Question:How does the Admissions Committee make its decisions?

Fortunately, no one recipe for admission to University exists. Although we value academic skills and natural talents, we also look for a desire to learn, a willingness to take risks, a curiosity about the world, a sense of compassion as wel...

Admission is based primarily on a student's high school record, SAT or ACT scores, course curriculum, extracurricular activities, counselor and teacher recommendations, and personal statement or essay or graded paper.

The process of the Admissions Committee is changing beginning September 2008. The committee will still be responsible for reviewing your file and voting on decisions associated with your file. However, this process will begin earlier with t...

Do you think i'll get an appeal from UCLA?

Q: March 14, 2010UCLA Undergraduate Admissionsand Relations with Schools1147 Murphy Hall, Box 951436Los Angeles, CA 90095-1436 Attn: Appeals CommitteeTo whom it might Concern,I am writing to appeal my Fall 2010 decision sent out on March 12, 2010. I feel that my first application did not present sufficient information to clearly make me a competitive choice for UCLA. I urge you to read my letter in its entirety before evaluating your decision. Thank you.Perhaps the most important reason I feel I am a better candidate is that my interest and dedication to the field of science has grown dramatically since November of 2009. I was motivated to join Science Olympiad because wanted to do something new and different, also I felt it was a great opportunity to learn how to apply science. Science Olympiad is a very competitive science team which is composed of various events within many science fields. I chose to work in events related to physics and engineering. Over the course of these few months, we put in many long hours of study, work, and ideas to prepare ourselves for competition day. I put in more than what most students would. In fact I often spent the whole day from morning to night just working on my event. After a period of at least 70 hours working, I was able to build a machine similar to a Rube Goldberg device. Enclosed is a copy of the guidelines for both of my events. At the regional competition not only was I able to successfully complete my events, but I even received three different medals for my team, placing my team in top ranks against 18 different high schools. Attached is a newspaper article from our newspaper informing about my performance. I was amazed at my own abilities by beating the varsity team as a junior varsity teammate in Mission Possible.Through Science Olympiad, I was able to take a position as a leader in order to bring out team up to the top. I believe my leadership will contribute to the representation of Hispanics in the UCLA community. At school, my councilor said I am perhaps the first Hispanic at our school to be in the top 5% of our class of 420. Attached are letters of recommendation from some of my teachers. Because of my state of urgency, the letters here are directed towards scholarships, but I hope that you will be able to see that my teachers believe I have the potential to excel in the school of engineering.Aside from Science Olympiad, I also failed to document that I had participated in a college early start program which allowed me to take a Pre- Calculus class at San Joaquin Delta College. Over my junior summer break, I put in over 50 hours taking the course at Delta College. Attached also is a copy of my registration and my grade I received. The reason I took this class was because I wanted to get ahead to Calculus AP during my senior year. Finally, I did not inquire about my family’s financial situation. The estimated amount of income on my application was significantly higher than what my parents earned this year. Instead they made around $77,000. The amount is not bad; however, because of the recession, my sister in college, and many bills, we faced a challenging situation in which we were living on a month to month status. It got so bad to one point that I had to get a summer job at Taco Bell just so I could afford my personal things. In the last couple of months we have gone through a foreclosure and have had to move to different home. In spite of our financial situation, I kept my head up and was able to complete my junior year with a 4.3 GPA, join track field as well as soccer, volunteer at Lodi Memorial Hospital every week, and even tutor Mathematics and Biology. If I am given the honor to attend UCLA, I will plan to attend for Fall of 2010. I know that if selected I will contribute to the diversity and academic strength of UCLA. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to appeal and for taking the time to re-evaluate my situation. I appreciate your time, I really do.

A: Honestly, it needs quite a bit of work to impress Admissions. Can your English teacher or college counselor help you clean it up? It's rather rambling, and doesn't get some of the points across as you intend. You need someone to help you put the right spin on it. Good luck!