<p>@wwlink: So freaking true!!! I was so upset to see so many people cry for not getting into UCLA when they had been accepted to schools like UCSD and USC. </p>
<p>I think it’s hard because they receive more applications that they can accommodate. And there are some people that do apply when they shouldn’t at all (i.e. A friend of mine who had a 2.6 GPA when the minimum is about 2.8, I think).</p>
<p>I just think a GPA isn’t all because despise my resume, I was rejected to Berkeley on basis of my location and my financial need. This can certainly happen to anyone and it almost bothers me when people who have a 4.0 go an cry because they get rejected.</p>
<p>Colleges are businesses, so they need to keep certain things in mind when taking in people. Yes, they will pick well qualified candidates but they too have their little tricks. People forget about cases such as the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke when a well-qualified student was rejected because the school was trying to take in more minorities.</p>
<p>Students simply need to be less dreamy and more realistic about what’s going on in this country and society- your dream school is the one you can attend, not the one you haven’t even visited but you saw in a movie when you were little and seemed like the perfect place to be.</p>
<p>School names do matter but sometimes what you do matters more. If you go to Berkeley and do nothing but the necessary, you’re probably not going to get a job after graduation- And Berkeley certainly isn’t going to go out of its way to find it for you.</p>
<p>If a student has everything going on for him/her, then any school will help them achieve their best… people get too caught up in numbers, percentages and appearances nowadays.</p>