budget and admissions cuts will also translate to changes in admissions policies at traditionally open campuses: UC Riverside and UC Merced. In past years, freshman applicants who were UC eligible but were not admitted to a campus of their choice were automatically referred to UC Riverside and UC Merced for consideration. Both campuses emphasized that their ability to admit from this “referral pool” will be limited this year, and students shouldn’t rely on this option as a fall back. If students want UC Riverside or UC Merced as a campus option, their best chance is to apply directly to UC Riverside or UC Merced during the November filing period.

* A UC education will be more expensive this year, with the average, estimated cost of attendance at just over $26,000 per year. Because of budget cuts, fees may continue to rise, classes may be cut, faculty reduced, and library hours curtailed.

* UC’s do not support the College Board’s Score Choice program for SAT scores. It has always been UC’s policy to select a student’s best single-sitting SAT score and two highest SAT Subject Tests from different subject areas. Sending all scores to the UC’s allows them to ensure they are seeing the student’s best scores, and waiting on scores in order to exercise Score Choice delays UC processing of applications.

* One story that has circulated in the media is that because of the budget, UC’s will be looking to admit more out-of-state students, as out-of-state students pay considerably higher fees. Although some state universities have announced this intention (see more about UMass Amhert’s announcement), Sue Wilbur emphasized that for now, the UC system is not contemplating this move. UC’s mandate is to enroll the maximum number of eligible California residents first, and only then if spots remain available, offer admission to out-of-state students. Systemwide, less than 3% of total enrollment is comes from out-of-state students, which is considerably lower than other public universities. Likewise, UC’s do not have regional preferences in admission; unlike CSU’s, they draw equally throughout the state.

* Essays remain an important consideration in comprehensive review of an applicant. Students should use the first person (“I” and “me”) in their personal essays, communicate different aspects of themselves through the two different prompts, and be sure they answer all parts of the prompts. For example, UC’s first prompt for freshman applicants asks, “Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.” Students should be sure to not only describe their world, but also answer the second half of the prompt: how that environment they have identified has influenced their future plans and goals.

Prospective students and families can learn more about UC admissions through the undergraduate admissions website and through UC’s StatFinder tool, available at http://statfinder.ucop.edu/. For more news about UC campuses, including budget updates, visit the UC News Room.

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