499 Students Were Headed to UC Irvine. Then, a Blow

They had their admissions rescinded in July
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 31, 2017 8:19 AM CDT
They Enrolled at UC Irvine— Which Just Changed Its Mind
A stock photo of a college study group.   (Getty Images/Jacob Ammentorp Lund)

Admissions goofs are nothing new. Learning you've lost your admission in July is another matter. That's the situation with the University of California Irvine, which withdrew 499 offers of admission two months before the fall term is to begin. By the Los Angeles Times' count, that's abnormally high: Other UC campuses gave "recession" numbers ranging from seven to 150. Per the school, 290 of the reversals were because of transcript issues; the rest were over low senior-year grades. Many of the newly disappointed are accusing the school of fishing for slight or even unsubstantiated reasons to dump would-be freshmen after too many made the choice to enroll. The LAT cites numbers that suggest they may not be off base: The UC Office of the President says 7,100 students made the decision to enroll, versus a planned freshman class of 6,250.

A rep for the school concurs that the admissions office has been cracking down on verifying requirements "as a result of more students [having] accepted admissions to UCI than it expected." In case after case, the crackdown smells off: One student was told only one of the two required copies of her transcript was mailed; she says they were sent in the same envelope. Another student says he was told his transcript didn't contain a graduation date; he says it did. They're appealing, and they're not the only ones: Some 409—or 82%—have, with many of the students quoted by the LAT and OC Register as having 4.0-plus GPAs ... and having already turned down other schools and scholarships. As of Friday, 63 have emerged victorious. The school says the appeals process, which normally takes up to six weeks, has been accelerated. (More UC Irvine stories.)

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