California parents- tips for applying to college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tips to get into the UCs, send your kid to a notoriously low performing high school and have them be at the top of their class if your student is not a first generation student. Do not send your kid to private school. A 4.0 and lots of APs won’t get you into even Davis or Irvine. That said, the cal states are getting increasingly hard to get into as well beyond SLO which was always hard. My tip there is to apply to Sonoma State or Cal Poly Pomona because they send acceptances out early and your kid won’t feel dejected by all the UC rejections.

Here is the source admission data so you can see how kids at your school have done and what the insane GPAs are to get it:

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

DP. Thanks for this link it is helpful.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I'm in Northern California. My DS goes to a college prep high school here. I compared their data with a good public high school in the area for UC admissions in 2022 (the most recent on the link). Private school 62% admitted. Public school: 57%.

I assume that was across all UCs not, for example, UCLA where no school is getting admits at those percentages. Regardless, the difference comes into play when you look at underperforming publics which clearly is not the good public high in your area. Those underperforming publics have higher acceptance rates.

I went back into the link and looked at data for the weakest high school in our area and their acceptance rate is 48%. Of interest is that students from the college prep and the strong high school only seemed to apply and be accepted at UCLA, Berkeley, Davis, San Diego and Santa Cruz. Students from the weaker high school applied and were accepted at Santa Cruz, Riverside and Santa Barbara (none to Berkeley or UCLA).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tips to get into the UCs, send your kid to a notoriously low performing high school and have them be at the top of their class if your student is not a first generation student. Do not send your kid to private school. A 4.0 and lots of APs won’t get you into even Davis or Irvine. That said, the cal states are getting increasingly hard to get into as well beyond SLO which was always hard. My tip there is to apply to Sonoma State or Cal Poly Pomona because they send acceptances out early and your kid won’t feel dejected by all the UC rejections.

Here is the source admission data so you can see how kids at your school have done and what the insane GPAs are to get it:

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

DP. Thanks for this link it is helpful.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I'm in Northern California. My DS goes to a college prep high school here. I compared their data with a good public high school in the area for UC admissions in 2022 (the most recent on the link). Private school 62% admitted. Public school: 57%.

I assume that was across all UCs not, for example, UCLA where no school is getting admits at those percentages. Regardless, the difference comes into play when you look at underperforming publics which clearly is not the good public high in your area. Those underperforming publics have higher acceptance rates.

I compared a random public high school in LA (Hamilton) to my kid’s suburban public high school, and the acceptances rates were very similar for Berkeley. Not sure about private schools. I have heard it’s more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tips to get into the UCs, send your kid to a notoriously low performing high school and have them be at the top of their class if your student is not a first generation student. Do not send your kid to private school. A 4.0 and lots of APs won’t get you into even Davis or Irvine. That said, the cal states are getting increasingly hard to get into as well beyond SLO which was always hard. My tip there is to apply to Sonoma State or Cal Poly Pomona because they send acceptances out early and your kid won’t feel dejected by all the UC rejections.

Here is the source admission data so you can see how kids at your school have done and what the insane GPAs are to get it:

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

Good tip. Has anyone visited Sonoma State? What’s the vibe? How is job placement? It seems unrecognizable outside of California which concerns me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tips to get into the UCs, send your kid to a notoriously low performing high school and have them be at the top of their class if your student is not a first generation student. Do not send your kid to private school. A 4.0 and lots of APs won’t get you into even Davis or Irvine. That said, the cal states are getting increasingly hard to get into as well beyond SLO which was always hard. My tip there is to apply to Sonoma State or Cal Poly Pomona because they send acceptances out early and your kid won’t feel dejected by all the UC rejections.

Here is the source admission data so you can see how kids at your school have done and what the insane GPAs are to get it:

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

DP. Thanks for this link it is helpful.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I'm in Northern California. My DS goes to a college prep high school here. I compared their data with a good public high school in the area for UC admissions in 2022 (the most recent on the link). Private school 62% admitted. Public school: 57%.

I assume that was across all UCs not, for example, UCLA where no school is getting admits at those percentages. Regardless, the difference comes into play when you look at underperforming publics which clearly is not the good public high in your area. Those underperforming publics have higher acceptance rates.

I compared a random public high school in LA (Hamilton) to my kid’s suburban public high school, and the acceptances rates were very similar for Berkeley. Not sure about private schools. I have heard it’s more difficult.

I think it is true for private schools. I know my DC's private school did not offer APs ( so no opportunity to bump up GPA) and grading was somewhat deflated with rigorous classes. It makes it harder to get into the ICs, which are very grade sensitive. Kids from the school did get into Cal and UCLA, though, but many went to private colleges.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at an underperforming LA high school. 10% of applicants in 2022 were offered places at Berkeley. None accepted. 10% of applicants to UCLA were offered places and all of them accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from CA here. We are low income (my kid is a freshman so I am early to the game) and it can be argued that he is first gen (neither of his parents went to a US school). He used to be (and is planning to be) in an AVID type program.
Any schools that are lax re: first gen definition? I.e. allow kids with parents educated outside of the U.S. to claim the status?
Thanks

For the UC’s he is absolutely not first gen. It makes no sense for kids whose parents have degrees from 4 year institutions are the same as someone whose parents never went to college anywhere. So if your definition is used my doctor’s kids would be first generation. So many silicon tech workers would be as well.

Thanks! Do you happen to know any non CA schools that are generous with this?

[Anonymous]

What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

They are comparing kids at the same high school when it comes to rigor. They don’t want to penalize students who are at schools where not many AP classes are offered. But if you are at a school with many honors/AP classes and aren’t taking them, then it is counted against you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from CA here. We are low income (my kid is a freshman so I am early to the game) and it can be argued that he is first gen (neither of his parents went to a US school). He used to be (and is planning to be) in an AVID type program.
Any schools that are lax re: first gen definition? I.e. allow kids with parents educated outside of the U.S. to claim the status?
Thanks

No, it cannot be argued that your DC is first gen. You and your DH have a college degree (perhaps even a Masters or higher) from a university abroad. You should be ashamed of yourself to even consider gaming the system this way. Both DH and I were very well educated overseas and we would never do what you're suggesting.

DP. I do think some colleges consider this “first gen.” It varies school to school, so you must check!

This doesn't make sense. There are checkboxes in the Common App, and there's even a tab for selecting overseas schools.
I also graduated from a school abroad, but I've never considered myself a first-generation graduate.
Calling someone a first-generation graduate after completing a foreign bachelor's degree is cheating, for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

They are comparing kids at the same high school when it comes to rigor. They don’t want to penalize students who are at schools where not many AP classes are offered. But if you are at a school with many honors/AP classes and aren’t taking them, then it is counted against you.

But it doesn’t seem so easy and neat. They don’t simply take kids who have the most AP classes/highest GPA. They do look for other characteristics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from CA here. We are low income (my kid is a freshman so I am early to the game) and it can be argued that he is first gen (neither of his parents went to a US school). He used to be (and is planning to be) in an AVID type program.
Any schools that are lax re: first gen definition? I.e. allow kids with parents educated outside of the U.S. to claim the status?
Thanks

No, it cannot be argued that your DC is first gen. You and your DH have a college degree (perhaps even a Masters or higher) from a university abroad. You should be ashamed of yourself to even consider gaming the system this way. Both DH and I were very well educated overseas and we would never do what you're suggesting.

DP. I do think some colleges consider this “first gen.” It varies school to school, so you must check!

This doesn't make sense. There are checkboxes in the Common App, and there's even a tab for selecting overseas schools.
I also graduated from a school abroad, but I've never considered myself a first-generation graduate.
Calling someone a first-generation graduate after completing a foreign bachelor's degree is cheating, for sure.

Some college graduates from other countries doesn’t speak a lick of English and don’t know anything about the US education system. I see them often at our school. The kids have to translate English for them, and navigate everything on their own. So in that sense it can be just as challenging as a traditional first gen. But it’s very uneven because of course there are many other college educated immigrants who speak flawlessly, are successful and able to give their kids many advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

They are comparing kids at the same high school when it comes to rigor. They don’t want to penalize students who are at schools where not many AP classes are offered. But if you are at a school with many honors/AP classes and aren’t taking them, then it is counted against you.

It comes down to the top 9% rule for the in-state UC applicants. If you're in the top 9% of students in the state, you're guaranteed a place at one of the colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

They are comparing kids at the same high school when it comes to rigor. They don’t want to penalize students who are at schools where not many AP classes are offered. But if you are at a school with many honors/AP classes and aren’t taking them, then it is counted against you.

It comes down to the top 9% rule for the in-state UC applicants. If you're in the top 9% of students in the state, you're guaranteed a place at one of the colleges.

No it doesn’t come down to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from CA here. We are low income (my kid is a freshman so I am early to the game) and it can be argued that he is first gen (neither of his parents went to a US school). He used to be (and is planning to be) in an AVID type program.
Any schools that are lax re: first gen definition? I.e. allow kids with parents educated outside of the U.S. to claim the status?
Thanks

No, it cannot be argued that your DC is first gen. You and your DH have a college degree (perhaps even a Masters or higher) from a university abroad. You should be ashamed of yourself to even consider gaming the system this way. Both DH and I were very well educated overseas and we would never do what you're suggesting.

DP. I do think some colleges consider this “first gen.” It varies school to school, so you must check!

This doesn't make sense. There are checkboxes in the Common App, and there's even a tab for selecting overseas schools.
I also graduated from a school abroad, but I've never considered myself a first-generation graduate.
Calling someone a first-generation graduate after completing a foreign bachelor's degree is cheating, for sure.

Some college graduates from other countries doesn’t speak a lick of English and don’t know anything about the US education system. I see them often at our school. The kids have to translate English for them, and navigate everything on their own. So in that sense it can be just as challenging as a traditional first gen. But it’s very uneven because of course there are many other college educated immigrants who speak flawlessly, are successful and able to give their kids many advantages.

You can’t possibly be serious. How is it remotely similar someone whose parents never went to college vs someone who went to college abroad. If you graduated abroad and don’t speak English you can certainly acquire English by studying because you are so literate and you are knowledgeable about doing well in school. You pass that knowledge onto you children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the deal with “rigor” for UCs ? It seems that the top UCs require 4.0 GPA, but they’re flexible when it comes to rigor. Any thoughts or personal experience? I know kids selectively leveling down to CP to get the easy A’s!

They are comparing kids at the same high school when it comes to rigor. They don’t want to penalize students who are at schools where not many AP classes are offered. But if you are at a school with many honors/AP classes and aren’t taking them, then it is counted against you.

It comes down to the top 9% rule for the in-state UC applicants. If you're in the top 9% of students in the state, you're guaranteed a place at one of the colleges.

No it doesn’t come down to that.

It really does. It says so all over the UC websites in the admissions information section. If you think it doesn't, please do explain how and why.