<p>What do you guys think? Perhaps somewhere around 21% this year again?</p>
<p>Feels like it's higher this year.</p>
<p>The reject letter says 21%.</p>
<p>Hmm, I feel like it might be higher too, but maybe its just that CC has so many bright students.</p>
<p>Can you post the reject letter</p>
<p>Correction. The letter itself didn’t say it. But in the letter there’s a link to admission FAQ which mention that.
Here it is</p>
<p>Why was I denied admission when I felt that I was a very strong applicant? </p>
<p>Due to the highly competitive nature of our freshman applicant pool, thousands of students who had excellent academic and personal credentials were denied admission for fall. Each year over the last decade, UC Berkeley has experienced significant increases in the number of applications received. Because the number of freshman enrollment spaces has remained relatively constant, admission to Berkeley has become much more difficult. For fall 2009, we received more than 48,000 freshman applications for approximately 10,500 admission spaces, resulting an admit rate of only 21%.* Our applicant pool included nearly 26,000 students with a weighted grade point average of 4.00 or higher — significantly more than twice the number of admission spaces available for our fall freshman class. Unfortunately, this high level of competition meant that many very qualified candidates were denied admission this year.</p>
<p>21%-- that means more than 1 in 5 applicants are accepted. Somehow, I feel Berkeley should be more selective than it is.</p>
<p>This holistic review process doesn’t stress academic merit enough. It’s disheartening to see future classes filled with so many students that have subpar test scores (below 2000 on the SAT reasoning) and poor academic records. Sigh.</p>
<p>isn’t sat a bad indicator?</p>
<p>^ indeed we often see a bunch of ppl with very promising SATs being rejected. not sure though</p>
<p>Wow it’s people like you who I’m confused about. What do you mean it’s disheartening to have future classes with “subpar” SAT scores? Just because you have a below a 2000 SAT score doesn’t necessarily mean you’re dumber than someone else. Some people are not good test takers and Berkeley SHOULD accept more people with “subpar” scores to have more diversity. I mean I understand Berkeley is a top notch public school but that doesn’t mean it should reject everyone with less than a 4.0/2000.</p>
<p>The reason why Berkeley is top notch is because it doesn’t acccept many subpar students… if it accepted everyone for “diversity”, then it’d be no different than a community college. =_=</p>
<p>guess what?
21% acceptance rate is already a miracle
heard that northwestern only has 8% this year…not to mention other ivy league skls…
D:</p>
<p>^How can that be possible? Even HYP won’t have admit rates lower than 9%.</p>
<p>yah it is possible
i just got waitlisted for NU
and it says there are over 25000 applicants and they only have about 2000 places
so it is 8%…horrifying</p>
<p>^ Though they have 2000 places, they would have to admit much more than that since not all admitted will end up there. Therefore there must be like 4k admits which makes 16-18% admit rate.</p>
<p>jeziker,
The acceptance rate for Northwestern was ~25% this year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The SAT isn’t a great indicator, but the UC needs to make a choice: either fully utilize it to evaluate students or ignore it altogether. It makes no sense for Berkeley to half ass it, accepting low-scoring applicants and rejecting high-scoring ones. In the end, all excuses aside, it serves to validate academic records. Let’s be honest, anyone would question the academic rigor of the high school that an applicant with a 4.4 GPA and 1700 on the SAT attended.</p>
<p>It’s all a too familiar story-- students with abysmal SAT scores get into Berkeley because they were valedictorians at their low-performing high schools. They have ELC and inflated UC GPA’s, which are exactly what Berkeley loves. However, when they start taking college classes, they get slaughtered by the workload. And guess what, when these students end up with low GPA’s, they blame it on Berkeley being too hard. The awful truth for these students is that they were not prepared to handle the workload here, which isn’t as horrible as they would like to believe.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why should it? Berkeley chooses to use the SAT as a part of its admissions process, so why should it opt to admit applicants who can’t take tests well? By your reasoning, Berkeley should also admit students with 2.0 GPA’s to enhance diversity.</p>
<p>And by the way, what do you think a college education is like? You have quizzes, midterms, and finals in most classes. A poor test taker probably won’t do well in college in the first place.</p>
<p>Dear _______,</p>
<p>Thank you for applying to UC Berkeley. After careful consideration, I am sorry to inform you that UC Berkeley is unable to offer you admission for the fall semester 2009.</p>
<p>The Admissions decisions were very difficult this year, as competition for fall admission was exceptionally rigorous. Berkeley was able to admit less than a quarter of the 48,000-plus applicants, all of whom were very well qualified. I regret that many very talented and promising students will not be included in the freshman class as a result of this high level of selectivity. I have prepared the answers to some frequently asked questions which provide additional information about the selection process and, I hope, address your concerns.</p>
<p>Given your academic qualifications, I know that you will receive other attractive college offers. I wish you every success in achieving your educational goals.</p>
<p>Sincerely,
Walter A. Robinson
Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director, Office of Undergraduate Admissions</p>
<hr>
<p>booo</p>
<p>to: tastybeef</p>
<p>Consider the following example</p>
<p>Paco is the son of two hispanic immigrants who did not attend college. Consequently, their family income is below $50K and they live in a relatively run-down area of LA with bad schools.</p>
<p>Even if Paco tries his hardest in school, can you realistically expect him to get a 2000 on the SAT? NO! So we should we just reject Paco because he was born into a poor family? HELL NO! Berkeley (justifiably) looks at an applicant’s accomplishments in light of his/her opportunities.</p>
<p>That’s BS Q= Best Letter. Personally, I think colleges should not take economic background into consideration. So let’s say Berkeley accept this Paco, then what? Paco will be so far behind in terms of education that he will most likely drop out. No matter how good he did in ****ty school, he will be no match against kids from private school. Now you tell me how that benefits either Paco or Berkeley. It doesn’t, berkeley should save that spot for someone with higher probability of success.</p>
<p>to Q = Best Letter,</p>
<p>Consider this follow-up to your example.</p>
<p>Paco gets into Berkeley and decides to attend. Paco goes to every single class, does all his readings, but scores abysmally on his midterms, because he isn’t as well prepared for college as other students. Paco originally wanted to be a Business Administration major, but he gets rejected due to his poor grades. Now, he has to choose another major. Paco chooses Econ. And for the sake of argument, let’s say Paco manages to scrape by the difficult Math 1B and Stats 2X classes with C’s and moves on to upper-division classes. Naturally, upper-division classes gets more difficult than lower division classes. So, Paco works hard and manages to graduate. But upon his graduation, Paco can’t find a job. Why? Because he has poor grades and the Berkeley courseload along with the curve doesn’t help him.</p>
<p>So, realistically, should Berkeley admit Paco in the first place just to set him up to fail? I don’t think so. Paco would have done better if he went to an easier school and garnered a higher GPA. At least in this scenario, Paco would have an easier time finding a job when he graduates because his GPA wouldn’t be downright awful. Furthermore, Paco wouldn’t have to forgo his aspiration as a Business Administration major.</p>