UC Campus Updates: Today's UC Counselor's Conference

Most UC campuses saw a record number of first-year applications in last year's admissions cycle, fueled most likely by UC's test blind admission policy.

The campuses continue to prioritize the following:
--Admitting more CA residents to meet the states mandate that no more that 18% of students are non residents
​
--Admitting high percentages of first generation and Low Income students

​Here are the Application Numbers and Admit Rates by campus (in order of most selective to least selective):

UCLA
149,815 applications
9% admit rate (first time in single digits)

UC Berkeley
128,100 applications
11% admit rate

UC Irvine
119,210 applications
21% Admit Rate

UC San Diego
131,225 applications 
Admit rate 23.7%

UC Santa Barbara
111,006 applications
26% admit rate 

UC Davis
110,189
37.5% admit rate

UC Santa Cruz
66,033 applications
47.1% admit rate

UC Riverside
54,685 applications
69.35% admit rate

UC Merced
29,921 Applications
90% Admit rate

UC campuses can see the following GPAS when reviewing applications: Weighted, Unweighted, and UC Weighted Capped.

Below are the Median 50% GPAs shared this morning by each Campus (in alphabetical order).

UC Berkeley
Weighted GPA: 4.31-4.66

UC Davis
Unweighted GPA: 3.83-4.0
UC Weighted Capped GPA: 4.05-4.29

UC Irvine
Weighted GPA: 4.22
Unweighted GPA 3.95

UCLA
Weighted GPA: 4.53
Capped GPA: 4.26

UC Merced
Weighted GPA 3.78

UC Riverside
Weighted GPA (range): 3.8 - 4.19

UC San Diego
Weighted GPA (range): 4.12 - 4.3

UC Santa Barbara
Weighted GPA: 4.52


Key Takeaways:

MAJOR SELECTION:
All campuses allow students to choose an alternate major, but for many campuses (i.e. Berkeley and UC Irvine), the student will only be considered for the alternate major if space remains in the alternate major or for the waitlist. Students must be directly admitted to engineering and other highly selective programs/colleges (i.e. UCSB's College of Creative students and most computer science and biology degrees at all campuses). I do not recommend students try to game the system by choosing a major they are not truly interested in. 

RIGOR OF SCHEDULE/SELECTIVITY: 
Campuses look at the number of Honors, AP, and IB courses taken. They will only review students in the context of their own high school. Keep in mind that the University of CA serves students across the entire state, and its goal is to provide opportunities for students at every school. That means that students are, in essence, being compared to their classmates. The more competitive the public high school (high schools with large numbers of high achieving students) the more difficult it is for the UC to offer spots to all qualified students at that high school.  

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