How many people are waitlisted? Is there an approximate acceptance rate?
I was also just wait-listed by Berkeley. Its hard to find info, but data sheets from previous years have showed relatively small amounts of applicants put on the wait-list. Some years as low as 150 people wait-listed. The acceptance rate fluctuates but to be honest it seems relatively optimist, especially when compared to other schools. For example, from 2010-2013, nearly all wait-listed applicants over those years were admitted. Some sites say that in 2014 no one from the waiting list was admitted but who knows how credible they are. At the end of the day it really matters on how the applicants who DID get admitted react. Will many decide to not go to Berkeley? If so, that would be good news for us. However, if the freshmen class does get filled up with the current admits, the numbers are not in our favor.
Final decisions for those on the wait-list come out sometime in May. However, I have heard of people getting their decisions as early as mid-April. This poses a problem (for me at least) because all schools that I have been admitted to require that I state my intent and place a down-payment by May 1st. Also I am from Florida and out-of-state tuition at Berkeley would require me to take out a lot of student loans… is it worth it? decisions decisions…
I applied to Berkeley as an international student and was wait-listed, too. My intended major is mechanical engineering.
As I looked up on Berkeley waitlist from this link: http://opa.berkeley.edu/campus-data/common-data-set
Last year, there were 3,375 applicants offered waitlist, and 437 were admitted. It resulted in around 13% acceptance rate. I think that the acceptance from waitlist for mechanical engineering will be even less as Berkeley engineering is very popular and competitive. This was so harsh for me as Berkeley is my second choice after Stanford. However, nothing is certain. Good luck everyone!
Did you guys write the optional essay for the waitlist?
@Trinityjones Yes, I did. I tried to be succinct. only one paragraph explained what changed from the time I applied to CAL, and how these changes would be relevant … I think by that time, the application readers may be either burned out or reluctant to read anything that may lack new relevant factual data.