UC and Cal State Admissions Decision Release Dates: 2026 Edition
- Joey Lin
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 8 minutes ago
Last Update: February 13, 2026
As the resident UC expert, I want to share a clear update on where things currently stand in the UC and Cal State admissions process, and what families should realistically expect over the next several weeks.
UC Admissions: Reading Over, Shaping Begins
As of the end of January 2026, all UC campuses have now completed the application reading phase. Every application has received two full reviews, and campuses are no longer evaluating students in isolation. At this point, they have moved into what is known as class shaping.
Class shaping includes a third review of flagged applications, evaluation of students who were invited to submit supplemental information, and the final selection of Regents and other top scholarship candidates.
At this stage, admissions offices are not considering the specifics of individual applications. Instead, they're looking at students collectively from a high level overview. Instead of asking, "Is this student an outstanding candidate?" they are asking, “does this student help us build the class we need this year?”
UC campuses balance many institutional priorities at once, including major and departmental capacity, residency, first-generation status, geographic representation, and campus-specific goals. As a result, admission decisions are not determined solely by academic strength, but by how a student fits into the overall composition of the incoming class.
A helpful way to picture this large sorting system: Imagine 100,000+ applications as colored balls, each tagged differently. Some are labeled “outstanding,” others “very strong,” and many “strong.” The challenge for the university is not simply to identify good applicants. They already have far more qualified students than available spaces.
Instead, they must place these students into hundreds of different buckets. Some buckets are extremely small, such as a highly impacted nursing major that may only have space for 50 students. Other buckets have space for 10,000 out-of-state students. Each bucket has limited capacity, and filling one bucket could impact how other buckets are filled.
This is why highly qualified students can receive different results across UC campuses, and why outcomes may not always feel predictable from the outside.
On a side note: if you want to see the biggest mistakes I saw this year when I was evaluated 1,800+ applications, check out this video:
2025 UC Admission Decision Release Dates
For large educational institutions like the UCs, past performance is indication of future performance. Below are the actual decision release dates from the 2025 UC admissions cycle. Most decisions were released on Fridays.
Note: These dates are from last year and release dates are not confirmed for 2026. However, because the UC system follows a standardized process, you can reasonably use the 2025 dates to predict the 2026 admissions release dates. They'd like fall on the equivalent Friday of 2026, plus or minus one week.
UC Berkeley: Early admits February 7, including Regents, Chancellor’s, MET, and Haas Spieker. Regular admits March 27, with Regents and SEEDS notifications. Update (2/11): Berkeley has confirmed that decisions will be released March 26, 2026.
Update (2/13): Berkeley Regents/Spieker/MET decisions released around 3:30pm Pacific.
UC Davis: March 7. Regents and Honors College invitations posted at admission
UC Irvine: March 14. Regents and Chancellor’s Scholarships awarded at time of admission
UCLA: March 21. Regents notifications began March 22 by email
UC Merced: Early outreach December to January with fee waivers. Additional admits March 14 and March 21. Referrals sent April 4.
UC Riverside: February 28. Regents, Achievement, and Chancellor scholarships awarded at admission.
UC San Diego: March 14
UC Santa Barbara: Chancellor Reception invites February 18 and 20. Regents notifications by mail March 5. Decisions released March 18.
UC Santa Cruz: Early admits February 21. Dean’s and Regents awards February 26. Second wave March 7.
All UC admission decisions are completed by March 31 each year. The Statement of Intent to Register deadline remains May 1.
Cal State Admissions: Capacity, Not Class Shaping
The Cal State system operates very differently from the UCs, especially at its most selective campuses.
Schools like San Diego State University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal State Long Beach rely heavily on quantitative admissions formulas rather than holistic file review.
These campuses emphasize GPA, course rigor, major preparation, and campus-specific priorities. Essays and extracurricular activities are generally not part of the application process. Admission decisions are driven by capacity and major demand -- a simple algorithm.
Because of this structure, Cal State decisions are often released in waves and can feel confusing. Major selection matters enormously. Students are evaluated within their intended major, not just against the general applicant pool. Cal States also tend to release positive results first with the negative news coming after.
Two students with similar academic profiles can receive very different outcomes simply because one major filled earlier than another or because one lives closer to the school than the other.
Cal State Expected Decision Timing
Based on the 2025 cycle, the following decision timelines were observed. As with the UCs, these dates are not confirmed for 2026, but Cal State timelines tend to shift only slightly year to year.
Most CSU campuses (ex., Chico, San Marcos, Fullerton, East Bay, etc.) have already started to release admissions decisions, but below are the four most popular campuses that tend to take longer.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: A few International/US Abroad admits on February 11. Admits Friday March 14, including some Portfolio based majors. Admits Monday March 17. Waitlist on March 21. Waitlist and Denials March 27.
Cal State Long Beach: First wave started February 28 through mid March. Some impacted majors extended into late March. Update: CSULB released a batch of early acceptances on February 10, 2026
San Diego State University: A small batch of early acceptances or "likely" emails sent December 17-18. Initial acceptances released March 6, with a major wave of waitlists and denials around March 21–22. Additional waves continued into early April. Update: SDSU released a batch of early acceptances on December 18, 2025.
San Jose State University: First wave February 16-17 continuing through the end of February.
Directly from their website: "For Fall 2026, SJSU will roll out admission decisions beginning with a small wave in December. The majority of our decisions will be posted to MySJSU in January and February."
In short, UC admissions are about shaping a class. Cal State admissions are about managing capacity.
Both systems are competitive. They are simply competitive in very different ways.
Feel free to share any feedback you have on admissions decisions below!