I'm going to UCSB.
My highly retarded conversation with the UCSD appeal and undergraduate admissions representative went something like this.
You have 6771 points. You need 7576 points. You have a good SAT score, backed by very good SAT II scores. You got a huge amount of points for personal hardships and a well written personal statement.
Wait. You didn't say leadership and activities. Didn't I earn any points from there? What did you do? Well I ran varsity track for 3 years, was captain for 2 of those years. I have some school service, and some community service. Well, sorry, we don't take athletics into account unless you're at least state champion, but even then, its worth very little points. Because your leadership is in athletics, that's not good enough.
wtf. -_-
Then she was like, well it looks like your major weak point would be your GPA. It's a 3.55 academic partially weighted from sophomore and junior year. Why partially weighted? Oh, we can only offer honor credit for up to 4 classes. So you're saying even though I took all honors and AP level classes in my sophomore and junior year, only 4 of them count as honors/AP classes? Yes. Sorry. A 3.55 GPA just isn't good enough.
What if I wanted to change majors? It wouldn't make a difference. We admit regardless of major.
Let me assure you that reevaluation of your application will not help you unless you have "new and compelling academic information." If you are still interested in attending UCSD, we recommend attending as a transfer student. We have a won-- (at this point, Mr. Maynard took my phone away and hung up).
My advice for future UCSD prospective students? Take 4 honor classes. Only 4. Don't bother with AP, they're worth the same. Then take all regulars, preferably the easiest regulars level UC approved classes you can find. Don't take more than 10 classes in those two years. Take hard classes in freshman and senior year cause they don't count. Join every club possible. Hell, just take the club directory for your school and list every club on there. Get cabinet positions in a few of them, then do jack shit. Get a job, it's worth more than community service, and you get paid. Don't waste your time with athletics, it uses 100x more time than clubs do, and the school just happily ignores it. Go figure, they don't have a football team.
