<p>wow. long post was long.</p>
<p>yay for financial aid! I’m deciding between Cal and CMU but 1 year of CMU= 4 years of cal in terms of costs (with financial aid) so I guess i’m coming to Berkeley! I’m majoring in cognitive science and I REALLY want to study abroad first semester through an independent gap year semester abroad program but I don’t know if Berkeley will let me transfer credits…</p>
<p>You should call them up and ask. Because I think they say you can go to the Fall Extension Program or a Community College but not a 4-year university. But a study abroad program may also be considered if you ask. And even if they don’t let you transfer credits- you should go ahead with it if you really want to! Just for the experience :D</p>
<p>I got rejected again :'(</p>
<p>Congrats to the rest of you though, i feel so frustrated 
guess cc / jc is only thing left</p>
<p>@wuhoo I’m going to be majoring in cognitive science too!!! what are your plans after you graduate? I love the major and the classes we are required to take, but my problem is that I dont know what you can do after graduation because it is a relatevely new field. The career center website says that people get jobs as engineers but I dont understand how that works.</p>
<p>Sorry for bumping an old thread, but when you appeal, do you need a new letter of recommendation? And do you need a transcript?
And also, would talking about being a first generation college student, having low income and a medical condition that made me unable to take sports be legitimate reasons?</p>
<p>I got in via appeal and this is my frank advice for you:</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Good luck. Remember, appeal success rates are only a few percent. Don’t bother unless you feel you have genuinely been wronged and once you go for it, convince them WHY THEY SHOULD ACCEPT YOU. Not why you didn’t live up to their standards.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Hey Cheesebear,
Congrats on getting into berkeley through an appeal! I was wondering how you set yourself as successful and capable if you’re not supposed to write anything that you’ve told them before. A lot of the appeals have been reasons like “I had poor grades because my dad was in the hospital” or “i had depression”. Do they actually admit those? </p>
<p>Also, how were you able to weave your writing essay in there? I feel like you focused more on your positives than negatives, even though you talked about your bad grades. Did you tell them what you have to offer to the school? Is an appeal merely a justification of shortcomings one has during high school? </p>
<p>I’m really confused on how to focus my appeal, yet I admire how you wrote yours.</p>
<p>Cheesebear,</p>
<p>Did you end up including that writing sample essay in your appeal package? I did, but now I’m not sure if I should have. I had already mentioned beforehand in my Supplemental Questionnaire that I had faced socioeconomic and family problems. So in my appeal letter, I wrote that I had recently been published in a compilation book of poems and I recently organized a benefit dinner to raise money for my community’s underfunded music and art programs. </p>
<p><em>crossing my fingers</em> :)</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I did indeed end up including the writing sample and am very glad I did! I believe it really worked in my favor as it exhibited university-level writing skills.
Sounds like you’ve achieved a lot! I’m sure they’ll be very impressed and I wish you the best of luck :)</p>
<p>if you appealed, here is the 2012 official uc berkeley appeal thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/berkeley-2016/1325161-official-2012-uc-berkeley-appeals-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/berkeley-2016/1325161-official-2012-uc-berkeley-appeals-thread.html</a></p>