How the hell does anyone in California get into college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No you missed the point. You choose your prompts but you submit to all UCs. There is no ability to express how you are a fit for a particular campus community, program or geographic area. For private universities that offer supplemental questions you can really connect why you belong there, what you can bring to the community, etc.

Your description of the JV is really dated too. UCD and UCI are tied in rankings at 33 nationally and 9 for public universities. UCSB has dropped over the past few years and is now 39 and something in the teens for public. They are all pretty close including UCSD which is 29 nationally and 6 th public. The reality is that you need to really look at what programs, majors, and location match your goals. Within the mid tiers now, there has been a lot of growth and specialization. For example if you are premed, UCSD, UCD and UCI have medical centers. UCD has very strong economic and political science programs for public policy and internship in Sacramento, UCSB and UCSD have strong economic programs if you are interested in research , UCI is strong for business economics. Cal Poly which isn’t a UC has the best architecture program and an excellent engineering/ cs program that is more practical which employers like.

[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.

It works because there are enough UCs to go around for kids that want to stay in CA. What is amazing is how no one complains about the segregation that occurs in the admissions process.

[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.

All the states near California have lots of Californians go there for their universities. U of Oregon, Arizona State, U of Colorado, etc. It’s similar to the states around Illinois getting so many Chicago-area students (Purdue, U of Wisconsin, Indiana, U of Iowa…even U of Nebraska).

[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.

You say it isn’t that hard but then also say you have to be in the top 10% of the class which means it is hard to get in particularly at schools with a lot of high achieving kids. UW 3.9 GPA DC with ECs including significant volunteer work applying for a psychology major didn’t get into any UC except Merced nor did several of her friends get into UCs other than Merced or Riverside as well as few who got UCSC.

[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.

It’s how UC schools get around racial preference bans voted in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Nobody wants to go there. I went to a Cal State school that’s frowned upon, but they prioritize work over theory (UC’s) and I had a full resume by the time I graduated and my BFF who graduated from a UC in engineering had no idea how to get a job and dropped out of the field a few years later. Yes, this is anecdotal and yes, maybe she was discriminated against because it was in the 90s.

In any case, it’s sad because I learned so much there and knew all my professors. It was a great place that set me up for success.

Also, yes UO is probably 1/3 Californians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community college is free in California. Many, many intelligent kids opt there first because it makes sense and has guaranteed transfer programs.

But really, I don't know anyone who's been shut out of all UCs and CSUs they applied to.

Does CA have academically more-rigorous community colleges to accommodate those high performing students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Maybe we need fewer college educated adults whose life goal is to be a pale imitation of ChatGPT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Nobody wants to go there. I went to a Cal State school that’s frowned upon, but they prioritize work over theory (UC’s) and I had a full resume by the time I graduated and my BFF who graduated from a UC in engineering had no idea how to get a job and dropped out of the field a few years later. Yes, this is anecdotal and yes, maybe she was discriminated against because it was in the 90s.

In any case, it’s sad because I learned so much there and knew all my professors. It was a great place that set me up for success.

Also, yes UO is probably 1/3 Californians.

Wannabe-elites stay away, and good students attend? Sounds great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Maybe we need fewer college educated adults whose life goal is to be a pale imitation of ChatGPT.

do we need more people who want to go to wall street or management consulting and pushing jobs overseas?

do we need more out of work English majors?

do we really need more ambulance chasing lawyers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You say it isn’t that hard but then also say you have to be in the top 10% of the class which means it is hard to get in particularly at schools with a lot of high achieving kids. UW 3.9 GPA DC with ECs including significant volunteer work applying for a psychology major didn’t get into any UC except Merced nor did several of her friends get into UCs other than Merced or Riverside as well as few who got UCSC.

UW GPA doesn't reveal much. What was the courseload rigor?

The real problem with CA admissions is that "being in the top 10%" is impossible due to grade inflation and test blind admissions, so it's mostly a lottery.

[Anonymous]

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article306934271.html

A Sacramento newspaper published an article about area high school's admission rates to UC.

Folsom High in Folsom CA is middle class, mostly white and Asian and has 637 seniors. 42% met or exceeded California's math standards. Grant High School is low income, mostly Black and Hispanic and has 410 seniors. 13% of the students met or exceeded California's math standards.

UCLA
Folsom:
119 applied, 9 admitted
Grant:
27 applied, 6 admitted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Folsom High in Folsom CA is middle class, mostly white and Asian and has 637 seniors. 42% met or exceeded California's math standards. Grant High School is low income, mostly Black and Hispanic and has 410 seniors. 13% of the students met or exceeded California's math standards.

UCLA
Folsom:
119 applied, 9 admitted
Grant:
27 applied, 6 admitted

So, it sounds like 1.4% of the graduates in both schools were accepted to a UC. My read on that is that UCLA purposely tries to accept the top students from all schools, and this is irregardless of the school’s overall socioeconomic status. I’m not sure if there is anything surprising here, but is that the point you were trying to make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community college is free in California. Many, many intelligent kids opt there first because it makes sense and has guaranteed transfer programs.

But really, I don't know anyone who's been shut out of all UCs and CSUs they applied to.

Does CA have academically more-rigorous community colleges to accommodate those high performing students?

Yes, it has several that are feeders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Folsom High in Folsom CA is middle class, mostly white and Asian and has 637 seniors. 42% met or exceeded California's math standards. Grant High School is low income, mostly Black and Hispanic and has 410 seniors. 13% of the students met or exceeded California's math standards.

UCLA
Folsom:
119 applied, 9 admitted
Grant:
27 applied, 6 admitted

So, it sounds like 1.4% of the graduates in both schools were accepted to a UC. My read on that is that UCLA purposely tries to accept the top students from all schools, and this is irregardless of the school’s overall socioeconomic status. I’m not sure if there is anything surprising here, but is that the point you were trying to make?

That is the point. It isn't applicant quality; it is a quota from each high school. This helps the UC's balance by race and ethnicity.