<p>Ok well i was rejected but this is what it said:</p>
<p>Thank you for applying to UC Berkeley. Although we are unable to offer you admission to Berkeley for Fall 2007, we would like to extend a unique opportunity to finish your degree at Cal by taking part in our Bobcat to Bear Transfer Option, a UC Shared Experience Program.</p>
<p>The Bobcat to Bear Transfer Option is an agreement between the UC Berkeley and UC Merced campuses in which you enroll for your first two years of college at Merced and are then guaranteed admission to Berkeley as a junior transfer. This option is only offered to a select group of students; based on the merits of your application, we believe you are a strong candidate for this program.</p>
<p>To enroll in Bobcat to Bear, follow the instructions at the link below and accept this offer no later than May 1, 2007. For more information see the UC Shared Experience FAQ's.</p>
<p>We realize this may not be your first choice, but our decisions were very difficult this year, as competition for fall admission was exceptionally rigorous. We were able to admit less than one-fourth of the more than 44,000 applicants who applied. We regret that many very talented and promising students will not be included in our freshman class as a result of this high level of competition. We have prepared the answers to some frequently asked questions which provide additional information about our selection process and, we hope, address many of your concerns.</p>
<p>ok sweet thought, but um honestly i'd rather not go to berkeley if I have to go to merced for two years.
Who else got this? Any thoughts on it?</p>
<p>Well, I guess this Bobcat to Bears program is good to boost the atrocious number of students matriculating to Merced, which is good for the UC as a whole, but I'm not sure how many people want to stick it out in Merced.</p>
<p>Without trying to convince anyone to do anything... Merced is not all that bad a place.... the campus is actually nice! So is the town. (My parents have a business there and I visited a month ago.)
Anyway, you will end up in Berkeley with a Cal degree. </p>
<p>I got the same thing for UCLA but they didn't say it negatively. Rather, the letter started off "We are pleased to offer you admission to the new UC Merced/UCLA Shared Experience". Same stuff followed as in your letter.</p>
<p>Ok, I got accepted straight out to Cal. So why would I even consider the above to UCLA?</p>
<p>I have a lot of reasons that I am considering it seriously. Too long to go into here. But I concur that even without the "prestige" thing for Merced, I've visited it and I really liked the smallness, the one on one with great professors, the best dorms I've ever seen -- oh, there's a lot more to Merced. You hear a lot of bashing on CC about it, but perhaps that's because no one's visited it or because it's so new they need to up their numbers. I'm telling you, it's something you should, at least, think about seriously. Especially if your dream is to graduate from Cal.</p>
<p>Good luck in your decision. I know it's going to be as hard as mine.</p>
<p>Don't think of it as having to endure Merced for two years, but think of it as skipping two years of competitive lower division courses at Berkeley.</p>