Webinar Transcript: Live Q&A with Cuca Acosta, UCSB Associate Director of Admissions

Elton Lin: Good evening. Good to see all of you. I'm thinking that we have a good crowd coming in for today – and rightfully so. We have Cuca Acosta, who is the associate director of admission at UC Santa Barbara – and just an outstanding person and presence. I think it's gonna be a really amazing interview and time to spend with her as she shares a little bit about what she's doing at UC Santa Barbara – as well as perhaps some of the different things that have been happening on the UC landscape.

You are eager to share and I'm eager to ask! Hopefully you all – as students and perhaps some parents – would be eager to ask as well.

First let’s just list off where you're calling in from. We've certainly always been a little bit California heavy, but I’m excited to have a lot of people from all over the world. Oh, Boston, Texas, So Cal, definitely; L.A, Saratoga, La Jolla… a lot of Californians. Philly – I like Philly. Maryland. Seattle. Michigan. Fantastic. San Antonio – love it. Chicago; I used to live in Chicago. Cape Cod.

Well, this is a pretty diverse group, Cuca. There are a lot of people from all over the U.S. who apparently are interested in UC Santa Barbara and the UC system. We're excited to have that.

Claremont, New Jersey, outside of New York – fantastic. San Diego. San Francisco. Super. Keep it coming. Orange County – awesome.

I'm gonna give Cuca some time to intro. Then ask a few questions about the University of California: perhaps how the admissions process looks. And then we'll save as much time as we can at the end and give everybody an opportunity to ask tons of questions.

So welcome Cuca.

Cuca Acosta: Why, thank you.

Elton Lin: Fantastic. Let me give you an opportunity to introduce yourself. If you don't mind, tell tell us a little bit about your role at UC Santa Barbara – and maybe your story of how you got into admissions.

Cuca Acosta: Okay. That's usually like an hour-long session in and of itself… but I'll give you the Cliff Notes version!

So hello everyone. Hola. My name is, again, Cuca Acosta. I'm the associate director for admissions at the beautiful, gorgeous University of California, Santa Barbara. UCSB is my home.

I have the luxury of saying I also have my undergraduate degree from UC Santa Barbara – in philosophy. So, yes, students can graduate with a philosophy degree and get employed! I have my master's in leadership and liberal studies from Duquesne – so my Philly friends, hello.

I've been in the office of admissions – and I've been at UC Santa Barbara specifically – for 19 years. I feel like, again, this is my home.

I have the distinction of being the associate director – which means my job is to make sure of everything, in regards to information about requirements admission and the application process: filling that out. That’s under my purview – for both freshmen and transfer students.

The visitor center is where students, and my counseling friends who want to come visit, can do tours or ask questions. Part of my job is to make sure that those all run smoothly for UCSB.

But the other component is all of our fun yield activities. Once students get offered admission – or if students are on the waitlist, or if students get denied – having those conversations with students, parents, counselors, families, etc.

Luckily UC Santa Barbara, one of the UC campuses, happens to be well-known around the globe. We received 110,000 freshmen applications for the class of 2022! So it is a large job. We are excited to bring in an incoming class of about 5,000 students – and about 2,000 transfer students; I can't forget transfer because I love my transfer students too, and it's a great path to UCSB – including our transfer admissions guarantee, which I'm happy to talk about if anyone's interested.

I myself am a first generation college-bound student – so first in my family to get a college degree. I'm still hoping and praying that family members will follow in my footsteps.

And then, small personal note, I have the luxury – and the joy – of also being on our undocumented student services team at UC Santa Barbara. So I really work with first-gen students and undocumented students through the UCSB and UC application process.

Elton Lin: Fantastic. Thank you, Cuca, for sharing and giving us some insight.

Why don't we just jump right in? I think there are certainly some people – from California and from all over the United States – who may not be as familiar with the UC system. Would you mind going through the admissions review process? Once students click that button, all the electrons start shooting into the airwaves. What happens from that point, once it lands on your desk?

Cuca Acosta: Of course. So the University of California happens to have one singular application. That UC application opens to students in August – August 1st.

A student can apply as a first-year freshman… or they can apply as a transfer student. Typically transfer students will start their third year: spend two years with us to finish their undergraduate degree.

The admissions process is different for freshmen and transfer students. At the freshman level, students will report their high school curriculum. Even if they've taken college classes as a high school student, they are a freshman applicant until they finish their high school diploma. Students complete what we call our A through G requirements… and if you're not in California, it makes no sense to call them that, so I apologize! But they’re seven academic subjects: math, history, English, science, art, language other than English, and college prep electives. You'll find that these seven subjects have 15 core classes that the University of California wants students to complete by the end of their senior year.

Now we don't want transcripts. No no no no no! I don't want paper, my friends. I don't want email. I don't want files. You students are responsible for self-entering all of the academic classes into this UC application. Which is why we open it in August.

Students enter their grades, and then they tell us the classes they're taking as high school seniors. And they then tell us what they do outside of the classroom – as activities and awards and so forth. They answer some questions – which are my favorite part of the review process: the personal insight questions. Not essays. Questions. They're questions.

When they push “submit,” they will then say, “Hey, I want to apply to Santa Barbara.” And they can also say, “I want to apply to the other UCs: L.A., San Diego, Berkeley…” You know, the others.

We get a copy of that application. And we do what's called a holistic review.

For Santa Barbara's campus, it starts with an academic foundation. I look at the classes that the student has taken over their four years of high school. We look at how a student took advantage of the curriculum at their school. If you’re attending a school that doesn't have any honors or AP or any of that, noted; then I'm only going to look at what was available. If I've got a student who's attending a high school that's on an AP curriculum, what do they take advantage of there? Versus a student who maybe is doing A levels, or they're doing IB, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We don't have preferences between curricula, in any case; our holistic review looks at the coursework that the student is taking based off of what was available. We look at the GPA, which is calculated by us in the office of admissions: weighted, using sophomore and junior year grades only. And that is the academic foundation.

Then we grow our review to say, “Okay, what do they do outside of the classroom?” Again, based off of what was available to them. The pandemic and all of that chaos of ,”Hey, I couldn't do anything!” is not uncommon for us reading right now: applications saying that students had to be on lockdown, or that they weren't able to do stuff because of family members and so forth.

That's where the personal insight questions come in: students can give us context. And as we read the application, we essentially evaluate students based off of that context. Not comparing students to others in the applicant pool. Not even to other students in their school. At Santa Barbara it really is based off of what the student shared with us – at the freshman front.

Transfer, I will point out, is totally different. Transfer is based on the classes the student took in preparation for their major, the units that get them towards junior level standing, and their GPA. Boom boom boom. Transfer doesn't, for us, have a lot of the extras. It's an academic evaluation – to see if you're ready to go into your major as a junior.

That's the process in a nutshell.

Elton Lin: Got it. Two things to come back with in response to your responses: number one, you made it very clear it's questions and not essays. Could you say something a little bit more behind that? And then, maybe, number two is you're saying that you're not necessarily comparing students with other students, but you are trying to understand the student's context: like, say, the number of APs that there are at their high school. Isn't there some sense of understanding the student's context, also, as it relates to other students who are applying as well? Or is there really no consideration for other students who are applying.

Cuca Acosta: Yeah. Well, so here's the thing: some UCs read by territory. Santa Barbara does not.

So in my instance, I may not see any other student from a particular school, right? If it’s a school in Cape Cod, I might only see one student from it. So I'm not going to go digging, to say, “What are other students from that area doing, and where are they applying?” And this, that, and the other. It's only what's in the application.

If a student is attending a high school that's academically very rigorous and very competitive, and class selection is very difficult, I won't know that unless the student chooses to add that as part of their context.

There are two places in the application where that can be shared. One is going to be in the personal insight questions. The other could be in a section of the application called “additional comments.” The additional comments section really is a gold mine. Some of us reading really focus on that – to say, “What more should I know about the high school now?”

Is it possible that a student tells me this information, and I just totally go like, “Is that real? Are they telling the truth?” I take everything at face value. I can't go search for anything online. I won't call the student. I won't call the high school to clarify. At the end of the day, I take the information at face value.

And then the University of California does do a verification check, or a validation check. It's a random assortment. The University of California might go, “Hey Elton, you told me that you were taking this community college class; please prove it.” Or, “You told me that you were a boy scout and that you'd already gotten your Eagle Scout award; please prove it.” That verification, and those checks and balances, exist so that I can have faith in what's in the self-reported application.

Elton Lin: Got it. Fantastic.

Let's move on to talking a little bit about the applicant pool, or perhaps the process for the last couple years. There have certainly been a lot of changes: going officially test-free, which is terrific. But I would love to hear, what have been some of the largest shifts or trends that have been happening in the application?

The application process, perhaps, hasn't changed much, if any… but perhaps the application pool has changed a little bit. Tell us a little bit about what have been the biggest differences over the last two years?

Cuca Acosta: The biggest change, of course, is that, yes, the University of California is test-free now. For students, though, it's always been like, “Oh, that means you can't really get to know me, because my test scores were my identity.” And for the admissions officer, we were kind of like, “No!”

What I haven't mentioned yet is that, at the freshman level, there were 14 factors for admission: the strength of senior year coursework, the GPA, the honors courses, special activities, leadership… There are 13 factors now because the SAT and ACT have been taken off of that docket. So there are still other things that we're allowed to value in the application process – and those come from other parts of the application.

The biggest change for us in the applicant pool is that, yeah, we've seen a larger number of students who are really confident in their abilities – but weren't confident in their test-taking – submit an application.

I think the other big change that we've seen is that students feel like they can apply to more campuses. We do have a fee waiver in our application for any U.S. resident, regardless of where they reside. They can – depending on income – apply to four UC campuses free of charge. We've seen students take advantage of that at a higher rate – and need that more now in the last few years, based off of changing family incomes and the pandemic and sort of thing.

Elton Lin: Got it. Fantastic. Maybe, with the UC system going test free, it hasn't really changed that much. Because you're just leaning on the other factors – which were already factors already in the admissions process.

And then students submitting applications to more UC schools – which I can imagine on your end too: really trying to understand who's really interested in going to UC Santa Barbara and filtering through that is a challenge.

Cuca Acosta: Well, here's a really good point, Elton. And that is: a student says they want to come to UCSB. They check the box. They pay the $70 fee (as a U.S. resident) to apply to Santa Barbara. I think that UCSB is their first choice school. So I don't sit there going, “Oh, but they really want to go to San Diego instead.” No no! I'm a selfish being in the admissions process. You chose Santa Barbara. I think I'm your first choice. I mean, clearly; look at my backdrop! [Her virtual background has cliffs and the ocean.] Hello.

When it comes to the review process, we take that as our thought process. If we had 110,000 students who want to be here, we don't have 110,000 spots. In fact, UCSB has 26,000 students total: grad and undergrad. We look at and we have, and unfortunately we have had to say no to students in areas where there is no growth.

For Santa Barbara specifically, that application growth was our college of engineering. But the growth in actual student enrollment did not match the number of applications. We still have a 10 to 1 student to faculty ratio in engineering, and 1,400 students total. And we've had that for the last decade. I just have ten times more applicants now than I did ten years ago.

That kind of conversation is what's slightly different for us.

Elton Lin: So let's go into that – because we're seeing an inordinate amount of students who are wanting to major in computer science. And it's very understandable – because of the job market, or where the industry is going. What I hear you saying is that there are just a ton of students who are applying into the college of engineering – maybe focusing on computer science. It's an estimate, but 10 times more than it was ten years ago.

That's pretty significant – especially if the department itself is not really growing to meet that demand. What are your thoughts on that?

And the follow-up question: “If I just apply to another major, would it be easier to get in?” But maybe on the flip end, “If I apply to computer science, and I really want to study computer science, is it almost impossible to get in?” What are your thoughts on that?

Cuca Alcosta: All right!

Elton Lin: I know, it’s tough.

Cuca Alcosta: I opened that Pandora's box; it's 100% my fault.

All right. At Santa Barbara, we only have the core five engineering programs: chemical, electrical, mechanical, computer engineering, and computer science. And yes, computer science and computer engineering are just massively popular.

I've heard from other college colleagues, as well as university admissions colleagues: why does everybody want computer science or computer engineering or something that has “computer” in the title? While there is some job security and safety behind that – I get that, I do – our faculty aren't here just to churn out someone to go into industry: like, “Okay, let's go, next round, next round.”

Our faculty really want to engage in understanding: what is programming and what is software development and how does that tie to other areas? And what can we do next? Our faculty are known for cryptology – which is cybersecurity.

And they want to know students one-on-one. That's the reason why they don't want to grow. Our faculty know every student by first name – and vice versa. So yes, there might be a hundred more applications out there for any one of our given majors… but our faculty don't want to lose that ability.

Plus our faculty are still in industry; they're still working!

For engineering, specifically, we admit into the major. As such, we only have a finite number of spaces. We will say yes to students with the knowledge that they'll come in to the freshman or the transfer path – whatever that might be – and they've got a space in engineering, and they've got classes that they will have access to – to complete a four-year degree as a freshman or a two-year degree as a transfer student.

Now, if a student says, “Okay, my first choice is computer science, but my second choice is undeclared – which they can do – and they get in as an undeclared student… I'm very honest. My whole team is very honest. Then you should be excited about being a major that is not ever going to be engineering – because switching into the major in engineering (any of the five) is not gonna happen to you. Because we admit into the major. Period.

I think that it's a little disheartening when a student goes, “But I'm a straight A student. I took every rigorous class. I did everything right!” and I have to go, “You did everything right, but it comes down to space.” So I have to call it. Like, you know, let's talk about me going to a concert in general admissions seats. There are only so many seats. And then the fire marshal's like, “You're done.” I can't let more and more in. That's just not going to happen. Space capacity, and so many other rules and regulations are in place.

So while students don't want to hear that – much less their parents – again, great students. Amazing. You did nothing wrong. It comes down to space.

Elton Lin: There are two things that I think you're pointing out. Number one is the number of applicants to the amount of spaces: there are limitations on that. And it's more severe or extreme than it was in previous years.

But you also mentioned that, if you get admitted as another major, you shouldn't expect to be able to transfer into the engineering department once you get to UC Santa Barbara. My sense is that you said that very clearly and strongly. Would you have said that for us five years ago, or even three years ago?

Cuca Acosta: Actually, yes.

Elton Lin: Fair enough.

Cuca Acosta: I've been saying it for years. This is not the pandemic.

Elton Lin:  All right. Sounds fair.

Cuca Acosta: Yeah. Engineering's always been popular, and we've always been the smallest engineering program of the UCs. This is not a conversation that came about just because of the pandemic, or applicant numbers in 2022. This is something we've had to say – and we've refined over and over again.

To the point where we have videos that we put together, going: “Here's what you can do. You can do data science. You can do physics.” We list all of our 80 majors in our college of letters and science with the hope that they recognize that… “Hey, I can be in the computer science club. There are all these great things!” But your major will not be that.

Elton Lin: Fair enough I. Message heard and received; I appreciate that.

I have a couple more questions. I want to give time; there are a lot of questions coming in – and a lot of good questions.

So let me round out the “Elton and Cuca” time with this: UC Santa Barbara is not the only UC. Is there a right fit type applicant for UCSB – one that might be different from the other UCs? I'm not trying to say that anybody would customize their app for UC Santa Barbara, but what type of applicant fits most readily at UCSB?

Cuca Acosta: I don't have a checklist! I've got students who are focused on research – and we've got a great college of creative studies, where it's required for them to do research with a faculty mentor. I've got students who are more relaxed and chill, and they like a little bit of everything – and our college of letters and science allows for that liberal arts platform; they can take some classes here and they can take some classes there and they can discover what they want to do, because they came in as undeclared. I have that sort of variety in place.

With about a hundred different majors, we have quite a large array of students, academically, in different categories. There’s the environmentalist who's gonna save the planet because my generation broke it. I've got students who are really interested in the ethnic studies programs. And the collaborative nature; I love that!

But when it comes to “fit,” outside of academics, I think Santa Barbara students are really collaborative. So if you're looking for that really competitive edge in the classroom: “Don't look at my paper! Don't look at me! I'm gonna get this, because there's only one!”… That's not a UCSB student. Some students thrive on that, and there are definitely universities that have that vibe. Not UCSB.

We happen to be typically very residential… so what that means is most students tend to live on campus or in our neighboring community. About 80% of students live within a mile of UCSB. It tends to be that students don't go home very often – which is great for our out-of-state students: our East Coasters and our Texas friends and our Washington friends. Students tend to be on campus seven days a week, minus major holidays and breaks.

We tend to be also really a good fit for students who are looking to really make change: impact change. Some of our minors that have come about – our social justice minor, and our feminist studies minor – have become more popular. They've actually been added to the roster because of our student change and our faculty really wanting to engage and embrace that change.

Elton Lin: All right, fantastic. Thank you for sharing. I think, maybe, to hone in on the desire to collaborate and just the heart and motivation – and the want to create positive change. I’m excited to see that as part of the culture at UC Santa Barbara.

So we're gonna bring in all the questions now. If Anthony is alive and well…

Anthony Su: I am alive and well.

Elton Lin: All right.

Anthony Su: Yeah, with questions I joked to Cuca that we're going to have waves and waves of questions – and definitely keep the waves coming in! I'm going to do my best to try to summarize, and put some questions together. So if I don't get to every exact one, hopefully we can at least touch on the topic.

I will start with the hot button issue about engineering and computer science. I think everyone wants to hear more about this. And I see variations of this question: “Given the industry right now, why isn’t UC expanding enrollment in this?” Another question said, “Why not just take in more students for that particular major?”

Any additional commentary there?

Cuca Acosta: The conversation for us – for the college of engineering: all five programs, including computer science – is that they were built to be four-year degrees. I can show you actually what we call GEAR – general education academic requirements – for engineering. And those particular classes are blocked off.

For each student, freshman year, I can tell you which classes you're taking in your major. They're built with the number of faculty we have on staff. And not every class is taught over and over and over again during a year, so that it can be a wave of students taking the curriculum.

Again, we've got a smaller college of engineering. And I've got to be able to make sure that students come in and graduate on time. I love our engineering graduation rates. Actually, they mimic the overall graduation rates – about 70%, which is above the national average in four years. I actually see some of our students who are trying to graduate in three years – about 5% do that. And that number has been trying to tick up and grow, based off of students who are taking college classes or AP exams or IB exams and bringing them in.

But in engineering, you can't cut corners with classes or AP exams prior to UCSB. You have to take the curriculum here, based off of what's required of our faculty teaching those classes. You can't fast track it, and we can't grow it.

So by default it's going to be selective.

Anthony Su: Definitely. Just the logistics of the courses and how they line up, and the professors… and making sure that the students that are in that program have access to those opportunities and aren't slowed down in that way, right?

Elton Lin: Maybe the impression is, “Can you just hire people?” And my sense is that that's not quite that easy, right?

Cuca Acosta: I wish! Every university wants to hire amazing, well-versed individuals in areas where we have curricula, right? I can't just go, “Hey, Elton, you're a great programmer. Let's just hire you.” Do you have the credentials? Do you have the background? Are you willing to teach in Santa Barbara?

That's the other conversation. And, as I said, many of our faculty are consultants. They're still in companies. They have two hats that they wear. They might come during the spring and teach, and then they go back to the Bay Area, and they're on the board of X, Y, or Z company.

That's also something that's really different for engineers, versus a history professor, or a biology professor, who are full-time teaching.

Elton Lin: Yeah. We're consistently hearing that same sentiment from a lot of universities, regardless of what part of the United States they’re in: that there is a demand for computer science or engineering, but the hiring of that faculty, and the growth of that department, is far more difficult. For every university, even super high-profile schools. It's still very difficult.

Anthony Su: …A related question is this question of the impacted major, or thinking, “If I am going to come in as an undeclared student, how can I navigate this process?” What would you recommend there?

Cuca Acosta: The five programs in engineering are selective – “impacted,” whatever you want to call them. Because we admit into the major. Outside of those five, I as an admissions reader do not look at an intended major. The difference between data science and undeclared, the difference between feminist studies and global studies, the difference between political science and math: none. It's not a factor at UCSB, outside of engineering.

Anthony Su: Perfect. I'm seeing a lot of questions related to AP courses, so we'll move in that direction. I'm going to try to lump these together. Taking the AP course, versus taking a community college class, versus taking the test by itself and self-studying for it: how would those be evaluated differently on an application?

Cuca Acosta: All right. So our preference between AP and IB: we don't have one. Again, I love all curriculums equally. All of my children are loved.

The class itself is valued in the A through G, and the academic curriculum. The class itself can be weighted in the GPA if taken in the sophomore or junior year.

An AP exam must have a three, four, or five in order to earn college credits.

If a student chooses to do a dual enrollment, or a college course, the class must be at the transfer level. Just as a reference: if I'm taking an English class, there might be just “college English: remedial basic,” or there could be “transferable college English.” The transferable component is what I need.

California students have an amazing resource called assist.org. They can see every California community college class – if it transfers or if it doesn't. For out-of-state… you’ve got to figure out: “Is this higher level, or is this a remedial class?”

But the college course that's transferable will automatically earn college credits. And that grade will also be weighted in the GPA.

So there are bonuses in both areas. Again, we do not have a preference at all in the UC system, between students taking AP, IB, college level, A levels… It all depends on the rigor of the student.

I will tell you: I took U.S. history AP, and I got a two on the exam! It happens. I know, I look like a historian don't I? But nope.

Elton Lin: A philosopher.

Cuca Acosta: I'm a philosopher instead.

But recognize that if a student has a one or a two on an AP exam, they can share it with us – because they took the test. They added rigor to their curriculum. It's not a negative; it's not a minus in our evaluation. Because it wasn't a requirement – and it is not a requirement for freshman admissions.

Anthony Su: Got it. So, again, rigor is the most important factor. Almost anything – whether it's going to be a college course or potentially self-studying things – it's all kind of seen in that direction, right?

A question about class rank: if that's something that is considered at all?

[Cuca shakes her head.]

It looks like the answer is just “no.”

Cuca Acosta: There's no place to put that. We don't ask that in the UC application. And even if a student shares it with us, there's no context behind it. So no.

Anthony Su: Awesome. Easy question. Easy questions are good, going through the waves and waves.

A question around housing: if housing is guaranteed for four years? How hard it is as an upperclassman, later on?

Cuca Acosta: Okay. Pre-pandemic, I would love to brag about our four-year housing guarantee. Pre-pandemic.

Pandemic, Santa Barbara became a really easy and a great destination place for people to work remotely. I kid you not: the kid who was my waiter last night at dinner goes to a state school up north, and they're living down here taking classes. And I'm like, “What?” Because they can.

The hard part for us is that we saw that influx of external folks who weren't college students. So we have prioritized our first-year students. All first-year students – both freshmen and transfer students who submit a housing application by the deadline – are going to be prioritized in our housing allotment.

And for the last 10 years that I can remember, every first year student who did submit an application by the deadline was offered a housing contract. Whether or not they accepted that contract: completely different conversation. Do you get a guarantee of the space that you want, and the roommate that you want? No. If I want to live by myself in this little residence hall over here, that's not guaranteed.

When it comes to continuing students, there are opportunities for students to request housing on campus: either in the nine residence halls – and we allocate a subset of spaces for our second year students – or in our university apartments, which is where our juniors and our seniors typically reside.

Normally students don't ask for it at the same level [as they did this past year], so we didn't allocate those spaces last year. We didn't expect the demand. We should have; hindsight is just… what it is. Our housing office is really working with the local landlords and community to make “local” back to being local.

We're continuing to work with our students to help them understand what dates and deadlines are. Asking for housing in September, when you have to move in in September, is just a bad idea, period.

So I will say that we're working on it. We did not do the best job that we could have this year. Our housing folks worked really, really hard; the lack of available affordable housing was the conversation that we had this year. And we're hoping – fingers crossed – to make more ways in that for the upcoming year as well.

Anthony Su: One of those pandemic flux items that you should definitely pay attention to.

There are questions around – and I know these are popular programs among students thinking about summer programs – UCSB SRA and RMP. There are just questions around how that's viewed in an application, or whether that's preferred in an application.

Cuca Acosta: The RMP program – research mentorship program – is a six week residential program. It's back to being in-person, woohoo! And then “Sarah” (SRA) is a four-week residential program, back to being in-person.

Both are research programs. It's high school students being able to conduct research with faculty or postdoc students; it's great.

But I can't tell you that UCLA or Davis really knows it. So, again, the student has to set the context for what they learned in either of these programs within their application.

They both earn college units – so a student can add that to their application as well. There are a lot of bonuses – as long as the context is there, not just, “I signed up and I paid for this program.” What did the student gain from the experience of being a researcher as a high school student? What did they gain from the experience of living in the residence halls and working one-on-one on research? Good and bad and ugly – what did they gain from the experience?

Anthony Su: So not quite an automatic check mark or anything like that.

Cuca Acosta: Of course. Nothing's automatic at the freshman level; let's be real on that one. You know the answer, Anthony! …

Anthony Su: Exactly. Exactly.

There are questions around another hot topic issue: California students compared to out-of-state, compared to international. How is that approached from the admissions office perspective?

Cuca Acosta: Sure. Our review process at Santa Barbara is very specific for freshmen. It's a holistic review. I might read an applicant from Houston, and then push the button, and then the next file that pops up on my screen is a student from San Francisco, and then push the next button, and then I'm reading a student from Los Angeles, and then push the button… and so on, and so forth. So I don't separate applications. We don't separate applications – with the exception of our international students on specialized curricula.

Because, as I'm reading, I might be looking at a student in Germany, and I don't know the grading scale, right? Or I'm in france and, “Is a 15 good, or is it bad?” So, as opposed to having our entire team learn every single country's curriculum, we have international specialists. That is the only time where we'll extract applications and have them evaluated by a subset of our admissions team – so that we can look at the context of that country and those graduation requirements, and review the student as it's appropriate.

But when it comes to admissions, again, we're reading we're reading we're reading. We're using holistic admissions.

When the process is done, we'll then go and say, “How many spots do we have at UCSB?” I said we have about 5,000 spots in the incoming freshman class. Well, guess what? I didn't know that in January when I was reading applications. That's a conversation with the University of California, and the state, and how much funding are we going to get? So we read, we read, we read, and we evaluate without knowing, “Is this student going to get admitted or not?” No one person makes an admissions decision.

When we're ready to start admitting students, we'll go, “Okay, how many California spots do we have?” And then, based off of our evaluation, we'll start admitting. And we'll go down, we'll go down, we'll go down… until we've allocated the spots that we have.

Now we also know that there are students who are applying to multiple campuses, and they'll get admitted to multiple campuses. And again, I assume that I'm their first choice. But I might be their last choice. That's where the numbers come in. That's where our amazing statisticians on our campus will look and say, “Okay, in the applicant pool we've got a 20% overlap with students applying to other UC campuses. So we will only take 18% of this and 19% of that.

Do I know that it's UCSB and UCLA, and am I going, “Did they get admitted there?” No. That process does not happen. Partially because the review is happening independently – so I don't even know if UCLA is admitting the student. And the other part is because I don't care what UCLA is doing. I mean, I love UCLA. They're my friends. But I don't care what they're doing; I'm focused on Santa Barbara.

Again, it's numbers, right? We have a 10% overlap with Davis, so here's what normally happens. There's a 12% overlap with Riverside, here's what normally happens. Those factors go into review… and, again, we'll admit students.

We do the exact same thing with out-of-state and international students. And, for us, they're kind of one and the same. You're either in California or not. And we'll start admitting students, and will go down.

We don't get the number of out-of-state applicants that some of my sister campuses do so; we are hovering at an 18% out-of-state enrollment. Which is, by the state of California, where we're supposed to be. So we've been pretty good and pretty confident about in-state and out-of-state being an equal admissions review process. I love all of you equally!

Elton Lin: I actually want to follow with a question on that one – and sorry to insert myself in. I think it's 1,000% understandable: with regards to, say, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, there's this crossover pool of students. And certainly there's an understanding of not taking every one of those students, and adjusting the data in order to to adjust who's being admitted.

But I had a parent who asked me, maybe early in the year, “What if we just applied to UC Santa Barbara and no other UC? I would presume that we're no longer a part of the cross pool between UC Davis or UCLA or whatever it is. Does that potentially improve my chances of being admitted to UC Santa Barbara?

Cuca Acosta: You're focusing in on this one student and where they applied to. And that's not what the data is doing. Again, I don't know that you only applied to Santa Barbara. When I'm reading your application, and when we're admitting students, what I'm doing is instead allocating the spaces. So if there's a 10% overlap here and a 20% overlap here, that's calculating how many spaces I have, and how many offers of admission I should give. I’m not looking at you, Elton, specifically, and saying. “Should I admit you because you only applied to Santa Barbara?”

Elton Lin: Gotcha.

Cuca Acosta: Apples and oranges.

Anthony Su: So you see it as a full aggregate of the students that are applying to this school, not that this specific student applied to this UC, and this specific student applied to others.

Cuca Alcosta: Correct.

Anthony Su: Let’s see. I do want to take a moment to talk about the “transfer guarantee” – and there are just a couple of transfer students also asking about things like advice for a student athlete who wants to transfer. Give a moment to highlight that particular path and process as well

Cuca Alcosta: Oh! I love transfer.

The transfer admissions process at UC Santa Barbara is such where our transfer admissions guarantee is with any California community college. If it's DVC, if it's Southwest, if it's Santa Barbara City, if it's Santa Monica – it doesn't matter. We love all of them equally.

Now what's going to happen is: a student will have to select a major within our college of letters and science. So, again, political science, sociology, physics, biology… doesn't matter. The guarantee is with any of the majors in the college of letters and science.

For our transfer students who are looking at our selective majors – those include all 10 of our biologies, both economics majors, all of our math majors, and our physics majors – they should be aware that there's a major selection review. There's a set of classes you have to take as part of your guarantee, and a minimum GPA – in that set classes.

A student can find themselves taking a year – or two, or three – to complete all of our transfer admissions guarantee requirements. That's completely up to you. I never talk about two years. I talk about credits.

Our guarantee states you have to finish 60 semester (or 90 quarter) credits. There need to be seven core classes completed – including two transferable English, one transferable math above intermediate algebra, and four breadth courses. And then, of course, if you're in one of those majors, there’s selective major preparation.

Do that with an overall 3.4 GPA, and I will guarantee you admission to UCSB – as long as you submit your TAG [transfer admission guarantee application] the month prior to applying to Santa Barbara.

I will point out that this year the TAG made a big difference. The students who said, “I want Santa Barbara,” they met the GPA requirement – boom. They were offered admission in April of this year. And they're able to say with confidence, “I did it.” We didn't admit every student down to a 3.4, so it did make a difference.

Anthony Su: I heard you would use the word “guarantee.”

Cuca Acosta: And “transfer.” I love it! Over and over again: guaranteed. And for freshmen? Never.

Anthony Su: Rare word. Everyone's gonna go look that up right now!

I'm gonna try, again, to loop questions together: it seems like both of these are students thinking about their course selection in the future, and thinking, “What should I be taking?” Whether they need to take, for example, the toughest courses available to me within math. If they’re thinking about picking another, less math-heavy major, “What if I don't look as competitive compared to my classmates?” If they’re worried about being in a school where a lot of students might be taking all those tough curricula, how would students like that stand out?

Any general advice for students thinking, “What should I be doing to stand out? How do I map this to my courses?”

Cuca Acosta: I tell you this: you don't need to “stand out.” I'm not looking for you to be the unicorn. Because I can't read every application – so by default, I don't know where you fall within the range. What I need you to do is to give me context. Say it with me now, “context.”

Elton Lin: Context.

Cuca Acosta: Thank you.

Academic context is such like, “Well, at my school, hey, it's a really competitive high school. There are a hundred AP classes that are offered, but almost all of them are offered in second and third period, so by default I can only take this many.” Context.

I'm not expecting 100 AP exams or AP classes, but I am expecting, in a high school where there is a lot of academic opportunity, for you to explain why you did or did not take the advantage of that academic opportunity.

Now, if you're saying, “I'm not a mathematician; I'm not an engineer,” and you're going, “Do I have to take AP stats by my senior year?” that's 100% your decision. I can't tell you “yes” or “no.” But I can tell you that I'm looking at everything that you're taking. Maybe you're not taking the most rigorous math, but is there some rigor somewhere else? Is it that you're taking a class at the community college in film, because you're a future filmmaker? Is it that you're looking at ethnic studies and going, “I really want to learn about my culture: ¡mi gente! ¿Verdad? And it's not offered at my high school, so I had to take it at the community college… but that's the same time frame when AP English was being taught, so I had to choose between the two. Context.

Now, again, we in the admissions office will never call you or email you, and I'm not going to go look at your class schedule to see what was offered at your high school, so it's up to the student to report that in the personal insight questions, as one of the answers, or in the “additional comments” section.

That's how you create the strongest application. I don't call it “standing out,” but create the strongest application for the strongest review possible.

Anthony Su: Awesome.

A related question: there's also a question of non-academic aspects. This person listed things like character drive and resilience. How would you see that within a particular application?

Cuca Acosta: What's tangible? I can tell you that I'm funny, but how does that play into the review process? I can tell you that I'm a leader; how does that play into the review process? What's going to be tangible to the reader?

Is it that your sense of humor has helped you get through a really hard time? Explain it.

Context: I love the word! Context.

When it comes to what happens outside of the classroom, a big place is the “activities and awards” section of the UC application. Students can list up to 20 activities or awards. Now let's be real: most students right now don't have a lot of things happening – because you’re reintegrating yourself into life, post-pandemic. (Actually we're still in the pandemic. But…)

What did you do instead? Hobbies and talents. Did you start a podcast? Do you now have an instagram account with 50,000 followers? Did you learn to knit? Are you learning photoshop? What did you do; how are you spending your time? Because that adds so much context – as a reader, for me to go, “Oh, those are the skills that I love!” And it's now tangible for me to see that.

A lot of students think of the personal insight questions as a place to also elaborate on that context, and I completely agree. The personal insight questions are amazing for many of us reading applications – to get to know more about the student. The eight questions were created by the directors of admission – and you have to answer four of those eight questions. No preference whatsoever on any of the questions.

When I read the personal insight questions, I use them as a way to find more facts – find more context. Answer questions that I have about other parts of the application. Which is why I always say it's not an essay. We do these amazing PIQ [personal insight question] workshops – they're actually webinars and we host them in July, August, and September; we do them weekly. Jump onto my UCSB admissions page and find those, because they're posted for you to be able to register for them.

But I will give you two hints. One: I already said, it's not an essay. Two: I hate creative writing. And I say this as a UC lens – because when you focus on creative writing, you're focused on the outcome of emotion that you're giving the reader, versus the facts that you're giving the reader about yourself. If you're spending all this time going, “oh, twenty-four hours woven together makes a day,” do I care? “It was a golden sunset with hues of purple.” Do I care?

The answer is no. As a reader, I need to know you were not paying attention, you fell, you fractured your elbow, you were out for six weeks – that's why your grades dropped.

Thank you. Let's move on. That's an answer to a question.

Anthony Su: Love that.

Elton Lin: Love it too.

Anthony Su: I was like, “What's the difference between the question and an essay? I mean aren't they…” But no. Highlighting the context – “Get me to the point.” Getting to that answer, because you want to learn more about the person behind that piece of paper, right?

Elton Lin: You have enough sunsets in Santa Barbara, for crying out loud!

Cuca Acosta: They’re gorgeous. I don't need to read about them. I just need to look out the window.

Anthony Su: All right. I think this will be the final question – and, again, apologies if I couldn't get to everyone's question. But I think this is a good one to also talk about trends, or things that we've seen in these past few years.

The question was, “Have student goals, like as an aggregate, changed in the past five to ten years?” Are there particular majors that have taken fewer students, or more? We definitely talked a lot about engineering… but I guess just – given you've been at UCSB for so long – any context or observations that you want to point to or give thoughts on?

Cuca Acosta: Oh, wow!

I would say that every year is different. Students tend to rely on, “What was the average GPA last year?” or “What was the number of this or that last year?” And every year is different – because the applicant pool changes.

So I can tell you averages, but they're kind of irrelevant to you. If you've got a 3.5 GPA, but you're an olympian, and you've been training: in that context, it sort of shifted how you took classes and what you were able to do. I'm not going to be mad at you because your GPA doesn't match my average.

And let's not even take it to the extreme of an olympian. Let's talk about the fact that you've got all these B’s, and that's not who you are. You know you're a better student. But – you know what – yes, you spent three months nursing your mom back from her coven, and being isolated, and it played with your mind.

If you share what you did, what you learned from the experience, and how you're growing out of it, that all can be used in a holistic admissions process. But I can't pull it out of you, because I'm never going to meet you. There are no in-person interviews. None of the UC campuses allow for letters of recommendation – so don't expect someone else like your teacher or your counselor.

And this is the hardest part, students: love your parents, appreciate your parents, thank them daily for all that they do for you… but they are not part of the admissions application. They don't get to fill it out for you. And I won't answer their questions about you. When you apply, you have to own everything.

Yes, use your parents. They're a fount of wisdom of what you did last week. They remember what you did last year. They remember what you did last month. They brag about you when you're not listening. Use that knowledge… but then own the process yourself.

And parents, if you're out there, let your students own the process themselves. It's a great learning experience. Not every offer of admissions is going to be to the place that they want – or there might not be an offer of admission. Let that be a learning experience: a growth experience.

And students, don't take it personally. I'm not looking at you going, “I don't like you.” I'm looking at you going, “Wow, I wish there were space.” And it's not something that we do with malicious intent. We recognize that every single application is a person with feelings – and we read it as such. We take a lot of pains to train to make sure that everyone who reads in our office understands that you're a human being, and that you had all of these obstacles and challenges, and you had all of these opportunities. And we try to see all of that from your application.

I'll point out one final thing, and that is the topic of the pandemic. I know that it is something that can spiral.

Everybody was on lockdown for at least months on end in 2020. Maybe in your home state, or in your hometown, it might have only lasted two months. Or you might still be in lockdown. We don't have a blanket answer to what the pandemic should be or could be in your application. Reflect. Rethink. And then release information to us, please and thank you.

Think of the word “context” over and over again!

Elton Lin: Context.

Anthony Su: Yeah. The context, of course: each student, and also the entire process.

I'm also including the link for the virtual admission events for UCSB, so that everyone can take a look at that if they want to hear more from Cuca, and get some ideas continuing forward.

Cuca Acosta: Please, And, oh! I didn't brag: we have an amazing Youtube channel; I will point out that we are literally working on updating it for the class of 2023, both freshmen and transfer. So if you're trying to see the application before it opens… we'll, in July, update it for the class of ’23. It includes the ability to see little tutorials: how do I enter college classes? How do I calculate my GPA? They're all four- or five-minute videos on our Youtube channel UCSB4Me. Please check it out.

And don't hesitate to call or email us. Don't rely on your best friend's next-door neighbor who got into Santa Barbara last year. Don't rely on your uncle who went to UCSB in the 80’s. Really ask us – because, again, every year changes. We are happy to work with you to answer your questions – to call, Zoom, chat, and to share.

Elton Lin: The one comment I see on chat right now sums it up: Cuca is always fabulous. And I just want to just say, thank you so much Cuca, for really sharing forthrightly, boldly, clearly, and giving us a great insight into the admissions process at UC Santa Barbara. You've been a super help, and a blessing to a lot of students, and parents, and other counseling professionals as well. So thank you so much for joining us – and appreciate what you're doing. Keep up the good work.

We would certainly love to have you on again another time. And enjoy your 7 p.m PDT sunset – while all of our East Coast people are probably finding their ways back to sleep. Thank you so much.

I just want to make a quick announcement: we are having – not to compete against Cuca – Giles Edie from Emory University coming out next week. So if you'd like to, jump in on that; we'd love to have you.

Thank you all for coming, and we'll see you on the next show.