LIVE with Colledge | UCLA Admissions

good evening everybody and welcome to college facebook live this is a series dedicated to bringing parents and families better information about higher education and better access to college admissions i'm kelsey tarosian tonight we are absolutely thrilled to welcome you and very very excited about our upcoming discussion about the importance of college admissions and the holistic review with admissions veteran gary clark director of undergraduate admissions at ucla for any of you who don't know who we are college is a private admissions advisory group where college admissions professionals working with families and students anywhere on their path to higher education our work of course helps students identify and apply to best fit colleges but what it also does is it really ignites their deeper passion and their potential during their journey along that path without any further ado i'm going to invite our wonderful panelists to join the stream first i want to introduce jenny umhofer who is our owner and founder and our host tonight welcome jenny hi thank you kelsey thank you next i am very pleased to introduce gary clark who is the director of undergraduate admission at ucla hi gary hello how are you good how are you i'm doing good thanks good so anyone not familiar with gary i want to tell you a little bit about him um he has served in the college admissions profession for actually over 20 years he began his career at his alma mater christopher newport university and then at college of william and mary both in virginia for anybody who doesn't know um he then joined the admission office at pitzer college in claremont which is where he worked for six years before joining the admissions staff at usc after seven years there he joined ucla in his current role in november of 2012. so um not only is he an admissions veteran but he's been the director of undergraduate admissions at ucla for some time now um so without further ado i want to hand it over to you guys and um looking forward to listening to your conversation great thank you thanks so much kelsey gary it's so good to see you uh gary and i um we both worked at ucla but at different times and we know a lot of the same people and i believe the last time we were together was for my radio show many years ago where gary had them was the most wonderful guest um that i could ever ask for thank you so much for being willing to talk with me again gary my pleasure happy to do it so wow that's all i have to say lots has changed did you ever think you'd see this much movement away from standardized tests and towards holistic admissions you know it's it's interesting i think um there's there's been a lot of discussion and i think kind of movement towards towards test optional but a lot of it has really been just that it's been discussion you know places are thinking about it considering it and and as as awful as covet 19 has been and certainly it has been for for many many people you know i think it in some ways gave colleges permission to just make that final decision to finally decide yes you know for all of these appropriate reasons we are going to move towards a test optional uh process you know for for the health and safety of students and uh that the fact that so many administrations had been cancelled at that time i think it really gave colleges uh almost permission to make that choice so i think it really sped it up um you know if it hadn't been for that there may have still been a slow movement in this direction um but i think the the really pronounced uh change you've seen and a lot that you've seen in the news around colleges making this move i think has really been prompted uh by the pandemic the the interesting question will be to see over the next several years hopefully post covid um you know do colleges stick with that test optional approach is it a temporary thing or is it something that's going to be a more permanent decision for lots of colleges and universities so um so yeah no i i would not have at the beginning of this academic year i would have had no no guess that this many colleges would have moved in this direction you're here right that's so true um and yes i mean we know that the pandemic is obviously driving a lot of this movement towards test optional um but i wonder if you can talk about some other reasons why schools have considered going test optional yeah i mean you know i think the there's been discussion around standardized testing since there's been standardized testing and and the role that it can and should play in an admission process this is something that that you see in the faculty at the university of california really took up you know about a year and a half two years ago to really explore you know what what role should standardized testing play what are the benefits and drawbacks of of considering an exam you know i think there's there are lots of good reasons why school might decide to either keep or move away from the exam i think when you have a standardized test and a national high school curriculum that is not standardized you know we don't we generally you know students in k-12 learn similar things at potentially similar times but there's nothing akin to standardization in the way that students are taught or learn uh in k-12 in this country and then i think there have been lots of questions about you know who is advantaged or disadvantaged by standardized testing um you know what role do other characteristics in a student's life play in their access to preparation uh and their performance on standardized testing and you know is is is what it adds to the evaluation of an application worth some of those drawbacks you know considering all the things that a college or university might look at or consider in an admission process that are probably over a much longer stretch of a student's life um how do you compare that and square it with an exam that they take for you know three or four hours on on a given day um so i think that's why colleges are really i think more open to the idea of of looking at a process that does not include standardized testing or at minimum gives students the option to decide if they think something if they think standardized testing is really something that presents a strength for them or not sure people use the term holistic admission a lot it's another term that has been out there and i think it may mean different things to different people i'm wondering if you can talk about what it means to you yeah i mean you know it's been interesting as i've worked at different places of different sizes and size staff and application volume throughout my career um it's it's meant something very similar and on one hand and very different than others i think what it means is that the college or university is committed to a process that they're really reading and considering the whole application um and and i think that that may sound like a very simple statement but it's something that really takes a lot of commitment on the part of colleges and universities to do um the the volume of content that that we have to consume in a fairly limited time frame um you know puts a lot of pressure on an institution to really stick to those values um you know there are many institutions that you know and and it's not necessarily a bad thing if i if i say it this way like there are places that are not super highly selective institutions that can fill a large portion of their class by looks by saying look if you meet these basic minimum thresholds welcome you know you're you're you can enroll at our institution so i don't i think that's a good thing um but i think for places especially that as you tend to to look more towards the highly selective institutions i think what we're saying to to students is that we're doing everything we can to consider the whole student you know certainly there are quantitative factors in an application grades um curriculum standardized testing big asterisk next to that especially for for the coming cycles um but there are also a number of qualitative things in the application that really adds something valuable that helps us to to not only determine who's a good fit for our community but to predict what kind of student might be successful and contribute to the campus community that we that we offer so when schools ask students to write essays or personal insight questions or for places that collect letters of recommendation or want to interview students or that type of thing that's not fluff i mean that's that's helpful information that allows the college to really know the student beyond just a set of numbers um and and to really know who's the individual behind that um you know those those set of numbers and and how do we think they as a person will contribute both in and out of the classroom on our campus it's tougher to really dig deep on that when you maybe only have a couple of numbers to consider so holistic just means for us and for the institution i represent now it means that everything that you fill out and share with us in the uc application is valuable uh is insightful and we're going to take the time uh to read it as you've taken the time to really prepare and provide us with that information in the app and i guess does it take different forms at different schools um i guess that is the the big question you know how is it different or how is it the same you know i i think the the the kind of bones of it are have been similar for me at the places where where i've worked i think it it is that commitment to reading everything it is that commitment to being holistic and how we consider the whole student in an application but the mechanics of how that plays out at different places can be strikingly different you know i when i worked at pitzer at that time this was granted 20 years ago now but um you know it was six of us sitting around a table with boxes of paper files and we were reading apps together and making admission decisions well i'm i'm at an institution now that that receives close to 110 000 freshmen applications there isn't a table big enough to hold all the people that read applications for us and and we can't have those same kind of group conversations in the way that that you might be able to at a small liberal arts college the the value and the commitment is same is the same but the way that we go through that read process um is uh is a little bit different you know at every place i've been and i i feel privileged that this has been the case but at every place i've been every app has read at least twice um you know before any kind of final decision might be made on an application and even at a place with ucla we maintain that that same kind of commitment so that that takes a lot of resources and time and effort but i think for places that are really committed to to providing that kind of process and and evaluating students in that way you got to put the resources towards it to make it to make it a really really valuable reading process that's actually an incredible feat i just want to underscore that you know you read every application two times i i genuinely do not know how you do it i didn't have glasses before i started ucla um so for those students and parents that are listening um i'm wondering what are three things that every student should know about holistic admission as a takeaway you know i think as as we the thing the three things i would want you to remember as as you think about our process um one important word that i use a lot in describing our work is context um as we're reading an application we're looking at everything in context and what i mean by that is that you know so in the case of like some of the numbers that we talk about you know um you know a gpa you know a three-eight is not a three-eighth it's not a three-eighth you know a three-eight at one school in one kind of curriculum can mean something very different than a 38 and another school in a different curriculum we're not looking at the number as the benchmark of whether we think a student is is competitive or not what we're doing is looking where does the student attend school what kind of curriculum and opportunities are available to the student in that setting and then evaluating the degree to which we think the student has taken advantage of some of those courses and at what level have they performed and that's important because you know i think you know especially as it relates to uc i think people always hear these horror stories that like well if you don't have a four or five way to gpa you're not getting into a uc and it's like well there are some schools where that gpa you know might put a student in the second or third decile of their class and there are other places where a 4.0 is absolutely the highest that you're going to get and that's that's that's the reality of that school because of the way they grade and because of the access to any api you know or honors types classes so so our goal in that is really just to understand the school environment and understand the opportunities available to the student before we begin to evaluate um and assess the quality of the academic work that they've completed and present to us in the application so so context lot um in the way that we we consider credentials in the application the next one i would say is authenticity um you know i think when when especially as students are thinking about what they write in a college essay or on the personal insight questions or something i think colleges really want to see that authentic voice you know we want students to spend less time thinking about what it is they think we want to hear and and more time about you know what it is that they want to say um you know we can't you can't reverse engineer admission decisions you can't say well my friend wrote about this and so and he or she got in so i'm going to do the same thing and it's going to work out the name for me you've got to tell your story and that's what we want and i think especially for a place where we don't collect letters of recommendation and we don't interview students that writing is is the only voice of yours we get to hear in the application so so i think authenticity really matters a lot the last thing i would say is really focus on what you can control and when you're thinking about an application or an admission process and how we how we make decisions there are going to be certain things that are just outside of your control um you know ultimately where we're going to make the decision as to who we think best fits our campus community so don't don't stress and worry about the things that you can't control focus on what you can and what you can is telling your story um performing well you know focusing on on your coursework being thoughtful about what you share with us in the application these are things that you can control um what you can't control is the ultimate decision um and and you can't control things that are already in the past you know maybe you stumbled in a class a year or two ago and and that's you're stressed about that and you're worried about that can't control it no you can do about that don't worry about it you can write about it maybe mention what happened and give us some context in the application but can't change it so i think i i would tell students you know apply to a broad group have a good list of colleges that you think really might fit you and and focus on the things that you can control in the process and don't spend any time stressing about the things that you can't so wise so wise i think that's that's those are words of wisdom for all of us perhaps right now maybe i can follow my own advice right um what kinds of students would you say truly benefit uh from a move away from tests and towards holistic admissions um you know i i think you know there are lots of students who maybe feel like standardized testing is is just not a reflection of of their best academic work um you know a standardized tested to varying degrees are tied or not tied to the kind of work that you feel like you're doing in the classroom and i think there's a lot of anxiety that comes in in test taking and that varies for individuals some people are super anxious about taking exams you know i don't know that there are any of us that aren't concerned at all i think everybody gets a little nervous about about a standardized standardized test but i think what who this benefits are our students that might have looked at you know colleges and universities and and maybe even highly selective colleges and universities and said you know looked at those middle 50 percent of sat scores or act scores and said you know how that scene those numbers seem really high that makes me nervous i'm out i'm just not going to bother applying you know and i think that's we we don't want that to happen i i would even in an environment where we required testing i would always explain to students that you know test scores don't make or break the decision they're one of many things that we look at in an application review process um and even now i think in a test optional environment we want students to to know that if this is something that you know is israel stress inducing for you or you feel like this is you know you're concerned about safety of going to sit for an exam i i will tell you openly i i don't want you to risk your health or safety to sit for a standardized testing exam for for my institution you know i think if you have a score and you think it's something that represents you well feel free to submit it optional means optional if you want to submit it and you think it reflects your abilities go for it um if you don't please don't you know don't submit the score or and certainly don't try and make some effort to drive to some other part of california or get on an airplane or stress about sitting for an exam and is it safe in there and are the conditions you know healthy and safe for those taking the exam like that's that's the kind of thing i really want students to avoid so you know i i think it in this especially here and now i think i hope that test optional benefits students by taking that layer of stress away you know whether you feel like testing is your thing or not you now have the option to say i'm going to completely opt out of even taking the exam and allow the rest of my application to speak for itself wonderful that's very helpful gary um i want to return to something you were touching on earlier uh you know when i worked at ucla i would read about a thousand applications a year and that's nothing at all that's just a tiny tip of the iceberg uh compared to i think you said 110 000 applications plus per year um how can you talk a little bit about how you manage a meaningful holistic admissions review and i think you call it comprehensive review um maybe you could define comprehensive review for us um and uh and talk a little bit about ucla yeah so we uc will often use these terms interchangeably and i i think it's good to distinguish what each of them means so so comprehensive review um the university of california the faculty for uc have essentially approved 14 criteria um that they say that each of the campuses within the system can consider in making admission decisions uh for for first-year freshman applicants and you can you can find this online and it lists all the 14 criteria none of it will be particularly surprising as you read through the list you're like oh yeah that makes sense oh yeah that makes sense you know these are things that basically give us permission to go well beyond beyond what would have been like an academic index of gpa and test scores to look at all these other factors and criteria that might help us help to inform us of who the student is and how they might fit uh with our particular campus so those are the those kind of the what of admission within uc holistic review is really the how it's the how each campus and each campus might do this a little bit differently how those campuses take those different criteria put them together in the application and then review them and ultimately make admission decisions um you know how do we consider them how do we present them to our readers what are the things that we're uh that we're really valuing in in our review and and decision making process and they all matter they all contribute um you know i think for for us you know i mentioned that we're going to read every application twice but you know we have a small army of people that really greet applications for ucla these are certainly my staff we have high school counselors retired high school counselors who go through a really rigorous training program before we cut them loose to actually read applications and that to review process is a nice check and balance in the sense that you know if jenny reads the application first and i read it after her i can't see how she evaluated the application so there are two independent blind reviews of the application we start reading applications right after that november 30th deadline and we don't stop until late march um and it takes all that time for us to get through all of those reviews of the application because if the first two readers really don't agree and they kind of evaluate the application very differently it'll be read by a third reader you know so it takes time to do that and if we're going to do it in a way that we're really reading the content of what students are providing in the app we have to provide the time for our our readers to do that so i think it's you know it's tough and i i don't i i don't pause at saying that at all it's really really tough um because as applications go up nobody's giving us more days in the calendar hours to the day it's still you know we still commit to getting decisions out you know by that late march time period when we release our decisions and we haven't talked much here but in addition to those 110 000 freshman apps we get about 26 000 transfer applications that we're reading in essentially the same kind of time frame and release those decisions about a month after we release our freshman decision so it's it's a it's a huge lift but i i there's there are a few things i'm more proud of that we do at ucla than really commit to uh that that very thorough kind of read process wow so you basically don't sleep is that the november through life about that time we talk a lot about health care but the working hours have to be pretty focused yeah um sort of to switch topics or switch gears a little bit i was wondering i was reading a little bit about how prop 209 might be under appeal um at the state level for consideration um i'm wondering if you can share your thoughts on this and how this might impact holistic the comprehensive review um in the uc system sure so i mean for for anybody who who might not be aware proposition 209 is essentially a state referendum that was passed in the late 90s i think 96 or 97 that that precludes any state entity in california including um you know universities um from considering race ethnicity or gender uh in in making any kind of admission decision um so so currently you know it's not something our readers aren't able to to know whether you know whatever a student's background is it's not something that we can actively consider or attend to in either the reading of applications or or in making admission decisions so you know that's that's the current environment that we're in you know especially like you know gender as well you know women in engineering that's not something that we can really advocate for or attend to in a specific way and uh in the review process but i think it's you know it's it's certainly the case that we and all of the uc's value diversity a great deal in our in our undergraduate experience in all its forms race ethnicity gender sexual orientation like we we really want students from all walks of life to be a part of our community because we think that really adds to to the value and richness of those discussions that happen uh in in our classes um if if it were to be repealed um you know by the voters then that would essentially just allow the university of california or cal states or any state entity um to decide how they might consider uh diversity in the context of their admission process so it would essentially just you know the characteristics that we're considering now are here but if that's repealed it'll allow us to consider those in a broader context and and really um you know consider you know diversity or or gender in the case of uh of a program that might be underrepresented for uh for women in the process so it it'll you know it'll be interesting to see i think it's going to be also november is that correct it is here of all years i can't believe it um wow thank you for that thanks so much for your insights i appreciate it um so and then the other topic i wanted to ask you about the pandemic you know has brought about all these changes in college admissions but before the pandemic came along there was something called the college admissions scandal um certainly not a laughing matter at all how has the admissions process changed as a result of the scandal well so this was the the varsity blues scandal that that was in the news for for some time and it still pops up in the news from from time to time um so i what i'll say about that is is this i i think especially as a public institution um the the accountability that comes with being a public institution is critical um and i think when when varsity blues happened and and the involvement that ucla had in that i will say it was you know it was an athletic scandal it was not an admission scandal it wasn't anything that really involved uh you know my staff or or my office but certainly it was a process that we are actively involved in and responsible for um i i think it was awful i mean i i think the influence that um that was levied on on on people that that should have had more integrity and how they uh you know presented candidates in our process um is is something that was rightfully called out um i think we're we're happy that we're aware i think we've made a lot of positive changes to ensure that kind of thing doesn't happen again and we've brought in outside groups and and are getting feedback on how to really uh you know plug any of those holes in our process and we've we've really made a lot of improvement so i i'm proud of what we've done um you know it was it was uh uh only a a couple of cases but it really doesn't matter i think even if it's just one it's something that that i think is is awful and i i think as we learned about that and understood what took place uh we quickly acted to ensure that uh those that were involved were held accountable and that we did everything we can to ensure it doesn't happen again well i'm so grateful that you have such integrity and that you're at the helm at ucla it sort of harkens back to um what you mentioned earlier about authenticity and the importance of being yourself and presenting who you really are and trusting that that is enough and that if you have a good list and if you apply broadly you will find yourself in the right place so with that i just want to say thank you so much gary i'm going to allow kelsey to come on back into the studio and see if there's any questions that our listeners might have um wow so many words of wisdom first from gary and then from jenny just now you know trusting that you're enough i think it's a lifelong project for all of us yeah so thank you guys so much for sharing such insightful you know valuable kind of behind the scenes um knowledge and i want to encourage everybody who's watching to please consider the questions that you still have remaining because i can almost guarantee you that if you have a question somebody else probably has it too so i want to encourage you to pop it into the comments box whatever platform you're watching on and we'll get to the as many as we can but while we're waiting for people to put their questions in i have a question of my own if you don't mind um and my work with students i work with a lot of students and basically two things they're really worried about right now um this year number one is the test optional movement and i i really appreciate i think that what you guys spoke to tonight was directly at the heart of what students are worrying about and if they're not worried about it what what maybe they should reconsider um with travel plans and doing doing things to get test scores in when they really don't need to um but the second thing that um i get a lot of questions about is regarding also kogan 19 um regarding you know they had all these great plans for summer and they got cancelled and they're really disappointed and show them the activities section um or the personal insight questions they're hearing all kinds of different things from different people they're definitely don't write about copen19 they're going to be overwhelmed everybody's going to write about don't write about it or it's new you know i have to write about don't i have to write hey but do i have to write about it so i'm wondering if you could give us some insight about those two things how to address the things you wanted to do and you couldn't do or like your kind of change in your time you know and then also the writing piece of course sure no i i appreciate you asking that because it is something we're getting questions about quite a bit so to the first point i i would say you know first i really feel for students i i feel i feel for faculty you know parents who you know home became the classroom uh you know very unexpectedly you know teachers who had to adapt their lesson plans to being administered online is all really challenging but but certainly i feel for the students because um they had to adapt as well and a lot of the things you know that that helped to give them the energy to to focus and and do well academically a lot of students get that energy from some of the other things that they do outside of class whether it's activities or involvement things that they're doing that really really fuel them in a lot of ways and that they're really passionate about and many of those things have been taken away from students um and and that's tough you know so so first i want you to know that i and my office and college and admission officers across the country get it like we know um that this spring and summer it's unlike any spring and summer that really anybody has ever experienced and so we know those limitations are in place um and and we recognize it we're not secretly looking for the student who managed to maneuver their way into that internship over the summer or you know a student who somehow found a way to stay involved in in this virtually and and their their friends didn't that's that's you know we we get that spring 2020 and summer 2020 there's a big old asterisk associated with those two terms for everybody so i i feel for you we feel for you and know that that's something that we're not looking to hold that against you in the admission process you know we're we're human beings ourselves we dealt with the impacts of that time period as well so we're going to be very understanding of you know any any kind of bare blank paper during that time because we know there weren't a lot of opportunities for students to engage so don't stress it that's one of those don't worry about it because it's not something that was that was within your control in terms of writing um you know i i would say in the uc app so in the common application they've i think provided a prompt um for students to be able to respond to anything related to covet 19 that they want to share the uc app has not added a prompt we have our eight personal insight questions students choose four of them to respond to but we also have an additional comment section and that's where we're encouraging students if they want to share something some example that uh in which covet 19 has impacted them directly they can do that in the additional comments section but i want to be clear that we don't expect students to do that if you have been impacted heaven forbid you or a family member has has been directly impacted by covid maybe somebody's lost wages or lost a job that had an impact on your life in some specific way absolutely you should feel comfortable sharing that but i want everybody else to hear if that's not you and it's just been this has been tough because it has been tough for everybody don't feel like you have to write about that like don't feel like you have to manufacture you know a covet essay if there isn't something that immediately springs to mind as this is how it impacted me and my family wonderful that's that's hugely helpful and i really hope that everybody out there takes gary's words to heart it's all about that authenticity piece it sounds like and the other thing to remember is that these admissions offices these schools they're full of real people and they're all in these jobs because they really actually do care and you can see that from gary but i think that that's true in general in the field so these are not people who are looking for robot teenagers they're looking for real people experiencing real things and they really feel for you um and so just just keep that in mind uh we have a couple of other questions that have come through um i have one person who's wondering for a little bit more light to be shed on the athletics admissions process can you share a little bit about that gary sure so when when it comes to we're a division one program pac-12 uh school um so for division one athletics to i'll state it very simply and then i'll elaborate you you're either a recruited athlete or not um and generally you know if you're being recruited by one of the coaches for a particular sport um and you often know that maybe you know as junior year and certainly by senior year you know if you've been in contact with a coach and they're interested in recruiting you potentially for a program um students apply to ucla and fill out the uc app as any other student would we're going to read the application but we also have what's called a student athlete admission committee that's staffed by faculty uh and and staff from my office um and representatives from athletics will present candidates who are being recruited by the coaches but ultimately they don't have a vote and ultimately who's admitted to the institution so if the coaches recruit students they present them to us they present a number of credentials associated with those students to validate their experience and and participation in in the sports that they're a part of and then ultimately this the student athletic admission committee uh comprised of faculty and staff will ultimately make the decision about whether that student will be supported for for admission um so ultimately the student has to be seen as a student who can be successful and competitive in a pretty rigorous environment at ucla that's the kind of thing that we're considering uh in in that committee process and then ultimately the student can't be admitted without support uh from that committee so you know oftentimes you'll hear you know commitment so-and-so is committed to this place and they're a junior or a sophomore in high school they may have committed but the institution hasn't necessarily committed to that student until they have a national letter of intent and until they've been admitted by the admission office so with ucla until you have a letter signed with my name at the bottom you haven't been admitted wonderful thank you then i have another question that just came in um wondering about merit scholarships um will the student without test scores be considered for merit-based scholarships now in the uc system absolutely um you know and i i can speak certainly for my campus that there's no scholarship that we administer out of my office or out of our financial aid and scholarships office that requires that a student present a standardized test score um so there's not going to be any change to our approach based on whether a student submits a standardized test score or not now there are private scholarships that are kind of outside of college and universities you know independently funded scholarships that students can apply for that may still require standardized testing but those are small in number and and often not huge monetary scholarships um but those are are independent they're not really controlled by or decided you know the students who receive it isn't isn't decided by my office so for us any scholarship that is kind of one of our main scholarships administered at ucla you know whether you submit standardized testing or not isn't going to have an impact on your likelihood of getting the scholarship wonderful that's hugely useful and i hope it's a relief to hear um thank you for everybody who's asking these great questions we've got another one which is an interesting one it's not one i've asked before a person is wondering if it would negatively affect a student if they apply to many uc's for example if ucla is the student's first is it better for them to apply only to ucla would it negatively impact them if they send applications to five or six different uc's that's a great one i'm really glad somebody asked that question because this is one of these myths that i i enjoy debunking um you know there is one application for the entire uc system and i think that's part of where this this kind of myth comes from when you fill out the application you indicate which of the campuses you'd like to apply to um you submitted a separate application fee for each campus that you're applying to or if you receive a fee waiver you can apply it up to four campuses utilizing that fee waiver um once you click submit on the application because it's actually housed at the office of the president they then kind of farm the data out to the individual campuses for us to then evaluate and make admission decisions i could care less where else you've applied within the system it has absolute we don't we don't look at it we don't consider it it's not anything that i know uh or our readers know uh when they're reading apps or making uh ultimately my office making an admission decision um i think there's always this idea that we're kind of peeking over the fence to see what's happening at the other campuses and that absolutely does not happen once that application has been submitted you're being considered individually and independently by each of the campuses that you apply to especially especially when you're not sleeping at all more research um this is a greatly definitive answer i've got a couple more questions i'm wondering if you've got time for just one or two more yeah please great um one another person is asking if the fafsa is required to be considered for ucla merit-based scholarships so that that's a good question and there there's some nuance to that so to be considered for financial aid of any kind at ucla you have to submit the fafsa the free application for federal student aid um it's it's kind of a universal thing that's that's required to apply for financial aid at any college or university um there i would i'm trying to think if there are any merit scholarships that we award that do not require the fafsa so the only thing that i can think of um that you could be considered for without potentially submitting a fafsa might be our alumni scholarships and those are they're not for children of alumni they're just funded by ucla alumni um they are merit scholarships they don't they're not tied to whether you have need or not um so that's a scholarship that a student could be considered for without having submitted a fafsa but i think it's generally a good idea if you are applying to a college to consider submitting the fafsa because even if you might not get aid it does allow colleges to maybe consider you for a broader range of potential scholarships than if they didn't have that uh that information so i would say when in doubt uh take the time to fill out the fafsa wonderful um and then i've got one more so far and nothing else has come in yet um how will the great number of new applicants taking a gap year this year affect next year's admissions good question okay that's a good question yeah um and it's it's one i've gotten fairly frequently so just so you know for for ucla this is our general approach to deferral requests and then i'll talk about kind of what we've done this year and how it's a little bit different so our general approach is we don't grant deferrals um you know the only times we will grant a deferral is in cases of like military service or if there's a religious commitment of some kind on the part of the student um or if you know everybody there's some real health issue that's happening that precludes a student from from enrolling in the fall we consider those on an individual basis student submits a request to my office and we ultimately will communicate back to the student whether we're able to grant that deferral now in in this year with with the impact of covet 19 we've extended that to a degree to say that if if a student or their family has been impacted by covid specifically similar to what i said before either you know the health of the student or their family or a loss of wages or a job as a result of the pandemic then we're also considering those requests and and making accommodations in a number of cases for students that request that we are not deferring students who who say i would prefer to be in person versus online you know we are offering you know what we think is really an extraordinary um experience it look we would all prefer to be in person but i think we and lots of other colleges have really invested heavily to offer a wonderful experience for our students even if it is virtual in nature so the short answer after the long answer to your question is what we've done in terms of deferrals this year will have zero impact on the number of students that we're interested in enrolling or how many students we might admit next year the numbers have stayed relatively small we really haven't gotten a huge number of requests and not not strikingly different from the numbers that we've seen in in previous years um and i think that's because you know almost all colleges and universities are approaching this year in a way that's it's virtual in some way um and so i think students recognize that and they're just gonna you know work with us to really make make the best of a different year and and make it a good experience wonderful thank you thank you so much so um i'm gonna wrap it up here and i just want to say you know as a group that's trying to reach as many families as many students as we possibly can possibly can to provide more information more valuable information and better access to college i want to thank you so much for joining us gary and for sharing your obvious care for the students for this work and for letting us kind of get a peek behind the curtain and see through your eyes for the evening we really appreciate it of course thank you yeah and i also just i want to speak to anybody who's watching i want to let you know if you feel like you might need more information and nobody would blame you if you did not only are there already you know 2 000 plus undergraduate schools out there before the pendant forgetting about the pandemic um but now there's all these changes if you feel like you need more information know just that even if you want to talk the first step with us is just a free phone call we would be more than happy to talk to you about your specific circumstances what to think about and honestly even what to think about can be so hugely helpful because you just don't know what you don't know um and we can help give you insight and our goal is to help we just want to help so um if you call and you get what you need there fantastic if you need more help and you want to work one-on-one fantastic we just are here to help as many people as we can i want to encourage you also to follow us on social media to find our website and um just get as much as you can from our free community resources because we're trying to just be on the ball with as much new stuff as many conversations with um in the note it admissions people as like gary as we possibly can i want to say thank you all so much for staying with us tonight and we will be having a couple more uh talks coming up um we have one uh planned for september 3rd if you follow us with pomona um our uh our speaker will be talking a little bit about the value of a liberal arts education and then we will be uh hearing from cmc the following week my colleague will be talking about the college interview so i hope you will join us i hope you will just keep learning and taking advantage of all of these opportunities and resources at your fingertips and we all we all wish you the best thank you so much good night everybody thanks

Channel: Colledge

Views: 667

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: srJKXTTRTPQ

Length: 43min 45sec (2625 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020