Invitation to Apply for UC Alumni Scholarships

Update (2/21/2024): As of the Fall 2024 application cycle, UCLA appears to be the only UC campus that requires an additional scholarship application BEFORE admission decisions are released. For all other UC campuses, either the scholarships don’t require an additional application (UC Application is sufficient for scholarship consideration) OR the scholarships that require an additional application have deadlines AFTER admission decision release.


If you receive an invitation to apply for alumni scholarships, know that the alumni association obtained the contact information and general profile of applicants from the admissions office and sent out invitations based on criteria the alumni association determined to reflect the type of students they want for the scholarships (sometimes the invitations will go out to all applicants; the invited pool seems to get adjusted every year). The process is separate from admission evaluation as the alumni association is a different entity (a nonprofit affiliated with the university, NOT a part of the university).

While students who receive an invitation tend to be high achieving students (therefore more likely to be admitted), getting an invitation is not indicative of your admission status (because the admissions office generally does NOT share admission decisions with the alumni association at the scholarship application stage of the process and the alumni association does NOT have any influence over admission evaluation). Some UCs have adjusted their process so the scholarship award timeline matches the admission decision release timeline, but that is a synchronization of two independent processes and should not be confused as the same process. Keep in mind that you may apply for the scholarships regardless of whether you received an invitation (most alumni scholarships that require a separate application will allow all applicants who meet the scholarship requirements to apply).


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12 Comments

Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.

catherinereply
January 25, 2023 at 2:31 pm

Hello, Do we know if UCLA sent their Alumni Scholarship invitation in several batches this year? If so, when was the first one sent?

Ms. Sunreply
January 25, 2023 at 9:28 pm
– In reply to: catherine

I think there are usually two batches. The first batch must have gone out mid-January (I usually push out this blog post AFTER I have heard from students who received the invitation).

catherinereply
February 2, 2023 at 1:09 pm

Thank you for your reply. My son received his 1/13 at 10 AM. Do we know if the “general profile” is based on academics only or includes any “holistic” part of the application? I am assume academics for sure (my son has all As/ total 12 APs classes + ELC) but wondering about any other part of the application taken into consideration. Thank you!

Ms. Sunreply
February 2, 2023 at 5:21 pm
– In reply to: catherine

There’s a good post on College Confidential that explains the (lack of) significance of the email.

catherinereply
February 3, 2023 at 1:54 pm

Thank you for the reply. We are definitely not counting on any significance in any cases, just curious on how the process works with the UCs

Ms. Sunreply
February 3, 2023 at 8:36 pm
– In reply to: catherine

Like I mentioned in the post, the process is separate from admission evaluation as the alumni association is a different entity (a nonprofit affiliated with the university, NOT a part of the university).

catherinereply
February 8, 2023 at 3:13 pm

Thank you again for the info offered in your blog. They have been very helpful navigating the application process for both my students. One of which applied 3 years ago and was accepted to all top 7 UCs she applied to and my youngest one who just applied this cycle.

Do we know if UCLA will be sending Regents Invite before decision this cycle? I remember my daughter received her invite (and Regent status a few days after decisions were released that year) around the same time Berkeley released first round of admission early Feb?

Thank you again.

Ms. Sunreply
February 8, 2023 at 5:31 pm
– In reply to: catherine

UCLA seems to have done something different with Regents last year (sent out invitation around/after decision release). I’m not sure if UCLA will continue doing that or going back to the process before (sending out invitation before decision release).

Rohanreply
February 28, 2023 at 8:07 pm

Do you think filling out the scholarship application for UCLA will play a factor in admissions, as in getting a boost?

Ms. Sunreply
March 1, 2023 at 11:05 am
– In reply to: Rohan

No, the scholarship application is a separate process handled by a different office (not admissions).

March 15, 2023 at 2:31 pm

When does the UCLA regents and scholarships decisions come out?

Ms. Sunreply
March 15, 2023 at 5:14 pm
– In reply to: RJ

I haven’t heard anything about UCLA Regents invitation so my guess is the campus will EITHER award it with the financial aid package (no separate application) OR invite students to apply after admission decisions have been released. The campus could do something else, but that’s outside the realm of possible guesses I can come up with.

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