As the month of March goes on, decisions from the University of California are being released week by week. UC Riverside, Merced, Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine San Diego, and LA decisions have already been released. For the 2022-2023 application cycle, the University of California admissions received a total of 245,768 applications, with 206,405 being from freshman applicants and 39,363 from transfer applicants. The 2023 UC decision dates seem to follow the same patterns as in previous years. 

“Well, there is a common theme I’ve heard [which is that] UCSB comes out the latest, so if anyone [is] stressed about that, it’s going to be a prolonged experience,” said Aniruddha Chiplunkar (‘23). 

The nine campuses that are a part of the University of California system include, Merced, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Davis, Irvine, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. Each school is competitive for its respective majors, and despite each of them producing declining acceptance rates each application cycle, there is still some consistency among applicants.

“I know the number of in-state applicants has stayed pretty much the same, but I know out-of-state applicants have gone down like 2% maybe. So there’s still a consistent amount of like in-state applicants that are applying,” said Allyson Wong (‘23). 

Santa Cruz, Riverside, Merced, Davis, Irvine, San Diego, and LA decisions have been released.  Now students await Berkeley and Santa Barbara decisions which are set to come out towards the end of March. 

“I think I’m most, I wouldn’t say anxious, but because I liked the campus the most would be, Santa Barbara, cuz that was the one campus I could actually see myself going to and like I had a, have a decent chance of getting in. This year I think Santa Barbara’s coming out on March 21st. So just like around like the next two weeks-ish,” said Wong. 

Details about specific statistics such as GPA, test scores, and more are listed on each UC website. Although some campuses are more predictable with their admissions given their conditions and requirements, others are known for being less predictable.

“It’s easy to look up the acceptance rate and like [decide] If it’s like a reach or a target for you, so I feel like if it’s really a reach you can expect not to get in, but it’s also like everything is so random, people get into some colleges and then not others which are higher or lower acceptance rates,” said Ellie Solomon (‘23). 

As students wait for decisions to be released, they try their best to follow the advice they’ve received from their peers who had gone through the same process. The most common advice given is to be patient. 

“I’ve talked to a lot of my friends who graduated last year and [they’ve said] have a good attitude, just kind of go with it, It’s not really in your hands and you don’t have control over it. So just kind of go with the flow I think lately, [with] college general tensions have been running high. I think college is definitely a major topic, but I think right now it’s just a lot of just a waiting game for everyone,” said Wong.