University of California Offers 2023 & How to Apply

With the continued success from our students, we sat down with Head of University and Careers Counselling Mark Coyle to get some feedback on the results and to ask how the lower year student can start to prepare themselves for applying to the UCs.

Why are the UCs popular?

For DHSZ students the UCs are a great opportunity to add some balance to their university lists. With 9 campuses offering undergraduate degrees across a range of competitiveness, the UCs can be on any students list! All 9 campuses are in the US News ranking top 100 – so any offer from the UCs is worth celebrating – well done on the nearly 100offers so far!

They have over 800 programs and each campus has a specialty – maybe the place, the courses, the diversity!

Why does the UC system like our students?

If students have been at DHSZ for 4 years and joined in every aspect of our school – not just the classes but also the competitions, the trips, the CCAs and the sports – then they have more to say when talking to the universities. The UCs really value these special aspects and how they build students beyond the classroom into young adults.

We invited the Santa Cruz Admissions officer to talk to our parents last month and he was really pushing students to find themselves in the lower years by trying out activities – but (importantly) he also said students must persist to be successful. Not just in a CCA for a semester but developing it or adding a new one that they lead. He suggested, for example, that lower years students will do more fun summer camps but they should be major-related in year Y12 with course credits!

UC Tips

The UC admissions team give feedback to each recognised school each year and ours was –

-Well prepared applications and meeting the special A-G requirements

-Students doing internships that are meaningful and formative

-SUMMER SCHOOLS with university level credits is important to build a top application!

-Extra value is given to external exams (IGCSE, AS and A-Levels)

Basically, they need to see the well-rounded students with excellent grades -  and DHSZ has been doing this for 11years of graduating classes!

How difficult is the application?

Students sometimes complain to the Counselling Team about the amount of essays (4*350words), but actually if the students have been doing all the activities in DHSZ from Y10 then they have a lot to write about! Often, we have cut the essays because students write too much or have too many great examples.

Lower year students should –

-Join CCAs they like (try to lead them in Y12/Y13!)

-Volunteer or do internships in related areas to their major

-Ensure they are developing interests outside the school curriculum

BUT remember – grades are still hugely important! So prepare for the upcoming IGCSE and AS levels – they count extra when the UCs count their GPAs.

For Y12 Students 

In English classes last month we started the process by explaining the essays and how the application works. The key for these students is to start early writing early and have meanginful activities planned for the summer. Click here to check out the UC page for more info.

A word of warning from the UC about ChatGPT

In our recent meeting with the UC admissions officers, they explained that the UCs have built lots of extra checks into their systems to detect plagiarism (copying from online or other students) and ChatGPT. They will be checking for real authentic stories – so be honest! If you haven’t been a leader – don’t say you have! 

All universities do these checks and it is obvious to the reader if one essay is so much better than the others – don’t be tempted to copy.