College Admission Notifications for the Class of 2025 are Coming – What to do after Decisions Come Out
While some colleges and universities have already started to release admission decisions for this year's high school seniors (for example, the University of Texas on February 15 and University of Illinois on February 28), most colleges release decisions in the month of March.
University of California
Most UC campuses release admission decisions in March, with the exception of UC Merced and UC Riverside (these campuses started releasing decisions prior in December and February, respectively).
In addition, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz accepted small batches of students in February for scholarship purposes (and in the case of Berkeley, for acceptance to its highly selective Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (M.E.T.) program as well).
Here are the expected admission notification dates for the nine UC campuses:
UC Berkeley: March 27
UC Davis: Around March 7 or 14
UC Irvine: Around March 7 or 14
UCLA: Around March 21
UC Merced: Rolling, starting December 18
UC Riverside: Rolling, starting February 28
UC San Diego: Around March 14 or 21
UC Santa Barbara: Around March 18
UC Santa Cruz: Around March 20
Other flagship public universities
Georgia Tech University: March 7, 2025 (residents); March 28, 2025 (non-residents)
University of Georgia: March 14, 2025
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Early April
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: March 31, 2025
University of Texas, Austin: February 15, 2025
University of Virginia: April 1, 2025
Ivy Day
The eight Ivy League universities coordinate the release of admission decisions together on the same day, which is known as Ivy Day. Last year, Ivy Day was on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. If the practice continues this year, then Ivy Day will be on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
National College Admission Day (or College Signing Day) is May 1
Students usually have until May 1, 2025, to decide which college they will attend in the fall.
As students receive admission decisions, they should look at which major they were accepted to as well as the financial aid award letter from each college as they evaluate which college presents the best academic and financial fit.
If students were accepted to the college but not to the particular major they applied for, then they will need to consider the possibility of transferring into their desired major.
For most majors, students should be able to transfer into their desired major after they complete required courses and achieve a required GPA for that major in college.
However, students who were not admitted to engineering or computer science might find that it will be difficult if not highly improbable to transfer into their desired major. As engineering and computer science programs are not only highly technical but also extremely popular (so there is a small fraction of spots open for the large number of students who want to get into these majors at most colleges), students planning to transfer into one of these majors have to achieve a higher GPA in challenging STEM courses compared to the GPA and courses required to transfer into other majors.
Next, students should narrow down their choices to 3 to 5 colleges and attend admitted students days held by those colleges in April.
Ideally, students should visit the college campus in person to get a better understanding of the college and see the surrounding community before making a decision, but doing so takes time and money (if they need to fly to the college).
If students are not able to visit a college in person, then they should attend an admitted students event organized by the college in the area where they live.
Advice about the Waitlist
Selective colleges cannot admit most of the students that apply and use the waitlist to help the admission offices manage their first year enrollment.
Students are usually not placed on a waitlist automatically; instead, students are offered a spot on the waitlist and must agree to be placed on the waitlist.
Students may accept to be placed on the waitlist at multiple colleges, and colleges typically start admitting students from the waitlist in early May after seeing how many spots are open after accepted students commit.
Students who wish to be placed on a waitlist should follow the instructions provided in the notice from the college.
Some colleges require a short response in the waitlist opt-in form provided by the college, some colleges accept additional information and recommendation letters, while other colleges do not accept any additional information. (If the college does not accept additional information, the student should follow directions and not submit any additional information beyond what the college asks for.)
If a college accepts additional information, students should write a brief letter to the admission office expressing their firm commitment to attend if admitted and providing any additional information that can help their candidacy (for example, significant achievements and awards received after the initial application was submitted in the fall).
It’s important to understand that the chance of getting accepted from a waitlist varies from college to college and from year to year–for example, a college might accept scores of students from the waitlist in one year and only a handful of students the next year.
For students who opt into the waitlist, here are two pieces of advice as they await the final decision from colleges:
Advice #1 — Get excited about the colleges you were already accepted to, and remember all the reasons you decided to apply to those colleges in the first place.
Advice #2 — Take advantage of the learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom and get involved in the campus community at whichever college you decide to attend. Your success in life depends less on where you went to college but what you did when you got there.
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