UC Conference Update

Last week I attended the annual University of California Counselor Conference in Sacramento. I've attended the conference every year for close to a decade and every September it feels like a silent kick-off to the new application season. Class of 2027 - this is it! You're either on track or falling behind, there's really no middle ground.

My seniors have been working hard over the summer and many of them were done with their UC PIQs (Personal Insight Questions) and their personal statement right around the time school started. They've been researching majors and careers since spring of junior year and are ready to tackle the application platforms.

Needless to say, most of my families are aiming for the UCs. It's not 100%, but close to 93% of my students' top choice is a UC. It's not surprising - while many schools are touching $100,000/year for cost of attendance, the UC system is still the best bang for your buck at under $50,000/year. In my annual 'Decisions' write up in April I try to get information on other flagships (how many students applied vs how many students got in), this helps my families to really see the difference and understand why the UCs seem so hard to get in to. The numbers show that hundreds of thousands of CA students are getting into the UCs, let's take a look..

UC Berkeley - Cal's admit rate stayed steady at 10.5%. Their newest college - The College of Computing, Data Science and Society (CDSS) is built out and ready to go. Cal now guarantees housing for two years to all students. Along with UC Davis, Cal made a point to say that they have been rescinding admission offers if the student didn't show continued rigor in 12th grade.

UC Davis - While they're still not guaranteeing housing for two years like Cal, they haven't had any issues with housing their freshmen and sophomores.

The most selective majors at Davis are Mechanical Engineering, Design, Animal Sciences, Psychology, Business and Pre- landscape Architecture.

Engineering majors still require strong math and STEM prep courses are expected.

UC Irvine - Students will be required to apply directly to Engineering majors and applying undecided to engineering is no longer an option. It's worth noting that UCI admits directly to the major and 54% of applicants applied to these 10 majors:

*Biological Sciences

*Business Administration

*Nursing

*Psychology

*Mechanical Engineering

*Computer Science

*Political Science

*Public Health

*Undecided

*Criminology, Law and Society

They've also expanded their Professional Degree Pathways to include the School of Law 3 + 3 program. (Undergraduate and J.D. degree in six years with a $90,000 law school scholarship over three years) and the Paul Merage School of Business 4+1 (Undergraduate and master’s degrees in five years with a $10,000 scholarship to the Merage School of Business)

UCLA - Again, another admission cycle showed that Mechanical Engineering is one of the hardest majors to get into. In fact, the Engineering admit rate was 7%. UCLA is introducing a new major in Digital Humanities and Arts and Architecture (BA) with a focus on Games, Design or Computational Art

They also saw an increase of 9% in transfers this year with a total of approximately 30,000 applications. Admit rate for freshmen was 11% and the admit rate for nursing was again, 1%

UC Merced - This year the W.M. Keck Foundation awarded UC Merced nearly $1.8 million for high-risk, high-reward scientific research. Some of the newly funded projects explore brain communication, neurological and movement disorders, RNA-based therapies and biological responses to temperature.

The funding also includes faculty–doctoral student research partnerships. New degrees at UC Merced include a new ArtificiaI Intelligence BS degree and a new Computer Science BS degree.

UC Riverside - Riverside's website is a gold mine of information. Students can use it for researching careers and paths, just go to UC Riverside -> Admissions -> Majors. New majors for Fall 2027 include - Computer Science with Applications, Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology and Education, Society, and Human Development with Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials. The most applied to majors are as follows-

Biology

Business Analytics

Psychology

Mechanical Engineering

Biochemistry

Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology

Business Economics

Political Science and

Computer Science

UC San Diego - The new majors at UC San Diego are Business Data Science, Experimental Psychology and Clinical Psychology. Data Science, Engineering and Public Health are all selective majors and impacted. A new Triton Student Center will open soon in the fall of 2026.

UC Santa Barbara - Two new majors include Artificial Intelligence, BS and Education & Society, BA. UCSB now offers 2-year housing guarantee for first-year students.

UC Santa Cruz - Great news from UCSC - they're now offering a guarantee for two years of housing to all freshmen and sophomores. Even though the admit rate may seem high at

82% but it's worth noting that the average weighted GPA is 4.0. Engineering at UCSC tends to be harder to get into overall.

Class of 2027 - You should be working on your applications and finalizing your college list and majors. Early Decision and Early Action deadlines are 6 weeks away!

Class of 2028 - It's time to sign up and make the most of junior year. The College Application Comprehensive Package starts as soon as you sign up and goes through June 2028. Signing up now ensures we have ample time to build up your resume and activities list.

Class of 2029 and 2030 - Hope the new school year is off to a great start! Hourly sessions help to keep us connected and go over any concerns or questions you might have. But if you'd like to sign up for the 9th or 10th grade package, let's talk sooner rather than later.