<p>How much importance does Cal undergrad admissions place on Leadership and EC's?</p>
<p>They look at it, but it doesn’t mean one necessarily is equal in value to the other.</p>
<p>I personally believe GPA is still the most important factor of any student resume, but Berkeley is nice in that they don’t have a cut-off, instead, they’ll look at all the credentials before making a judgement.</p>
<p>If your EC’s are run of the mill quality (ie: joined nhs, started anime club), your EC’s won’t hold up much weight. If however you truly did something amazing like starting a very profitable business or reached the finals of some prestigious art contest, you will get in with relative ease.</p>
<p>hmm yes. I’ve actually won 2 international dance awards. hopefully that holds some value.</p>
<p>International dance competitions should help a lot</p>
<p>i had no awards. bad gpa. 3.95 uc gpa. not much ec’s. prez of a club and a sport.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my ECs/essays were what got me in.</p>
<p>really? what were your EC’s ?</p>
<p>Well, they’ll probably take everything into account. I was told that if one area of your app. is lacking, you can easily make up for it with others. Instead of ECs, maybe worry more about the essay, b/c that’s your chance to improve your chances.</p>
<p>I had the average unweighted UC GPA and a slightly below average weighted UC GPA. I also had typical EC’s like XC/Track Varsity Captain, service hours, but nothing amazing. I really think my essays put me over the top though. So if you aren’t stellar in the first two major factors, go all out on the essays.</p>
<p>they probably don’t read all of the essays.</p>
<p>But I though essays were considered in the extremely important factors category for Berkeley.</p>
<p>Well, Berkeley does do a holistic review right? But kids at my school who have absolutely no EC’s or anything and just study, get in Berkeley.</p>
<p>that holistic review is really to help people who are borderline get in. Like of course they will look at academic record first. But in the cases where kids are above average but have extraordinary EC’s or have undergone some difficult circumstances will have a chance. For example, a kid at my school got in with below average SAT’s, < 4.0 Weighted GPA, and very few EC’s got in because his essay was amazing. He wrote about coming out of the closet to his family.</p>
<p>berkeley is crazy random. wrote both my essays on the day they were due :)</p>
<p>Berkeley is pretty solid about accepting competent students with high scores/GPA. If you are a below average student, the rest of your application (extracurriculars and essay) becomes a factor and could edge you out over other below average applicants. Almost everyone from the top 40 ranked at my school got into Berkeley (from those who applied).</p>
<p>i wish it were a bit more selective like LA…though LA is crazy random too, but they do go for a wide variety of people it seems (athletics v academics)</p>
<p>one of my good friends who had an overall of like 3.6 UW GPA didn’t get in, even though she had AMAZING EC’s (singer, dancer, class Pres for 4 years, district board pres) and wrote really interesting essays</p>