UC Irvine Undergraduate Recommendation Letters

Hey everyone, I'm trying to get everything sorted for my applications this year. I'm aiming for UC Irvine and I'm kind of worried. Anyone know what the deal is with their rec letters for undergraduate admissions? Do they have specific requirements I should be aware of?

Sure, happy to assist with your question! The University of California (UC) system, which includes UC Irvine, generally does not request letters of recommendation for most of their applicants at the outset. When you are filling out your UC application, you won't find a section to list your letter writers or upload documents.

However, in certain circumstances, some UC campuses may request letters of recommendation from select applicants during their review process. This is typically part of a supplementary review and is not requested from all applicants. If they request a letter from you, you would receive an email in January inviting you to submit the letters. Your recommendation letters will need to come from teachers of academic subjects, and ideally from your junior or senior year.

The key thing here is, they stress that applicants should not submit any letters of recommendation unless expressly invited to do so, as those unsolicited materials won't be considered in their admissions decisions. So, there's no need to worry too much about recommendation letters for UC Irvine unless they specifically ask for them. Best of luck with your application!