How the hell does anyone in California get into college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yup. I’d also like to see some hard data on all these kids with “amazing” stats that did not get into a single UC.

DS rejected from UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCR with 4.6 GPA, 9 APs, club leadership, and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. Engineering major. Going to CSULB.

Not buying this. The first 4 yes but UCR no way unless you were missing an A-G requirement. UCR is ELC along with UCM so no way those numbers didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes. My kid's friends from the Bay area are attending UIUC, Purdue, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, UMich, University of Wisconsin, Indiana, NYU, Northeastern and three made it into the UCs. I thought it was strange at first when colleagues at work spoke of their kids attending Drexel and Purdue but we ended up in the same boat even after my kid took and passed college level CS and Math classes at top UCs while in High school. Oh...and the cost of some cheaper out of state colleges is almost the same as in state tuition.

? with or without aid?

Yes without Aid. Purdue OOS is less than UCB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private high school in CA is the way to go to get into great colleges! The courses are very rigorous and it's hard to get in.

Here's the matriculation page for my daughter's private HS. There are about 100-ish of the 150 person class listed so far:

https://www.instagram.com/lick25decisions/

Lick is a feeder, nice humble brag

[Anonymous]

Community college transfer is starting to be just as bad if you are from a competitive area DS has a friend 4.0 UW , honors program, competitive swim, student senate, other good ECs, perfect stats in high school, finished all his GE and pre major reqs…denied at Cal. A few kids with lower stats got in.

This scared DS enough to decide between UCSD, UCD and UCSB where he was accepted rather than stay in CC and try for Cal again next cycle. He’s still sad to give up on his dream school but doesn’t know what Cal wants or Cal wants something he has no control over being.

It’s worse for the engineering students as they don’t even have TAG options to the mid tiers. Two national merit scholarship winners and one of the top CS/math students from his high school are headed to UC Merced’s engineering program.

It’s not necessarily anti Asian. Our high school is top scoring, blue ribbon blah blah but only 1/3 of students even try for UCs. 50% is the school, 20% is Asian. In the last seven years, 0-3 white, black or Hispanic kids have been accepted at UCLA or Cal. Each about 9 Asian kids get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yup. I’d also like to see some hard data on all these kids with “amazing” stats that did not get into a single UC.

DS rejected from UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCR with 4.6 GPA, 9 APs, club leadership, and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. Engineering major. Going to CSULB.

So he got into the most popular CSU?

I have a friend who is a professor at CSULB. Kids are 4.0 at least who go there. Officially the minimum for a CSU is 2.5, but not in reality as to who gets accepted at popular campuses. Maybe CSU Channel Islands but SLO, LB, SDSU, Fullerton are very competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes. My kid's friends from the Bay area are attending UIUC, Purdue, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, UMich, University of Wisconsin, Indiana, NYU, Northeastern and three made it into the UCs. I thought it was strange at first when colleagues at work spoke of their kids attending Drexel and Purdue but we ended up in the same boat even after my kid took and passed college level CS and Math classes at top UCs while in High school. Oh...and the cost of some cheaper out of state colleges is almost the same as in state tuition.

? with or without aid?

Yes without Aid. Purdue OOS is less than UCB.

Yea, it's the col. Housing in the Bay Area is crazy expensive, whereas IN is super cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yup. I’d also like to see some hard data on all these kids with “amazing” stats that did not get into a single UC.

DS rejected from UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCR with 4.6 GPA, 9 APs, club leadership, and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. Engineering major. Going to CSULB.

So he got into the most popular CSU?

I have a friend who is a professor at CSULB. Kids are 4.0 at least who go there. Officially the minimum for a CSU is 2.5, but not in reality as to who gets accepted at popular campuses. Maybe CSU Channel Islands but SLO, LB, SDSU, Fullerton are very competitive.

Don’t forget SJSU CS and engineering are 4.1 to 4.2. The problem with the CSUs and TBH UC Irvine is that they are commuter campuses. Even the dorms are heavily filled with weekday boarders who live 1-2 hours away. These kid leave after their last class on W or Th and don’t come back until the morning of their next class. It can be really lonely for a kid far from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yup. I’d also like to see some hard data on all these kids with “amazing” stats that did not get into a single UC.

DS rejected from UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCR with 4.6 GPA, 9 APs, club leadership, and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. Engineering major. Going to CSULB.

So he got into the most popular CSU?

I have a friend who is a professor at CSULB. Kids are 4.0 at least who go there. Officially the minimum for a CSU is 2.5, but not in reality as to who gets accepted at popular campuses. Maybe CSU Channel Islands but SLO, LB, SDSU, Fullerton are very competitive.

Don’t forget SJSU CS and engineering are 4.1 to 4.2. The problem with the CSUs and TBH UC Irvine is that they are commuter campuses. Even the dorms are heavily filled with weekday boarders who live 1-2 hours away. These kid leave after their last class on W or Th and don’t come back until the morning of their next class. It can be really lonely for a kid far from home.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yup. I’d also like to see some hard data on all these kids with “amazing” stats that did not get into a single UC.

DS rejected from UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCR with 4.6 GPA, 9 APs, club leadership, and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. Engineering major. Going to CSULB.

So he got into the most popular CSU?

I have a friend who is a professor at CSULB. Kids are 4.0 at least who go there. Officially the minimum for a CSU is 2.5, but not in reality as to who gets accepted at popular campuses. Maybe CSU Channel Islands but SLO, LB, SDSU, Fullerton are very competitive.

Don’t forget SJSU CS and engineering are 4.1 to 4.2. The problem with the CSUs and TBH UC Irvine is that they are commuter campuses. Even the dorms are heavily filled with weekday boarders who live 1-2 hours away. These kid leave after their last class on W or Th and don’t come back until the morning of their next class. It can be really lonely for a kid far from home.

Yes, SJSU too. They really are commuter schools except SLO and maybe SDSU. A lot of working students too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how most of the kids view the UC schools:
Tier 1. UCLA, UC Berkeley
Tier 2. UCI, UCSD
Tier 3. UCSB, UC Davis, (Cal Poly SLO falls here too)
Tier 4. UCR, UCSC
Tier 5. UCM (Automatic admission)

Minimum GPA for UCs - 3.0
Minimum GPA for CSUs - 2.5

UC GPA - Only includes 10th and 11th grade. 9th grade is ignored.

I’d place UCI in tier mid tier or your tier 3. In Northern California it’s far less desired than UCSB, Davis or Cal Poly. It’s a commuter school, strong in business, engineering , and asian studies etc but weak in other areas.

Tier 1 UCLA and UCB
Mid Tiers UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UCI
Lower Tier UCSC, UC Merced, UC Riverside

[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.

Hyperbole.

Please list some nonprofits founded by California high schoolers that have achieved significant things. How many staff do they have? How many donors? How many programs? Just filling out paperwork is meaningless.

Let’s talk about research. How many papers did they publish and where? Who were the co-authors? How many other people have cited this research and have the findings been replicated?

It’s mostly just made up crap for resumes. I’d be more impressed with a kid that got employee of the month at Chick-fil-A because I know that involves real, non made up work.

[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.

Hyperbole.

Please list some nonprofits founded by California high schoolers that have achieved significant things. How many staff do they have? How many donors? How many programs? Just filling out paperwork is meaningless.

Let’s talk about research. How many papers did they publish and where? Who were the co-authors? How many other people have cited this research and have the findings been replicated?

It’s mostly just made up crap for resumes. I’d be more impressed with a kid that got employee of the month at Chick-fil-A because I know that involves real, non made up work.

Chick-fil-A makes a great sandwich.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of ca kids get into uc's. Ucsb who i hear parents from my Ca days cry about being so hard to get into gave out 30k+ acceptances? That is a large #. Test-blind + hi-volume of bs grade-inflated gpa kids = delusional parents thinking their "special" kids deserve ucla or cal. Then they cry foul & lament how hard admissions are when most of their kids get rejected at ucla/cal, half of their kids rejected from sb/sd/irvine & kids end up going to davis or santa cruz. Which is probably where they belong anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of ca kids get into uc's. Ucsb who i hear parents from my Ca days cry about being so hard to get into gave out 30k+ acceptances? That is a large #. Test-blind + hi-volume of bs grade-inflated gpa kids = delusional parents thinking their "special" kids deserve ucla or cal. Then they cry foul & lament how hard admissions are when most of their kids get rejected at ucla/cal, half of their kids rejected from sb/sd/irvine & kids end up going to davis or santa cruz. Which is probably where they belong anyways.

Davis and Santa Cruz are great schools.

[Anonymous]

Getting into a UC not named UC Merced or Riverside is not that hard.

Generally don't suck and be in or near the top 10% of your class, participate in your school's community, show you are a decent human being and you'll get into one of them. Will it be Berkeley or UCLA? That's the crapshoot, but you will get into one of them.

Admission's statistics are available for every high school in the country. It isn't impossible or frankly even that hard because of all the UC's.