<p>I got rejected from UC Berkeley and UCLA on Thursday, and I really want to appeal. I know that it's strongly discouraged to appeal if no new information has been acquired, but is it actually a waste of time to still appeal if this is the case? It's just that I don't know where I went wrong in my application. Here are some of my stats, and it'd be greatly appreciated if you could give me some feedback on them. Perhaps I didn't even have a chance at Berkeley in the first place, or maybe I should definitely appeal the admission decision. Berkeley was my first choice with LA being second, and it was absolutely crushing when I didn't get into either of them. I could just really use some guidance at this point. I applied as undeclared-pre business for Berkeley and business economics (pre) for UCLA. Thank you in advance. </p>
<p>4.37 weighted UC GPA (sophomore and junior years)
One B+ first semester of freshman year (only B in high school career)
1970 SAT I - 690 Math, 640 Critical Reading, 640 Writing
Track and Field all four years of high school, including numerous awards and medals
One year of JV football
Community service all four years (75+ hours)
Work experience from the last two summers (40+ hours per week)
Challenging course load senior year with three AP courses each semester
4.4 weighted UC GPA first semester of senior year (no senioritis)
A total of twenty semesters of Honors/AP courses across all four years of high school
Several clubs across the past four years, including American Cancer Society 710 Math Level 2 Sat II
610 US History SAT II
Jesuit College Prep school</p>
<p>The admissions committee does not discourage appeals in any way. You have to right to question any decision that is made about you. If you really want to go to Cal, then it would definitely be worth your time to give it a second shot. They will look over your application again and may reconsider you. The worst that could happen is that they say no again, but at least you tried.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situtation, 1 B sophomore / junior year, 2040 SAT (1470/1600), 4.2 GPA senior year so far (1 C though), 4.35 UC W, 3.95 UW, EC's are a bit weak though. My question is, if I could possibly change how I am decided upon. I applied to the College of Chemistry for regular chemistry major, which is also available at CLS. After applying when I visited the College of Chemistry is read the brochure and it said they STRONGLY recommend AP Chemistry and SAT2 chemistry. My school does not offer AP Chemistry, and when I took my SAT2's, it was still the old system and had already taken a science SAT and didn't see the reason to take another, and never considered trying to study and take the chemistry SAT2 (didn't realize how important it was.) Do you think I could be considered for CLS Chemistry on an appeal? I know nobody has an exact answer, but opinions are nice. I also got into LA and NYU with a small merit scholarship, but Berkeley is...or rather was my dream.</p>
<p>I dont think so. Because on your app before, you had to list all the UC schools you were applying to. But this time, you are not listing the schools you are appealing to.</p>
<p>whitewonder: If Berkeley is where you want to be the appeal is worth the effort. Sr. year really doesn't have much to do with it, but you can try to appeal for L&S vs CofC. I don't want to get your hopes up, but you have the stats for Cal... and nothing to lose. Do it. If it dosn't work you can head off to NYU or LA knowing you gave it your best. Good luck.</p>
<p>If you really want to go for it appeal, just know that your chances are very slim. People from my school with better stats than yours got rejected, so don't feel too entitled to being at the school, just because your stats are good. Your GPA is good, but your SATs are only average. And though you have EC's you only have 75+ hours of CS, where it's common to have TONS more. </p>
<p>Also, if there really wasn't anything like big like a family death or mis-interpreted information on your application,(from your post it doesn't sound like there was) they're not going to even consider you just because you want to go there. From all the applicants, it's obvious they rejected a great number of people qualified to attend their schools who also <em>really wanted to go there</em>.</p>
<p>cliche saying but it fits: Harsh but true. </p>
<p>But if you want to appeal, go ahead, just be VERY realistic about the outcome.</p>
<p>Afterall it's either appeal or give up. Which one sounds better?</p>
<p>Although I know that appealing at Berkeley is discouraged / getting accepted isn't likely, I think you should go through with this. I don't see why you got rejected...</p>
<p>Could be the low SAT score + the low SAT II USH score. What other clubs were you in? Did you show leadership? Were your essays really good? Are you out of state?</p>
<p>I'm also thinking about appealing to UCB. I wonder if I even have a chance with these new information:</p>
<p>The fact that I live in overseas and associate within a small community of the U.S. military. I only mentioned this in one phrase, after that, I didn't mention it again. </p>
<p>Does living with one parent (not divorced) since the age of 11/12 have any significance? The only direct effect I know is not being able to join many activities in freshman year since I had to take care of my brother.</p>
<p>In my application, I put nothing down for community service. Now I have over 40 hours.</p>
<p>A coach has considered me the best assistant ever in the 5 years he has been coaching a varsity team that has continuously won the regional championship every year. S/he could write me a recommendation.</p>
<p>Explain why I didn't have much depth in extra-curricular activities. I was starting to participate in many and selected few that I would dedicate in (Drill team and soccer), but it went to hell once my family got an abrupt notice that we would be moving within a month due to my dad's job.</p>
<p>One challenge for me is what to do with the low writing score from the SAT: it's in the 500s. However, I am one of the best writers in my AP English/Literature class and constantly asked to peer review others. Maybe my English/Literature teacher can write me a recommendation about this.</p>
<p>I know the chances are very slim, but I feel that if I don't do everything that I can, I'll regret it. Even if I get rejected, I'll be excited to attend UC: Santa Barbara :)</p>
<p>Also, I did not put down several classes I took from Freshmen to Junior year since I thought those didn't count. It seems they do and would raise my UC GPA significantly. From the courses I listed in my application, the UC GPA would be: 3.6 - 3.7 (UW from 10th to 11th grade). I had the misunderstanding that UC only wanted to see its A-G listed courses only.</p>
<p>However, if I put down all of my courses from sophomore to junior year, as it appears on the transcript, it would've been between 3.8 - 3.9 (UW). It would be a bit higher if they took account of my freshmen year also. My senior GPA however, is between 3.4 - 3.5, but now with 4 AP classes.</p>
<p>Where did you hear that the non A-G courses count, because I'm still under the impression that they don't, and therefore shouldn't be considered in your UC GPA or on the application.</p>
<p>To kyledavid80: I thought my essays were really good, and I got them reviewed by several well-established adults, but then again, it really doesn't matter what they think. It matters what the asmissions office thinks. About the clubs...that was really my only legitimate club; I had a couple others, but they weren't as serious as American Cancer Society. And I'm not out of state. I actually live in San Mateo, which is right across the bay from Berkeley. There were some things that I didn't include on my application, such as my parents going through a divorce, and my dad subsequently moving to Hong Kong, but I really don't feel right using the pity case, although those facts do change my circumstances. But then again, I am pretty desperate right now.</p>
<p>Wait, which courses did you exclude? If it wasn't a core subject (English, math, history, science, or language), then it wouldn't make much of an impact and wouldn't be used to calculate your GPA.</p>
<p>I guess it won't help me much, but it doesn't hurt to list them all since after reading the application instruction, I was supposed to list these non core-subjects down. I omitted two courses between sophomore - junior year: 1 year of JROTC and 1 year of Health. The course that might fit into the A-G courses might be JROTC. </p>
<p>If UCB only took grades from the core subjects in grades 10 - 11, then my UC GPA would've been 3.9 UW. If it took grades from A-G courses or from my application, it would've been 3.84 UW. If they included the courses I omitted, it would've been 3.86 UW. Disregard whatever I said in my previous post about GPA, I must've made a mistake. So basically my overall GPA is 3.8 - 3.9; does that mean one of the reasons why I was rejected wasn't because of my GPA?</p>
<p>I was just wondering if anybody knew the statistics on appeals (i.e. about how many appeals are successful). It would also help if someone could help me determine if I should appeal to Berkeley (seeing that i have wanted to go there forever) and if I actually have a good shot. Here are my stats. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>2100 SAT
750 Math II SAT II
710 USH SATII
4s in APUSH/APEURO</p>
<p>I got a 4.14 weighted my 1st semester senior year and thats about it. Unfortunetly, I have no outstanding circumstances to build a pity story around. I'm just simply too lucky. Thanks again for your help!</p>
<p>If I send in my first semester transcript with my appeal, will they be considering my freshman year grades and class rank as well? Actually I'm wondering if it's even worth sending since I only have 2 APs on there, 1 of which I got a B, so my GPA last semester was a 3.83 compared to my second semester Junior year which was a 4.0. Should I even include it in my appeal then?</p>
<p>There's an old statistic sheet of appeal information from various UC colleges.</p>
<p>Soopermonkey, If they are like the other UC's they WILL NOT even consider you if the basis of your appeal is that you have good grades in senior year. </p>
<p>To both of you, you can figure out if it's worth it, but based on what I've heard about ALL the other UC's the appeal process only works if you have "extenuating circumstances" death or illness in family. Or the information on your application is wrong, though I remember reading a thread somewhere, where the person told the school that they left so and so of EC's on their application and the admissions lady they were talking to told them it was their fault for doing so. And even so, the acceptance of your appeal is VERY SLIM, considering they also have a WAITLIST of people who most likely have very similar stats as yours.</p>
<p>Understand though, that people who were just as qualified, some even better qualified, got rejected. They choose people based on the information on the sheet, and basically, their info/personality was one that they though would fit their school. </p>
<p>To be a bit blunt: Just because you wanted something forever, doesn't mean you're entitled to getting it. Life sucks like that.</p>
<p>whitewonder, i think your best chances are going to ucsd and getting a good gpa instead of spending hours and hours at berk only to get a gpa lower than one who went to sd. apparantly a lot of cool people go to sd.</p>