The University of California is a public university system with ten campuses, including several top ranked universities such as Berkely, UCLA and San Diego.
These schools are known for their rigorous academic programs and research. UC features competitive admission rates with approximately 77% of California residents receiving an offer from a minimum of one campus.
The system consists of ten campuses with nine of them providing undergraduate and graduate education. These schools are: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.
The long standing system has several generous financial aid offers. Many California families earn 100,000 dollars or less, paying no tuition
Within the month of March 2026, almost all college applications from UC schools have come out. While some schools offering early admissions came out earlier this year, the majority came out this month.
Applications opened Aug. 1, 2025 and the submission deadline ended Dec. 1, 2025.
First year college students have a deadline of May 1, 2026 to submit their Statement of Intent to Register.
University of California Los Angeles or UCLA is a very competitive university with reports suggesting over 147,000+ applicants for the Fall of 2026. Decisions for transfer students are generally released through late April.
UCLA and UCSD decisions came out on Mar. 20. UC Merced decisions have been slowly released in waves starting Dec. 18, 2025.
UC Santa Barbara released on March. 17, and UC Irvine released just days earlier on March 13.
“ It wasn’t that bad waiting for the responses,” said Parker McAdam(12).
Despite most schools releasing decisions in early to mid March, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz both released their acceptance letters around Feb. 27.
Applications have reached a record high for the fall of 2026 with over 250,000 applicants. Applications from California community college students have increased by approximately 6.7%.
“It was kind of nerve racking waiting for responses because I really wanted to get into certain schools,” said Edward Hocking (12).
While most schools released their application acceptance letters all at once, schools such as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo released their applications over several weeks.
Cal Poly Slo has a method of releasing their decisions in waves that are usually separated by five to seven days. However they will have published all decisions by April 1, with a deadline to accept their offer of admission by May 1.
44% of freshman applicants have come from low-income California families. UC Santa Cruz has seen the largest overall increase in high school applicants with a 19% surge.
The majority of seniors at Aliso Niguel High School (ANHS) applied to the UC schools, with some applying out of state.
As the students have been receiving their application responses, they will often go visit their top schools before committing. This is often why the colleges send out decisions so early in the year, so that students have time to think about their future commitments.
While some student athletes are exempt from these dates due to particular circumstances, the average of students receive their application decisions at the same time.
