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Anika Madan, a senior at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton, had a loaded school resume when she applied to six University of California campuses for admission this fall: a 4.6 GPA, 11 college-level courses, student leadership positions and community service building robotic hands for people with disabilities.
She was accepted to UC campuses at Irvine, Riverside and Santa Barbara but wait-listed at Berkeley, Davis and San Diego.
Once again she is on edge along with tens of thousands of others as yet another nail-biting phase of a record-breaking UC admission season begins this week. Campuses are diving into their massive waitlists, selecting students to fill the seats of those who turned down UC offers by the May 1 college decision day. For the waitlisted, this next round is sparking more anxiety, frustration and even defiance as they try to decide whether to hold out for an offer from a favored campus or just move on.
Tens of thousands of UC applicants are wait-listed this year amid record applications, and admission directors say forecasting chances of being selected is as uncertain as ever.