<p>Hi everyone.
Cal was my first choice coming out from community college, but I was rejected as an architecture major. I drove every week (twice, rough total of 3 hours back and forth) this semester from San Jose, to take a architecture prerequisite class as an concurrent enrollment student.
GPA: 3.7
Major: Architecture
EC: International Student Volunteer, Honors Program, Internship at a Taiwanese architecture firm for one summer, and working at a Vietnamese restaurant.
PS: 7-ish. I think this was one of my pitfalls. I feel like I could have articulated a lot better about how much I wanted to be an architect instead of stating relatively more obvious reasons (s</p>
<p>I'm wondering what my chances are for appealing, if I can get a letter of recommendation from my professor from Berkeley. I'm extremely disappointed because I was enjoying his class more than anything, it was honestly the most stimulating class I've ever taken. And towards the end of the semester I've gotten a lot of praise from my TA.</p>
<p>Another possible flaw in my app was that I accumulated about 5 withdrawls during CC, and it took me 4 years to complete my requirements, but it was because I had to support myself as my dad was laid off during the financial crisis.</p>
<p>Would they consider admitting me to the Spring semester, even?</p>
<p>When I first started looking for information about appeals on the forum I found this to be most helpful (I hope the OP doesn’t mind me reposting):</p>
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<p>I hope this helps you, and good luck to all of us appealing :)</p>
<p>I think if you feel like you should appeal, if you feel an injustice has been made, or if you feel like they didn’t appreciate just how much passion you have for Cal… you should damn well go write that appeal. </p>
<p>Look I don’t care what these people say, you paid $60 for them to spend 6 months reading your profile and give you a form letter that said Sorry Bub. Just don’t kill yourself with stress and/or waiting for a response, since there’s a huge chance they’ll just send you another denial letter. Been there and done that.</p>
<p>Still, if you feel like it, do it.</p>
<p>Short note: I’m pretty sure the person that reads your appeal is probably not the person that originally made the decision, and if they are, maybe they had a bad day and your letter will help some. It needs to be really convincing, but you don’t need to make it a great work of art. </p>
<p>Still, the worst thing that can happen is nothing lol.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous poster for the most part. Although, in my personal opinion, I don’t think they will change your decision, you have every right to appeal. </p>
<p>Also, the Admissions Committee is much different from the Appeals Committee, so yes, different people are seeing your appeal. </p>
<p>Hey thanks everyone for the replies. Do you think me winning praise for my work in the design class at Berkeley could count as something they overlooked? or “significant and compelling new information”?</p>
<p>When my youngest son was rejected by CSU Sacramento I was incredulous. It is true that he is basically a slacker with a HS GPA of 3.1 but that is not horrible by CSUS standards and on the SAT which he took once as a junior he had a 660 in Critical Reading and a 740 in Math which is higher than the average combined CR+M scores of accepted students at UC Berkeley for fall 2010. I found that when he filled out the application he had somehow put down that he was an International applicant and he had neglected to list the courses he had taken which are required for CSU eligibility. We collected a certified copy of his high school transcript showing that he had spent all four years in a Sacramento County high school which he will soon graduate from and that he had indeed successfully completed all of the courses required for CSU eligibility. Within a week we received a letter of acceptance. </p>
<p>I think this is an example of the new and compelling information that you need to submit in order to win an appeal. I was a little surprised that they reversed their initial decision of denial because I worried whether they really wanted a student who had so completely botched filling out his application.</p>
<p>Did you mention the financial situation on your app initially? That MIGHT be new information if you didn’t previously disclose it. If you do appeal, just try not to make it sound like you’re desperate or begging – I realize that now that’s pretty much what I did when I appealed out of high school (and that I didn’t give them anything new to consider).</p>
<p>I looked at your other posts, and I saw that you got into the UC Davis design program with a pretty hefty scholarship. You also got into the UC Santa Barbara economics program with a smaller scholarship, but if you qualified for a Pell Grant, you MAY also get awarded a Cal Grant by the state of California – bringing the cost of both schools to about the same level. Either way, these two are great schools. I’d say, let Berkeley go, and choose between these two schools and majors. It all depends on what you want to do after college.</p>