I realize this information is late, but it may be of help to future applicants:
Back in December, a teacher showed me an email that Berkeley sent out to schools, giving a heads-up about incoming LOR requests, as well as listing some stats about the 2015-16 LOR process. Here’s what I know:
- About **38%** of freshman applicants receive the LOR request. Out of those, ~83.5% submitted letters
- Out of those who submitted letters, about **33%** were admitted. For those who chose not to submit after the request, about 15% were admitted
- Apparently, around 4800 students were admitted without being sent a LOR request. That would be **5.8%** of the applicant pool, according to http://admissions.berkeley.edu/studentprofile (82,573 total freshmen applicants in 2016)
So it looks like if you’re in the top 5-6% of the applicant pool, you won’t be getting an LOR request and have high chances of admission. The next 38% of applicants receive LOR requests and are “borderline,” and have very good chances of being admitted if they submit a letter.
Essentially, a LOR request should be seen as a good sign. 
I mean how good is this good sign? most people who got LOR still got rejected.
@Desiree2 That’s true. Still, it looks like acceptance rates for people who submit LORs (33%) is nearly double that of the general application pool (17.5%, according to link above). It means receiving a LOR request is a better sign than knowing you’re not in the top 6% + still not receiving a request.
Wait so are you saying its better to receive a LOR request or not?
@ALLCAPS24
If you know for sure you’re not in the top 6% of applicants based on your stats, then it’s better to receive a LOR request.
A LOR request still means that you’re “borderline,” but the stats show that there are more “borderline” applicants than people think. If Berkeley sends you a request, you should take it as an opportunity, not a sign of imminent rejection.
@Teumessian What would be considered top 6% based on stats? And didn’t the top 6% already get accepted early in February?
@ALLCAPS24 Honestly, I have no idea what specific stats would constitute the top 6%. But if you don’t receive a LOR request, you’ll know that you’re either in the top 6% or the bottom 56% of the applicant pool (with the 38% in between having received a request). Applicants could probably make a good guess themselves as to which category they fall into.
The reason I’m thinking that it’s stats-based / score-based, however, is that I’ve seen some of the LOR requests come in only a few days or a week after my classmates submitted their apps. That’s probably not enough time for admissions have looked carefully at essays or extracurriculars. So I’m guessing that the ranking’s mostly based on objective measures like GPA and standardized test scores.
As to the early admissions in February - if I remember correctly, only the top 2000 applicants or so were admitted early? That would be 2.4% of applicants, based on 2016 numbers, not the top 6%. Also, these people were probably admitted after a more holistic review of applications, since admissions would’ve had more time to look at essays and etc.
edit: An add-on to the February admissions point - apparently some people were admitted in February after having received an LOR request. So not all those admitted early came from the top 6% either
@Teumessian Well if they received a LOR request then they aren’t in the top 6% but if they were admitted early, they are in the top 2.4%? I don’t think they would accept anyone outside of the top 6% early because that would defeat the purpose and I remember some people having lower stats than me getting a request
@ALLCAPS24
Check these two posts by the same person, who received both a LOR request and an early acceptance + Regents invite: [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20300056/#Comment_20300056%5D#393%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20300056/#Comment_20300056]#393[/url] [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20300095/#Comment_20300095%5D#402%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20300095/#Comment_20300095]#402[/url]
Again, I’m guessing that the “top 6%” (as determined in December, when LOR requests go out) are based on objective stats / scores, whereas the 2.4% admitted in February are based on a more holistic view. I think it’s very likely that someone may not have spectacular test scores at first glance, but have outstanding extracurriculars / essays / LORs that identify them as a top applicant.
@Teumessian I also think that it’s also based on major.
I applied to EECS (most competitive major at Cal) with a 36 on the ACT, 4.00 unweighted GPA, at 10 APs.
Lots of STEM extracurriculars, volunteering, and pretty strong competition results (almost USAMO, USACO plat, USAPhO bronze).
Didn’t get a letter of rec request or a regents invitation.
My friend who has a subset of my accomplishments as well as worse objective stats got a LOR request but also a regents invitation. He applied L&S.
@CaliBoi4567 I applied EECS as well! And yeah, I also agree that the early acceptances + regents are affected by major. It would make sense since regular decisions (and decisions in general) are affected based on how selective / impacted each major is.
News flash: Regents selection is as “holistic” as general admissions. Who knows what they are looking for, year to year? Yes, if you applied with a specific major/to a specific college, you will be compared to others doing the same thing. If it’s very competitive, even excellent stats such as OP has may not be enough to get into the “200” club (out of 1,000’s of admitted freshmen). There are some nice perks (especially if it can hook you up with significant financial aid), but it is not necessarily an automatic predictor of success or superiority. Lots and lots of very, very smart kids at Cal.
As the stats quoted above show, submitting LOR’s if given the opportunity does increase your odds of acceptance (vs. not submitting). If you don’t get the LOR request, doesn’t mean you aren’t in.
Berkeley has a YouTube video explaining what the LOR process does. Basically they run the applications through an algorithm that calculates the ‘read score’ of the application. It is an estimate of what an AO would rank the application if they read it themselves. The algorithm only works based on stats though. Of the people who receive a LOR request, 80% were identified by the algorithm and 40% were identified by AOs while the 20% was identified by both. These candidates are all borderline applicants. The LORs help admissions officers admit students who may be great but have lower scores and reject students with high scores who may not be so good. Ideally for the people with lower stats who received an LOR request, submitting LORs can only help them, since they were going to get rejected anyway without that extra information. For people with higher stats, LORs can only hurt them, since they had a higher chance of getting accepted in the first place. If they had a good LOR they would still be accepted, but a bad LOR might get them rejected.
Here’s the link https://youtu.be/M-4pi-zlk8g?t=1668
I didnt get the request and i dont think im in the top 6% nor bottom 56% in stats. UW 4.0 W 4.83 but sat score 1480 (which is definitely not top 6% of sat scores they get.
I know people who were waitlisted last year with lower stats than that. You might be in the top 6%
@vasodys That was a great video. Thanks for posting. Sadly, he mentioned the data only pertained to to California residents. OOS has a different protocol.
Hello,
I made the mistake of just submitting one letter of recommendation instead of the normal two. I had two prepared, but for some reason, I got confused and did not have the other one submitted. Will this affect my chances of admission? I do think that my first LOR was very strong however.
Contact the admissions office and get them to take the second one.
@IvyLeague2 @amursoc Decisions are being posted next Thursday. I doubt they will even accept the letter at this time. The one letter you submitted will probably help you enough.
I agree that it’s way too late now to be concerned with the 2nd LOR.
Regarding the LOR process it was pretty straightforward. We got an email about it and the portal independently showed the status of each LOR. It gave us the opportunity to email the LOR request to each recipient (ie teacher) so using the portal we could track when each teacher had uploaded the LOR.