There are nine California universities that use the University of California application, which is their own application process distinct from the Common App. These are UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego, and they have their own way of doing things from start to finish. This can be overwhelming for students who are also applying to schools that use the Common App or Coalition App, especially if you’ve been waitlisted, so we’re here to help. First, let’s look at some statistics.
The nine UC schools receive over 206,000 applications for freshman admission each year. Yikes! Including in-state and out-of-state students, 66% of applicants to UC schools are admitted, but the individual acceptance rates vary wildly — as do the rates of acceptance of in-state students versus out-of-state students. At the most selective, the acceptance rate is below 10% (that’d be UCLA), but there are also schools that are very accessible. UC Merced has a guaranteed admissions policy for students who meet their criteria and accepts nearly 90% of applicants.
All the UC schools operate with a waitlist, with one exception: Merced. UC Merced does not have a waitlist, so we’re not going to spend too much time on it here given that this is a post focused on what to do when you’re waitlisted. What we are going to do, though, is to break down the most recently available waitlist stats for each of the schools that do have a waitlist so you can get a sense of where your chances stand for whichever UC schools you were waitlisted by.
UC Davis: They have an active waitlist for admission, and in the most recent year available (2023) they pulled more than 4,400 students off of the waitlist — but they haven’t released their Common Data Set numbers since 2021, so we don’t know what percentage of waitlisted students that added up to.
UC Santa Barbara: Offered 15,677 students a spot on the waitlist. 9,670 opted-in, 5,506 were admitted, and 1,056 enrolled.
UC Santa Cruz: Accepted 8,206 students off of their waitlist.
UC San Diego: 19,372 students opted-in to the waitlist, and 2,634 were admitted. This was a 13.6% acceptance rate compared to the overall acceptance rate of 24.7%.
UC Riverside: There was a 73% overall acceptance rate, and a 29.5% acceptance rate off of the waitlist, or 1,151 out of 3891 students.
UCLA: The acceptance rate off of the waitlist was only 12%, or 1,404 students out of 11,725 who accepted a spot on the waitlist, but that’s actually higher than the overall acceptance rate of 9%.
UC Irvine: They offered 16,743 students a spot on the waitlist, and 3,031 were eventually admitted. We don’t know how many opted into the waitlist, but at least 18% were admitted — and possibly as many as double that.
Obviously, there’s a wide range in outcomes and likelihoods across these 8 waitlists (we’re not including Merced because they don’t have one) but one strong commonality is that all of these schools do use their waitlist actively. It isn’t a form of torture designed to draw out a rejection, it actually is a potential route into your dream school. Below, we’ll dive into what to do next to increase your chances of being one of those plucked off the waitlist.
If you have multiple waitlist offers and aren’t sure how to prioritize, send us an email. We can help.
Get on the Waitlist
First, you need to opt-in to join the waitlist, or waitlists, you want to be on. “Students can,” the UC application program shares, “opt-in to waitlist offers from multiple campuses.” The deadline for joining the waitlist is April 15th.
Before you get on the waitlist, you may be asking yourself what your financial aid situation is and whether you’ll even be able to afford whatever UC you’re hoping for. Chances are that you won’t have financial aid award information yet — and they won’t be able to fork it over if you ask as they’re still figuring it out themselves — but if you are admitted, you will receive an award package before you have to commit. Of course, all this rides on your FAFSA or CADAA being properly submitted, so it’s worth double checking those.
Line up a Plan B
Next, you need a back-up. The waitlist working out may be plan A, but you need a plan B that’s locked in. Call it your safety net if you like. To ensure that you have a campus to show up to in the fall, you need to confirm with a college, enroll, and place your deposit. Now, if you are eventually admitted by your dream school you will almost certainly lose your deposit. That’s simply the price of playing the waitlist. Once you have your back-up locked in, it’s time to do what you can to encourage your dream UC to give you a shot.
Reinforce Your Interest
The UC schools do not require, nor do they really encourage, updates to waitlisted student applications. They sometimes even make it difficult to send an update. The reasoning for this is pretty fair. The waitlists for many UC schools are massive, but they are also used to actively using their waitlists, so they know what they are looking for and don’t really need to be prodded to do so. What we want to make sure, though, is that when they go to use the waitlist they pick you.
You don’t need to submit anything to a UC school to get in off the waitlist. This isn’t true for many colleges outside of the UC system, so you need to address each college on a case-by-case basis. Basically, we’re saying that this guidance is just for UC and shouldn’t be applied to other colleges.
If you do want to send something, we encourage you to keep it super simple. Submit a letter of continued interest (LOCI) either by sending it directly to an admission official you’ve communicated with previously, or through the general admissions contact form for the respective UC you’re on the waitlist for. These forms often have a limited word count, so you should keep your letter to less than 400 words. Below, we’ve broken down how it should be formatted.
Formal Greeting: Start your letter with a formal opening. If you have someone to address it to personally, use a formal greeting like you’re writing a letter to a teacher or boss. If you’re sending it through a general form, address it, “Dear NAME OF SCHOOL Admission Officers,”.
Then, write an opening sentence that re-introduces you to the admissions offers and states your continued interest in the college and how you’d like to provide them with a short update on your application as well.
Reinforce Interest: This is the most important part of this letter. You need to make it really clear that this UC is your preferred college and why. Specify what you will study, how you will pursue it (classes, programs, etc.), and how you will contribute to the community on campus. At the risk of sounding redundant, you need to be specific. Show that you know the school very well, and can see yourself there.
(Very Short) Application Update: Next, you can do a 3-4 sentence (super short) update to your application. This should only include very relevant updated related to awards, honors, leadership roles, or major changes in your academics or activities. If you don’t have anything that fits this bill, don’t dig around to find something to update them on. Instead, simply omit this section. It’s better not to update them then to send something that reads as trivial.
Closing: End the letter with a final sentence reiterating (yes, again) that the UC you are writing to is your first choice. Then close it with a professional — and not pushy — sign-off like, “Sincerely,”.
Follow Instructions
The UC schools don’t give a lot of instructions for what to do — what not to do, for that matter. But there are some basic ground rules that you should be adhering to. Do not call the admissions team asking for an explanation. Do not randomly show up on campus. Do not stand outside the admissions office with a massive sign and speaker singing your love for the college. It’s not cute, and it does not go over well, we promise. If you think of something ‘clever’ to do, run it by us first so we can tell you that it’s a bad idea.
Be Patient
You will hear back from the UC’s you are on the waitlist for between early May and August. If you are admitted, you will have between three and seven days to respond, but each college has their own defined window, so you need to look carefully at the offer letter. In the meantime, be patient and let yourself get excited to attend the college you did enroll in. Agonizing doesn’t help, and senior spring should be fun!
The University of California schools are their own little organism. They have their own application, their own system, and their own way of doing things. They also love their waitlists. If you are waitlisted by a UC school (other than Merced), you actually have a pretty good chance of getting in — if you play it right.
If you’ve been waitlisted by multiple UC schools and aren’t sure what to do next, we can help. We’re pros at this.