<p>My personal preference is Berkeley (OOS) for mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>The only reason I am considering applying to MIT & Stanford is the fear of getting rejected from Berkeley (OOS). Should I even spend the time and effort to apply to MIT & Stanford? Is it common for an applicant to be denied at Berkeley (OOS) but accepted at MIT or Stanford? Or does a deny at Berkeley (OOS) almost always correlate to a deny at MIT or Stanford?</p>
<p>I’m not sure how common it is; I’ve seen it many times before, though. I would say that a deny at Berkeley OOS (or in-state) generally means a deny at MIT/Stanford.</p>
<p>wait, are you in-state or OOS?</p>
<p>^^ since the OP says that he prefers Berkeley (OOS), I daresay he’s an OOS student.</p>
<p>IF you are applying to MIT as a safety, they WILL reject you.
They know…That is why they are MIT.</p>
<p>CaseSpartan10, yes I am out-of-state.</p>
<p>Nightmarerec0n, don’t get me wrong. MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley (OOS) are my three reach schools. But since Berkeley (OOS) is at the top of the list, I don’t know whether or not I should even apply to MIT or Stanford. As kyledavid80 already said, chances are if I’m denied at Berkeley (OOS), I’ll be denied at MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>Berkeley is 5x easier to get into the MIT or Stanford…</p>
<p>That’s not true if the applicant is OOS…I would apply to MIT and Stanford anyway. If there’s one thing I regret in my college application process, it’s not applying to more reach schools.</p>
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<p>Not even for in-state is that true…</p>
<p>Unless you transfer in through CC, also helps if you do a puffball major instead of engineering.</p>
<p>Even transferring to Berkeley is hard; with a 25% acceptance rate (and a 10% acceptance rate for OOS transfers), it’s probably the hardest public school to transfer to. Even its Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) gives only help in getting into Berkeley, but doesn’t have a guaranteed transfer option, like UCLA and many others do.</p>
<p>What is the chance to get into Berkeley if the person has a score of 35 on ACT and top 5% in his/her class (apply from New Jersey).</p>
<p>You have roughly double the chance of getting accepted at Berkeley than MIT or Stanford. Not trying to discourage you, just the facts.</p>
<p>I would also apply to a good safety school (for you anyway) for engineering, like Georgia Tech or UCLA.</p>
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<p>Since when were admissions so cut-and-dry that you can make such a statement of precision?</p>
<p>UCLA is not a safety for anyone, even in-state, much less for OOS.</p>
<p>People need to remember that Berkeley engineering is MUCH harder to get into than “undeclared”.</p>
<p>^^ and that engineering undeclared is probably the hardest one of all.</p>
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<p>There should be plenty of reasons for applying to MIT and Stanford … despite being MUCH harder to gain acceptance. One needs to dig a lot deeper than the advertised rates to understand the differences. A good idea iis to ascertain the various changes of a high ACT or SAT scorer at the indvidual schools. Comparing a 34 scorer with a small army of 28-30 does not make much sense. The 25-75 SAT or ACT at MIT is not exactly the same as Berkeley’s. One school’s 25% is about the same as the other 75 percentile. </p>
<p>In addition to the different acceptance rates, you should also pay close attention to the financial aid that might be available to you at the various schools, as well as guaranteed housing for 4 (or more) years.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s much harder to get into MIT/Stanford if you’re an OOSer applying to engineering at Berkeley. (I think engineering admit rate was something like 15% this year, and for Berkeley, OOS admit rates are typically a few percent below overall admit rates.)</p>
<p>It it were true, this makes little difference. It intimates that the student bodies would be interchangeable, but this has never been demonstrated. The glaring differences in SAT and ACT average scores, on the other hand, have been.</p>
<p>Are you implying the quality of Berk applicants is lower than the quality of MIT applicants?</p>