Andre Rocha had a 3.8 high school grade point average and scored
1170 on his SAT. Kyle Taylor had a 4.5 GPA and a 1440 SAT
score.
One of them now goes to UCLA while the other got rejected,
proving that sheer scores might not be as important as some
believe.
“I was definitely expecting to get in to all the
University of California schools with my scores, grade point
average and community service,” Taylor said.
To his utter surprise, he got rejected from both UCLA and UC
Berkeley, and he still has no idea why he wasn’t
accepted.
“My denial was shocking, because I watched other kids get
in who weren’t as qualified as I thought I was,” Taylor
said.
Rocha, a political science student, could be one of those
students. With both his GPA and SAT score lower than
Taylor’s, Rocha was sure he wasn’t getting in.
“I was really happy (when my acceptance came) because I
didn’t think I was getting in; everybody was telling me that
it was impossible to get accepted,” Rocha said.
He applied to three UC campuses, and got into two of them
““ UCLA and UC Santa Barbara ““ with his only rejection
coming from UC San Diego.
Rocha is not sure what set him apart from the other candidates
but thinks it might have been his involvement with a community
student television project.
“I was involved ““ not super involved ““ but I
did the TV show, the community service club, and then also I was
involved in the Spanish club and the Pilipino club in my
school,” Rocha said.
The show in question is called “Teen Talk,” a
program that covers teen issues in the city of Torrance. Rocha
worked for a year and a half reporting, writing and even appearing
on air.
Rocha was also involved in other community service projects, and
he thinks that definitely helped him get accepted.
“I think I got in due to my extra activities ““ I was
basically the guy who did well, but I didn’t over-exhaust
myself,” Rocha said.
Taylor was also involved in community service and was, in fact,
“easily the most involved student” in his high school,
he said.
He was a four-year varsity swimmer, student government member
and yearbook photo editor. He also had over three hundred hours of
community service, while managing to graduate within the top 10
percent of his class.
UCLA admissions, however, was not impressed.
Confused about his rejection Taylor sent a letter to Richard
Atkinson, UC president, outlining his achievements and asking to be
sent an explanation for the denial.
A couple of months after his letter had been sent, Taylor got a
response back.
“The letter that I got back from Atkinson was almost the
same form-letter as the one I got initially informing me of my
rejection,” Taylor said. “It didn’t seem like
anybody heard my individual concerns, or even read my
letter.”
At that point, Taylor was already going to American University
in Washington, where he received a full merit scholarship. So he
decided to let the matter rest.
However, he does have a couple of guesses as to why he
wasn’t accepted.
“I feel like they were definitely looking for
“angular students,” Taylor said. “In other words,
students that were focused on only one activity for a long period
of time, while I was really involved in everything.”
He added that maybe the UC schools were also looking for
individuals with off-campus involvement, something that he
didn’t have as much of, even though he was very involved
within his school.
These are all conjectures, however, and Taylor is still troubled
by the lack of answers.
He does have a few words of advice for high school students
wanting to apply to UCLA.
“Just try to focus on trying to be what they want you to
be,” he said. “It’s bad, but it seems
that’s what you have to do in order to get in.”
Currently a second-year in college, Taylor is contemplating
whether he should still consider applying to a UC for his graduate
studies.
“Based on the way it’s going now, I won’t
apply,” Taylor said. “But if the review system changed,
I would definitely consider it.”