Berkeley is known for swimming. It is probably the top program in the US with many Olympians.
If ‘near-perfect’ GPA means some B’s or A minuses, that’s the reason. There aren’t many Regents Scholars.
Essays do matter. Regents’ scholars come from all family income levels.
@TatinG re you sure Regents is based on all A’s? I don’t know…but I would think it would be more of a holistic review (ie @ucbalumnus mentions the essays above).
And that is what it implies on UC Davis website.
Regents is determined differently at the various campuses.
Berkeley’s Faculty Senate is very involved in their selection. I’m not familiar with any other campuses where the same is true, though UCSB’s CCS has similar faculty involvement in admissions.
DS got Regents at Berkeley and UCSC in 2017. He had 2 B+ grades, but a lot of high-rigor courses (which lowers the capped UC GPA but raises the uncapped UC GPA). He didn’t get Regents at UCLA, UCSB, or UCSD (but was admitted including to UCSB’s CCS).
UCLA has the alumni scholarship and the Regents, and not all the same students seem to get nominated for those, so them must have different criteria.
Anecdotally, we have not heard of any locals getting UCSB Regents, so they may not need or want to increase the yield of locals.
I always think of Stanford when I think of swimming because they have many swimmers who won Olympic golds. But Stanford also is a perennial powerhouse in many sports such as tennis, soccer, volleyball. I myself could care less whether Stanford has a good sports program but I did hear my kid saying he will attend football games at Stanford even though he never threw a football in his life. I had to push him to play tennis and run X country. He actually turned out to be one of best runners among freshmen, but he told me he ran hard not to disappoint his teammates, not because he enjoyed running. Therefore, he quit after one season. I know he doesn’t like running because after he quit, I have never seen him jog unless he was coming for pizza. lol
Alumni scholarships are completely different. Anyone can apply. The Alumni Association of each campus decides the amounts and the requirements.
All I know is one Berkeley guide told me he had a HS GPA close to 3.5 and not so high test score but still got Regents. Yes, he did have a financial need. I didn’t want to be impolite to ask him further questions, so I know it’s not all based on hard stats.
Re: #787
Could have been an unweighted 3.5 based on 2.5 in 9th grade and 4.0 in 10th and 11th grades (with honors and AP courses), resulting in a 4.0 unweighted and higher weighted capped and fully weighted UC recalculated GPAs.
Of course, all grades would be visible, but the upward trend would help. But then the subjective factors like essay reading would also be needed.
My daughter who got Regents from UCB did not have financial need. She only got one B+ one trimester in her whole career from K - 12 in all honors and AP classes. She held lots of leadership positions and had bang-up essays. She’s very personable and well-spoken.
If accepted to a lower tier UC, rejected by UC Berkeley/UCLA, a student can always attend the lower tier UC, work hard to get A’s and then apply as a junior transfer to UCB/UCLA. Granted that CCC transfers are given priority, UC to UC transfers are still possible. Many current freshman at a lower tier UC’s have aspirations to transfer to UCB/UCLA in 2 years. Some of these students had the high school stats to get into UCB/UCLA, there was just not enough space for every high achieving applicant. In addition to UCB, UCLA, some are now considering University of Michigan, USC, etc.
@websensation : btw, Notre Dame is known more for football than basketball. ND is usually a top 20 school for both football and academics. You are correct about Duke being known for basketball and high academics. The common factor between these schools and the top UC’s (UCB/UCLA), is that all these school have high national visibility in their respective sports or in a “power conference” like the Pacific 12 Conference. Stanford, USC and University of Washington (which also has a good academic reputation) are in the Pacific 12 Conference.
I missed the sequence. Did someone say that Regents for any campus is based on need? It isn’t, of course. Strictly a merit award. Need is added to that merit award for those in that category, that’s all.
The stat criteria vary by campus. My 3.6 student a few years ago got a Regents to UCSB. Not stellar scores.
http://financialaid.ucmerced.edu/sites/financialaid.ucmerced.edu/files/documents/ucregentpdf.pdf
I cannot independently verify the information on this blog, but since there has been discussion about variances in award amounts, here is one source:
http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2016/04/the-uc-regents-scholarship/
Regents recipients at UCB come from a variety of financial backgrounds. You get money if you need it; If you don’t need it, you get a $2,500/year honorarium.
@Undercrackers
Yes, I think most on this thread know that. The honorarium is stable (by campus); any need award is added. 
D got her acceptance for UCD today. No Regents, and grants were pretty close to UCSC (almost the same minus the value of the Regents award.) bummer that she will have to fight for classes.
@SFBayRecruiter UCSF is a graduate health school. Anyone who poo poo’s it is completely uninformed.
Anyone who poo poos any UC is probably uninformed
@SFBayRecruiter, if no Cal or UCLA (or UCSD for quantitative majors), why not just go to a UC with Regents?
@PurpleTitan As a parent, I can’t really get into the mind of my daughter and give you a why Cal over X. We live within an easy commute to Cal, and she has friends at Cal already. So she is on that campus regularly. As a family we have spent a lot of time in Santa Cruz, so she is also quite familiar with that community, and we visited the campus via the admitted students tour. I have been to Davis, and we will be taking a day to visit there now that she was accepted.
You can literally feel the difference in ‘vibe’ of Cal vs UCSC. Urban VS in the redwoods, Liberal Arts (just in feel and design of the campus), VS 150-year-old mega-university. She has also seen the elitism that Cal has (a Physics major literally messaged her that “they look down on the arts and humanities majors.”) That might even spark her more, as she is quite feisty by nature.
UCLA was not on the list of UCs she applied; UCB (awaiting decision), UCD (accepted), UCSC (accepted with Regents). She chose her schools based on a career path of BA, JD (Boalt being her top choice), programs, and proximity to the SF Bay Area. She is in this for the long haul but also likes how well I cook.