How the hell does anyone in California get into college?

[Anonymous]

Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

[Anonymous]

OOS welcomes CA students. Purdue, UIUC, CMU, UM take a lot of CA students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

UC Riverside accepts 75% of in-state applicants.

Of course, yes someone is part of the 25%...seems hard to believe it is a straight A student taking tons of APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

UC Riverside accepts 75% of in-state applicants.

Of course, yes someone is part of the 25%...seems hard to believe it is a straight A student taking tons of APs.

At my high school, I was not even in the top 40% despite having straight As in 12 APs

[Anonymous]

Most Cal State campuses have high admit rates.

And, for those who really want a UC, the CC transfer path is popular. That's what my two nephews in CA did.

Other friends in CA have kids going OOS w/ merit to Arizona and Oregon.

[Anonymous]

It's easy to get into some UC or Cal State colleges. Hard to get into the most popular ones.

[Anonymous]

It’s fairly common, and not looked down on, for kids in California to start at community colleges and transfer to 4-year schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

UC Riverside accepts 75% of in-state applicants.

Of course, yes someone is part of the 25%...seems hard to believe it is a straight A student taking tons of APs.

At my high school, I was not even in the top 40% despite having straight As in 12 APs

That's some insane grade inflation going on there.

[Anonymous]

The UC's admit by high school. So a low performing high school in the ghetto will get as many acceptances as a high performing one.

The trick is to be in one of these school.

University High in Irvine is treated the same as Dominguez High in Compton. University High has 30 plus SAT NMSF, 100 Commended scholars. Dominguez High has zero.

Dominguez High sends the same amount of students to Berkeley and UCLA as does University High.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

UC Riverside accepts 75% of in-state applicants.

Of course, yes someone is part of the 25%...seems hard to believe it is a straight A student taking tons of APs.

At my high school, I was not even in the top 40% despite having straight As in 12 APs

Were you rejected at UC Riverside? Not sure the point you are making.

[Anonymous]

Zero meritocracy in CA. As some one pointed earlier CC to UC is the popular option, unfortunately.

Kids admitted to USC and rejected from UC Davis.

[Anonymous]

Some misperceptions- all of the UCs are very competitive to get into with the exception of UC Merced. That location is not a draw and there is nothing near the school but some strip malls. I know multiple kids with 3.8+ GPAs and several 4.0s (UW), many APs, etc who didn’t get into a single one (granted didn’t apply to Merced). The Cal States are also competitive with ones like Cal Poly SLO and San Diego State also rejecting the 4.0 crowd. San Jose State is also extremely competitive for impacted majors. Sure the kid can go to one of the commuter Cal States but it’s not exactly a college experience. I think what OP is saying is the kids with great stats can’t get into the top 10/12 state schools in California. Don’t know anywhere else it is like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone talks about how competitive the DMV area is, but it's even worse in California. In the Bay Area, every large high school is just as competitive as Langley or McLean in NOVA. Everyone is taking 15+ AP classes and getting 5s on the scores. Teachers refuse to give out As. Sports teams are impossible to join. Extracurriculars are impossible to stand out. Everyone is doing research, starting non-profits, winning chess tournaments, and doing other niche extracurriculars. And it sucks too because high schools in LA, Orange County, and San Diego are also brutally competitive and cutthroat. It's why someone with straight As in California can get denied from UC Riverside.

UC Riverside accepts 75% of in-state applicants.

Of course, yes someone is part of the 25%...seems hard to believe it is a straight A student taking tons of APs.

This is misleading because the middle UC Riverside GPA (25-75%) is high (3.66-4.15) and for majors like CS the admit rate is about 35%.

[Anonymous]

They have the highest state population with over 50 public university options. Figure it out. Not everyone goes to college. I have little respect for an UMC kid whining about going to UC Davis instead of Stanford or Berkeley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The UC's admit by high school. So a low performing high school in the ghetto will get as many acceptances as a high performing one.

The trick is to be in one of these school.

University High in Irvine is treated the same as Dominguez High in Compton. University High has 30 plus SAT NMSF, 100 Commended scholars. Dominguez High has zero.

Dominguez High sends the same amount of students to Berkeley and UCLA as does University High.

Honey, you shouldn't say things that are easily proven wrong. Dominguez High had 14 admitted to Berkeley and UCLA. University High had 55.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-source-school