<p>My son just got rejected by UC Berkeley. Okay, fair enough. His odds of admission appear to have been 2- 4 % from the start given his demographics (out-of-state, white, male, from the Southest, etc.)</p>
<p>But Berkeley's mechanical engineering program sent him an email a week or so ago saying he was one of the finest applicants they have and inviting him to apply for its Drake Scholarship, a full four-year scholarship. So he obtained two original letters of recommendation from teachers who apparently spent a lot of time on them, got transcripts, wrote essays, and just before he was going to mail them in before the deadline... got rejected by Berkeley!</p>
<p>I know Berkeley is huge and got more than 48,000 applicants this year but there is no excuse for leading people on like this with inviting them to apply for an unbelievable scholarship and then not even admitting the student.</p>
<p>They should be ashamed. </p>
<p>When we visited the campus last summer a student we bumped into went on and on about how the Berkeley administration there is terrible and doesn't care about students. (We were standing outside the main administration building and most of the offices were closed and it was a weekday and not a holiday.)</p>
<p>I wonder if Berkeley is overrated, if the actual student experience there suffers from the poor administration.</p>
<p>Any decent person or institution would not tell an applicant he is one of the best applicants and then reject him. Nasty.</p>
<p>hey, I got that email too and it made me so anxious… i didnt bother to do it because of the fact that it required all that work without even knowing if i got in…
I did get in, but i also despise berkeley’s scholarship opportunities and leading emails (women in engineering, drake scholarship, alumni scholarship, alumni scholarship overnight) that don’t necessarily translate to admission.</p>
<p>i dont know what to say. except i think we should all be grateful that we only have to go through with this one time… until grad school, but that’s at least a bit different.</p>
<p>The financial aid office and the admissions office are two completely different institutions. You’re blaming the admission office for not admitting you when the financial aid office, who looks over applicants completely separately and under different conditions, is the one who invited you to apply to the scholarship.</p>
<p>It’s like blaming apples when you have an allergic reaction to oranges.</p>
<p>I’m sorry for the situation your son was in. I can somewhat relate, but have no idea what your son must be feeling right now! Yikes!</p>
<p>As said by bobaboy, the financial aid, scholarships and admissions are completely different departments, working far apart from each other. </p>
<p>I got an e-mail from OSP telling me that I could join the program, but then I e-mailed them and said they couldn’t tell me my admission status until April 30th (when the transfer get it, because I am a transfer) but they still e-mailed me that…knowing well that it was sent to transfers as well. Way to ruin my month. </p>
<p>It would be easy to blame, but that’s the way it works. I was really mad at OSP for even sending me that e-mail and all they could say was “sorry” and I still have the chance of being rejected. Sighh. Such a pain…but admissions has the ultimate deciding factors. Your son might have gotten that e-mail but even if he sent it they wouldn’t be able to process it without the admissions okay that he was accepted into the school.</p>
<p>A lot of students had similar situations. Being told they were offered a scholarship and not getting in. Harsh, but that’s the way Berkeley does it. Although I wish it would change for the good! It’s just getting students hopes up! </p>
<p>Unfortunately, you have to realize they were different departments, and with so many people the administration has to take care of, they don’t have the time to pick on one individual anyways.</p>
<p>But God moves in mysterious ways, so don’t fret, I’m sure your son will do fine in life, with Berkeley or not. The important thing is to persevere and keep at it, not what school you’re going to.</p>
<p>And @ sakurax: </p>
<p>fob = fresh of the boat
boba = brought over by airplane</p>
<p>Only fob’s really taken off at my school (in LA, CA), boba hasn’t really.</p>
<p>It’s not only Berkeley, but this is the case for many other UCs too. I know several people who were invited to apply for regents in UCLA, and some of them were even rejected (yes UCLA’s own regents invitees!).</p>
<p>I hate how the financial aid office and undergrad admissions have absolutely no collaboration among each other. It gets people’s hopes up and then ruin them!</p>
<p>“When we visited the campus last summer a student we bumped into went on and on about how the Berkeley administration there is terrible and doesn’t care about students. (We were standing outside the main administration building and most of the offices were closed and it was a weekday and not a holiday.)”</p>
<p>Would you listen to the opinion of one student, with no regard to the student’s credibility or situation? Perhaps the student had a bad day with administration…</p>
<p>While I can see how Berkeley’s administration may frustrate students coming from backgrounds where previous administrations would cater to the students’ every need, I think it is safe to say that Berkeley’s administration consists of real people. Just because the people here are not fully subservient to you, does not mean it is “terrible”.</p>
<p>It just means your son would have to try a bit harder to get what he wants. </p>
<p>What lessons could be learned from this type of environment where the student works to be heard? How to conduct follow-ups, assertiveness, speaking succinctly, traversing management structures… I could go on and on.</p>
<p>Shabby though? Misleading maybe, misreading probably. You can always appeal.</p>
<p>Berkeley, like most public schools, is not a small, high-touch, hand-holding environment. Someone who strongly needs that should be considering small LACs, not large institutions whether public or private. </p>
<p>This is one of the dimensions of ‘fit’ that each student must consider in picking the schools to apply and ultimately attend.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, Rickenbacker360V, but you sound a little bitter. I doubt admissions officers have any affiliation with the scholarship. It is not that Berkeley “does not care about its students,” it’s that we are very underfunded. And we all just have to suck it up and deal with it. Most of the students here are quite proud of going to one of the most academically rigorous universities in the country. Although Berkeley is difficult to get into, any student with a good work ethic (as evidenced by their secondary school record) should be able to gain admission to the school, regardless of race or gender. Berkeley is by no means full of geniuses… but it is full of hard workers. The harsh truth is that your son most likely did not try enough in high school to get accepted by Berkeley. I wish your son luck wherever he ends up, there are lots of other great school out there!</p>
I wouldn’t say that. He probably would have done just fine at Berkeley…the school rejects many applicants with top academic credentials. Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough space to admit all great applicants…</p>
<p>Maharba, of course she’s surprized that her son got rejected. he was offered financial aid and was told “he’s one of the finest students.” being let down after being given so much hope and after working so hard on getting those essays/ recommendations together is just cruel. but, like they said, they’re different departments. </p>
<p>i hope you and your son feel better about it, rickenbacker. i feel for you :(</p>
<p>Yes, but even in the e-mail/letter, they specifically state that being offered this scholarship does NOT mean you’ve been admitted (nor do they guarantee that you’ve been admitted). There’s no reason to write “They should be ashamed.” It’s not their fault.</p>
<p>I’m not bitter about my son not getting into Berkeley. Through hard work he earned his way into Hopkins, Washington, Oberlin, Swarthmore, UNC (honors), Boston College (honors) and others and he’s not through yet. He has two perfect SAT scores. He’s set.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that if we lived in California he’d have been admitted to Berkeley. </p>
<p>I just think that Berkeley could get it together enough so that their departments do not invite young people to apply for scholarships until after they are admitted. It’s the decent thing to do.</p>
<p>OP should recognize that UCB, like other UCs, are parallel processing: Admissions is on one track; Regents Scholars on another; other scholarships on a third; for those that require additional documentation a fourth; lining up interviews where necessary etc…
Emails that are sent are usually sent to a “CLASS” of people eg: all women applicants in engineering OR scholarship emails sent to ALL those with a combination of UC GPA + SATs. Admission on the other hand is holistic and is based on more than GPA + SATs. So, we here in California expect to and do submit scholarship applications to the UCs ahead of admissions. We too pull together recommendations and actually get interviewed before being admitted. We too read tea leaves, look for signs of hope and we DREAM…BUT, we recognize that none of this is admission. You are admitted only when you are told “Congrats, you’re in”.</p>
<p>So, have some some sympathy. The UCs are the aircraft carriers of our educational system, handling enormous number of applications unlike any other institutions. They, on the whole, do a remarkable job and should be lauded. They are not perfect but on the whole they strive to get it right.That is after all why your son was excited about applying to Berkeley. So, I am sure he has good choices elsewhere. Good luck!</p>
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