Were you waitlisted at the University of California, Los Angeles? Keep in mind that the UCLA pool of applicants is quite literally the largest in higher education — and a waitlist is not the same as a rejection! Instead of quitting while you’re ahead, act now to optimize your chance of getting off the waitlist and onto that pristine Southern California campus. How? Read on to find out!

UCLA Waitlist Acceptance Rate and Statistics

We’ve compiled five years of waitlist data from UCLA, as they’ve reported to the federally mandated Common Data Set. We don’t yet know how the Class of 2029 will fare, but the below data can be used as a good indication of what’s yet to come:

UCLA Class Year	Number of Students Waitlisted to UCLA	Number of Students Who Chose to Join the UCLA Waitlist	Number of Students Accepted Off the UCLA Waitlist	UCLA Waitlist Acceptance Rate
Class of 2028	15,023	9,198	1,211	13.17%
Class of 2027	18,329	11,725	1,400	11.94%
Class of 2026	16,979	11,169	367	3.29%
Class of 2025	15,242	9,897	214	2.16%
Class of 2024	14,470	9,254	1,779	19.22%

Your Chances of Admission to UCLA After Being Waitlisted

If there’s one thing we can predict about the UCLA waitlist acceptance rate, it’s that it’s unpredictable. Over the last five admissions cycles, it’s fluctuated from a low of 2.16% for admission to the Class of 2025 to an all-time high just one year earlier — 19.22% (ok, that year was impacted by gap year students during the pandemic). This huge variation might seem daunting, but it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s never been a year when UCLA didn’t dip into its waitlist. At a school of UCLA’s size, it’s very unlikely that they’d ever have an admissions cycle in which they don’t need to draw from the pool of waitlisted applicants. 

While the UCLA waitlist acceptance rate is influenced by factors like the yield rate, there’s still a lot you can control. Your application is in your hands, and you have the power to make it stand out — it just takes some strategy and forethought.

Admissions officers at this world-renowned public school want to admit highly enthusiastic students who know every last thing about the history, activities, culture, and traditions found at UCLA. Ivy Coach has a two-fold strategy for helping our students who come to us for the first time after being waitlisted considerably improve their odds of admission by flexing their knowledge of these key factors without coming across as braggers or boasters. Here’s how:

Your Chances of Admission to University of California, Los Angeles After Being Waitlisted With Ivy Coach’s Help

So why does Ivy Coach have such success with UCLA’s waitlist? It boils down to Ivy Coach’s tried and true method of optimizing a student’s chances for admission after being placed in limbo. That two-step process is as follows:

1. Complete Ivy Coach’s PostMortem application review. We need to see what a student did right and what they did wrong to pivot in a new, more competitive direction. The narrative we help craft can’t be out of left field. It must be consistent with the story conveyed in the application — just told more compellingly (hint: with a singular hook!).
2. Submit a compelling Letter of Continued Interest. Most students know they should submit a letter after being placed in limbo. And most know they should do so promptly. But most students submit the wrong kind of letter. Ivy Coach’s letters contain no brags or updates. It’s a big reason why they’re so successful. We inspire admissions officers to root for our students!

Getting Started with Ivy Coach on the UCLA Waitlist

If you’re interested in optimizing your case for admission off the University of California, Los Angeles waitlist with our team of former elite college admission officers, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form and indicate that you’ve been waitlisted. We’ll contact you in short order. We understand that time is of the essence and that your letter needs to go to UCLA stat.