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Has anyone on the UCLA waitlist gotten a rejection yet? I’ve reached out for updates with no response yet. 

I inquired about the UCLA waitlist. Looks as though they have made their decisions. This is the reply I received:

Also on the waitlist and still waiting for any notification. 

Hm, interesting. I'm on the UCLA waitlist too -- guess that means that if we haven't heard anything, we didn't get in. I wonder if/when they'll send out notices that we are officially denied? 
 
Curious to know if any applicants on the UCLA waitlist have received an admittance notification. 

04/22 is my extended deadline and the graduate advisor I spoke with did say he had a good amount of people extending their deadline this year in hopes of getting more funding. Good luck! 

Just curious, what date is your extended deadline for UCLA? On the waitlist here. 

So excited that my financial aid award letter from UC Berkeley’s planning program was increased to getting the Graduate Opportunity Program Masters Fellowship (covers in state tuition and fees + $10k stipend) and a Department Fellowship ( covers $7k)! Basically my first year is funded! 
 
In the beginning when I was accepted to the program I received $10k for the first year, but pleasantly surprised they increased it to this amount! 
 
Is it competitive to receive this fellowship? Has anyone had the same thing happen? 
 
good luck to others for hopefully getting more funding as people decline offers.

Has anyone on the UCLA waitlist heard back yet? 

No, I was just about to ask if anyone else did haha. I hope we get to know very soon.

Was super curious about this too.  I know in the waitlist email it said shortly after April 15th...

Half tuition is definitely a good scholarship! It looks like (to me at least) most people are typically getting none to a few thousand, so congrats on your offers. No one can tell you what next year looks like, unfortunately. Who knows if there’ll be more or less applicants or funding. If funding is your biggest priority, you should probably go to the cheapest school for you (unless it’s significantly lower in academic quality than others, but I doubt that). But of course, it’s important to consider other things like location, curriculum, and faculty.
For me, funding is a big concern, but I also have a kind of YOLO mindset. Sure, UCLA will be over twice the price if I get into it as opposed to my second choice, and I’ll be sinking myself into a lot of debt, but UCLA has been a dream school in an amazing location and social environment (the sports, arts, etc!), that I think the experience and pride I’ll feel will make it worth it.
However, I still feel like going to a much cheaper, lesser-known school will give me the same set of skills that can ultimately land me the same job as if I went to UCLA. Planning doesn’t really seem to care about where degrees come from (though the location of where your school is can definitely help you work where you want, ie LA). But I think planning degrees overall travel well. And prestige isn’t the end-all — a planning office in CA will probably have everyone from Berkeley to a small state school working at a similar position there.
TL;DR, at least for me, I’m not only going to grad school for a degree, but for the life experience. I’m willing to pay more for that. I’m only going to grad school once in my life. This is NOT advice, let me be clear, but just my personal reasoning for myself. I’d agree with the previous comment - if you just want to get your foot in the door, then a cheaper school will do just fine.

Good question! Not from LA so can't give the best cost estimate, but maybe you'll find it helpful to check out www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Los-Angeles to get a good sense of average expenses

approximately $32.5K per year

Hi everyone, I'm sorry it's been a while since I updated everything. My dad died last Sunday of a sudden heart attack and so it's been hard. At least he knew of my acceptances before passing, I hadn't chosen a school yet because I was severely worried about funding and going into more debt but I think going to Berkeley is going to be worth it for me. I hope he will be proud of me regardless of my accumulation of debt.. 
 
I've never lived on the west coast or even visited and I am excited about the possibility to study urban planning and transportation planning in such a cool built environment with all of Berkeley's professors and research centers and connections I don't feel like I can turn such a fun amazing opportunity down. I have talked to three grad students from Berkeley and like six students from UCLA and after being an east coaster my whole life I think it will be a crazy change. I hope to pursue multimodal transit and transit equity as a planner of color and woman of color in graduate school. If anyone has any advice for west coast living, feel free to tell me! 
 
Thank you to everyone's support on here and I can not wait to be peers in planning with all of you wonderful people. 
 
Final Tally: 
Acceptances at all five Schools! 
No funding from anyone yet tho.. 
 
I will be accepting Berkeley's admission  

Same for Rutgers! I'm beyond excited, this offer just made my decision way way easier as they're my top choice. Ready to commit!

In at USC! I wasn't expecting it but I'm happy to end this admission cycle on a positive note. Now moving on to deciding where to go.
Congrats to others who have gotten their acceptances!

In at USC! I wasn't expecting it but I'm happy to end this admission cycle on a positive note. Now moving on to deciding where to go.
Congrats to others who have gotten their acceptances!

In at USC! I wasn't expecting it but I'm happy to end this admission cycle on a positive note. Now moving on to deciding where to go.
Congrats to others who have gotten their acceptances!

@drew.m.b I’m in the same boat. I will sign my SIR with another school in the meantime. If I get into UCLA and decide to go there, I’ll just let my other school know and lose the non-refundable deposit that comes with a SIR.
I strongly recommend that you do so too - it would be a mistake to not sign any SIR if you still want to go to grad school this cycle, because personally, I don’t see many accepted people turning UCLA down. There were also over 500 applications this cycle, much more than the 270 or so from last year.

Hey! So I got my update on March 6th via email.

Waitlisted UCLA crew reporting for duty!
In all seriousness, would've been cool to get in - but for many reasons, finances included, I was kind of hoping they rejected me just to make my decision easier. I quite literally applied on a whim when I heard that the GRE was being cancelled. Probably spent the same $280 applying and getting rejected/not going to Cal/UCLA than if I just took the damn test haha.
For all those who didn't get in to UCLA or are waitlisted and it was your top choice, seems like most of you at least got into some other really good schools. I tried and failed going the non-school route, by applying for jobs in the planning field after 3-4 years as a paralegal. Went to like 4-5 interviews in early 2020 pre-pandemic and got reeeejjjjjeccctteed from all, "not enough experience". I had zero relevant work experience and my undergrad was in IR where I wrote my thesis on Serbia's EU integration chances haha.

All of us going to school now will be getting some of that relevant experience both in school and with internships, no matter where we go. We've got our foot in the door! Keep your head up!

Hey all! I've been following this thread for a while as I waited anxiously to hear back. I thought I'd share my stats and results to join in on the discussion as we near April 15th.
Age/Gender/Citizenship
25/F/India
Undergraduate degree/School/Year graduated 
Bachelor of Architecture / Top university in the Middle East / 2018
GPA - GRE  - TOEFL (for Int'l students) 
3.08  - GRE 146(V) 148(Q) 3.5(AW), TOEFL-110, IELTS-8.5
My GRE isn't the best but I knew most schools wouldn't ask for it this year.
Work Experience:
2+ years in an Architecture firm; several internships for low-cost fabrication and built projects; volunteer experience in Zanzibar to help build amenities for school children (main motivation to pursue planning and development)
I plan to focus on International Development and Planning
Letter of recommendations: (from whom)
Combination of Studio Professors from Architecture school; Current boss
Schools applied to: NYU, Rutgers, UNC, UCLA, USC, Berkeley, Harvard GSD, UIUC, UMich
In: NYU, Rutgers, UIUC
Out: Berkeley, Harvard GSD, UMich
Wait-list: UNC, UCLA
Awaiting: USC
Results:
NYU Denied funding which makes it very difficult for me to afford.
Rutgers gave me 50% scholarship as well the opportunity for GA/TA positions.
UIUC no news of funding yet.
My top choice is UCLA but unfortunately I am not in yet.