For The People Asking me How I Appealed to UBC Vancouver.
Hello! This is the OP of the post with the title “DON’T GIVE UP ON UBCV.” that was posted a few days ago : )
I have gotten many DMs from people asking how I appealed, what was it like, what’s my advice for future rejected/revoked offer applicants, and etc! I cannot reply to them all. So this is just a post highlighting my experience. If you messaged me, please read this! Disclaimer… don’t take my experience to heart, go out there appealing, and expecting that you’ll 100% get in, because UBC appeals historically have an 8% of being successful.
In order to submit an appeal, you have to have mitigating circumstances (or just one if you think it’s major enough) and appeal to UBC. These mitigations have to be either a medical emergency, family member passing, or whatever you think the admissions committee should take into consideration as they reconsider your application. This appeal is not an email you write. You have to submit your appeal by UBC Appeals (it’s a website and should come up if you just look up UBC appeals). For these circumstances, you will need to provide proof that they happened. The more proof you have, the better. This can either be a medical note from your doctor or a support letter from a therapist. I only did a medical note, as my therapists supervisor did not allow her to write one for me. You also have to prove that those circumstances will no longer affect your studies and that you’re now better physically or mentally. Fyi, you do not need to provide proof for a family members death. Or that’s what I read about somewhere, so I did not do that. I had about 3-4 mitigating circumstances that affected my grade 11 grades, so personally, my reasons were pretty major. You cannot appeal if you think you just deserved to get in or if you know someone who had a similar academic standing got in instead and you didn’t.
The fee to submit the appeal forms is $77 CAD, I am unsure of the price for international students. You have 2 weeks to appeal after you get your rejection notice from UBC. By the way, you will need to write your own personal letter with the application explaining your mitigations yourself. I would recommend not making like 3 pages long, that’s not professional per se. Mine was 1, but I had to leave out many key details. I just got straight to the point and explained some of my background (like my toxic family dynamic since my doctor also wrote about that in her medical note as she was referring to my psychiatry intake form 😴). I was actually very burnt out when I on wrote it and didn’t proofread it; I’m surprised I still got an offer. When I read it now, it feels like reading a 10 year old trying to explain how their week was lol. But don’t do what I did and write your personal letter formally 😬, I just got lucky and I don’t know how.
Honestly, appealing was pretty intimidating. When I got that rejection, I was obviously very upset, as I felt like I failed 12 year old me who always wanted to move out and attend UBC. I kept going back and forth about if I should appeal or not. It was actually my doctor who told me to appeal, as she is very supportive of me leaving where I currently reside. So, I appealed a day before the deadline. Honestly, the best thing I could’ve done. The waiting was detrimental, as they got back to me a month after appealing. So everyday, I was stressing about what they’d say. If they rejected me, it would’ve been a waste of money, and $77 is a lot to me even though I’m an employed 17 year old lol. 🥲
Though if you ever have the money to appeal and think your circumstances deserve to be heard, go for it! Good luck if you guys ever choose to appeal in the future because of a rejection/offer revoke! Don’t ever lose hope for your dream school, but also don’t depend on that one singular dream. There are so many other opportunities out there waiting for you, and you have yet to explore even a half of them. 👀