UCLA Admission Guide

Admissions Criteria:

The most important criteria is academic preparation. UCLA recalculates students’ GPAs without their freshman year grades. They also do not count grades from non-academic courses (such as band or gym) when calculating GPA. They do weigh the difficulty of courses, including APs, in their calculation. The average GPA for Letters and Science is 4.2, for Engineering its 4.3. A 3.4 GPA for non-California residents and a 3.0 GPA for residents is required to have the rest of your application considered.

Other factors which are very important are your essays and course rigor.

Factors which are important are: extracurriculars, work experience, volunteering, talent, and character.

Factors which are considered are: first generation status, geographic origin, and state residency.

Being a recruited athlete helps your chances of admission greatly, so long as you meet the academic minimums. Recruited athletes’ average GPAs are far below the general average.

What is UCLA Looking For?

UCLA uses an aggregate points added system to rate candidates, with points being added to the total rating for each category. They look for more well rounded candidates generally, as opposed to the Ivy League, although this does vary some by school. Students must meet academic minimums in order to be considered as candidates as a whole.

Every application which is considered is read at least twice before a decision is made, and many are read more than that. Beyond academic work, they want to see how a student spent their time outside of the classroom, and what their impact was on their school and the broader community they inhabit. They try to determine how the student will benefit and affect the community at UCLA based on their past actions.

Engineering has faculty involvement in the admissions process, and a much higher academic bar. They also like to see research experience and heavy involvement in STEM. Due to attempts to maintain fairly even gender ratios, women have a slightly easier time gaining admission to the school, as there are fewer female applicants overall, and thus a greater percentage is admitted.

Out-of-state students have a slightly higher acceptance rate than in-state students, but this is due to disparate application rates, and it is much harder for out of state students to gain admission generally. International students have a harder time than all domestic students.

UCLA Strategy:

Students applying to a specific major, especially in Engineering, should use one of their essays to discuss how they have already engaged with the major, and why they are interested in it. Evidence of past competence is seen as a marker for future potential.

While all UC schools are forbidden from considering race in college admissions, they do look at socio-economic status, and they want to recruit students who have succeeded academically in spite of hardships they have endured. If you have undergone hardship, you should definitely use the essay question on that topic to address it. This is especially true if hardship you have undergone has affected your academic performance. While it might not completely excuse poor grades, additional context is always helpful.

Leadership is one of the factors the school considers, and as one of the essay topics directly addresses this, if you have leadership experience, you should discuss it here. This is an easy way to add a few points to your application’s total.

Because applications are decided by school (and often by major), your application should reflect why you are a good candidate for the school and major you are applying to. Students applying to study in the sciences in the engineering school should have practical experience, ideally hands-on, in their chosen field. Letters and Sciences also offers many of the same majors, and has an easier acceptance rate, so students who wish to study the sciences but are not as confident about their application should apply there.