How the hell does anyone in California get into college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

UCI Computer Science is tier 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

It really depends on your major, no guarantees for Engineering or CS.

[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.

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.

There are no guarantees for any applicant especially for certain majors. 124 applied from Gunn High school, 95 were accepted. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-source-school The average applicant GPA was 3.91.

[Anonymous]

It has really changed in the past 5-8 years. If you are from the Bay Area, high performing areas of LA or San Diego, you need over a 4.0 and your application/demographics/major/ type of EC needs to fit what a particular school has decided it will look for from your school district. There is a lot of variance in what is offered at different schools and lots of weird inconsistencies.

As UC has its own app and no supplemental questions, you can’t express your interest or alignment with a particular school. As you have no idea what they are actually looking for you can’t express why you have it, if you do.

At our school the GPA of admitted students to Davis, Cal Poly, and Santa Barbara is higher than the GPA of admitted students to UCLA , UC San Diego and Cal. Kids in the top 5% of our school usually get one mid tier at best. The kids who get UCLA and Cal are head scratchers as they usually aren’t in any school leadership, presidents of clubs, captains of academic teams, hackathon, science competition winners or sports team. It’s really weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 is grade inflation.

It also sounds very sus to be honest. I have never seen that level of grade inflation at HS in my part of California.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private SF Bay HS does very well with UCs. UCSC is a safe admit for anyone in the top half and it's a great school!

I know that's not true of all public HS in SF Bay, but our private only has a 10% admit rate just to get in. So even being in the top 50% of this HS is a hard feat.

CA also has a wonderful Cal Poly program and a Cal state program, so UCs are not the only public option.

And a lot of our kid's private HS goes to private college in CA, and all over the US as well.

Same at our kids. I just checked that previously linked UC database and the acceptance rate from their school is over 60%. In other words, roughly two thirds of the class got accepted to a UC.

[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.

This is spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University High's student cohort is 100x stronger than Dominguez High, yet their outcome is crushed by the outcome of Dominguez High.

It is not crushed by Dominguez. You clearly don’t understand statistics.

[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.

I went to CSUF and SJSU and ended up working for a FAANG. Your DS will be fine if you they are smart and can hustle.

That was a different era

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Florida's test scores outperform California's. Let that sink in.

I think Mississippi outperforms California as well.

um, what? Are you being sarcastic? What test scores are you both referring to?

NMSF Cutoff for 2025

California - 221
Florida - 217
Mississippi - 212

MD/VA - 222

NMSF cutoffs are not a good way to represent the average achievement - the grade 4 NAEP scores for Mississippi are indeed higher than California's

[Anonymous]

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/snapshots/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has really changed in the past 5-8 years. If you are from the Bay Area, high performing areas of LA or San Diego, you need over a 4.0 and your application/demographics/major/ type of EC needs to fit what a particular school has decided it will look for from your school district. There is a lot of variance in what is offered at different schools and lots of weird inconsistencies.

As UC has its own app and no supplemental questions, you can’t express your interest or alignment with a particular school. As you have no idea what they are actually looking for you can’t express why you have it, if you do.

At our school the GPA of admitted students to Davis, Cal Poly, and Santa Barbara is higher than the GPA of admitted students to UCLA , UC San Diego and Cal. Kids in the top 5% of our school usually get one mid tier at best. The kids who get UCLA and Cal are head scratchers as they usually aren’t in any school leadership, presidents of clubs, captains of academic teams, hackathon, science competition winners or sports team. It’s really weird.

That’s probably because the top students at your kid’s school are STEM students. My child’s school in California is the same. We have brilliant students. I am floored by these kids. But their majors are so competitive.

At our school, like yours, it’s often a surprise who gets into UCLA.

[Anonymous]

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

No, there are lots of state and UC schools so something for everyone.

[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.

I went to CSUF and SJSU and ended up working for a FAANG. Your DS will be fine if you they are smart and can hustle.

That was a different era

My spouse works at a faang. Most don’t have cs degrees let alone from top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has really changed in the past 5-8 years. If you are from the Bay Area, high performing areas of LA or San Diego, you need over a 4.0 and your application/demographics/major/ type of EC needs to fit what a particular school has decided it will look for from your school district. There is a lot of variance in what is offered at different schools and lots of weird inconsistencies.

As UC has its own app and no supplemental questions, you can’t express your interest or alignment with a particular school. As you have no idea what they are actually looking for you can’t express why you have it, if you do.

At our school the GPA of admitted students to Davis, Cal Poly, and Santa Barbara is higher than the GPA of admitted students to UCLA , UC San Diego and Cal. Kids in the top 5% of our school usually get one mid tier at best. The kids who get UCLA and Cal are head scratchers as they usually aren’t in any school leadership, presidents of clubs, captains of academic teams, hackathon, science competition winners or sports team. It’s really weird.

UC requires applicants to choose from 8 essay prompts to submit four (4) essays. You must be confusing the UC app with the CSU app. Also, your HS is an anomaly, as evidenced by the average GPA ranges that are published annually.

UCLA seeks the highest performers who are the most well-rounded. Berkeley seeks the highest performers who are the most pointy. UCSD is a JV Berkeley. UCSB is a JV UCLA. UCI is a JV UCSD. And UCD is the UC system’s answer to the CSU system’s Cal Poly SLO.