UC portal opens for awaiting applicants

By Amy Jiang,
HUB Staff Writer–

The online application portal for University of California opened on Oct. 1, allowing prospective students to create online accounts and begin completing the application to be submitted Nov. 1-30.

College and Career Specialist Julie Clayton advises students to begin the application as soon as possible, and to focus on personal essays.

“Take your time, and get it done well before November 30,” she said.

Clayton, whose son also undergoing the college application process, said, “I would tell my son to start today.”

Some are already getting a head start by creating accounts, like senior Tara Mullen, who registered at 6 a.m. before school.

“Hey, why not?” Mullen said.

Senior Rebecca Buer started the Common Application for private colleges when she recently changed her mind, since the colleges she looked at “didn’t have very specific majors for undergrads.”

Buer, who hopes to earn a Bachelor of Science in evolutionary ecology, plans to apply via the UC application “as soon as essays are done.” Her top choice out of the UCs is UC Davis.

Senior Raymond Concha, who knows he is “going straight to community college,” thinks the portal opening “shouldn’t be such a big deal.” Concha does not plan to be part of the crowd applying to UCs.

The application portal can be found at admissions.universityofcalifornia.edu, and will be open until the submission deadline of Nov. 30.