<p>How expensive is it? Aside from grades and test scores, what extracurricular activity would they look highly upon? Do you know anybody who has gone to Berkeley? How is it? I've heard rumors that it can get so competitive that students sabotage each others labs.</p>
<p>a few words:</p>
<p>high GPA needed to get accepted</p>
<p>It’s actually not that hard to get in by CC standards. Average GPA a UC weighteed 4.2 (allows several Bs in weighted classes), average SATs under 2100. $30Kish/yr in state, $50K out of state.</p>
<p>Redroses</p>
<p>if a 3.8 GPA, 2300 SAT student couldn’t get into UC Berkeley, would you consider it tough to get in?</p>
<p>If you look at Section C of the CDS <a href=“http://cds.berkeley.edu/pdfs/PDF%20wBOOKMARKS%2009-10.pdf[/url]”>http://cds.berkeley.edu/pdfs/PDF%20wBOOKMARKS%2009-10.pdf</a> you’ll see that GPA, Rigor, Essay and State of Residence are most important with scores in the important category. You’ll also see the 75%ile is 2190 for SAT but if you are coming from OOS you’ll need higher scores. 98% of students are in the top 10% of their class and 94% have a 3.75 or higher.</p>
<p>3.8 is a really low GPA by CA public school standards, so I expect many with the above stats are seen as slackers. Many get in with lower stats though, again, review average stats which are nowhere near those of top private colleges, especially as the vast majority of applicants are from CA public high schools, some of the worst schools in the US.</p>
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<p>Bummer, isn’it!</p>
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<p>or how about a 4.28 UC GPA and 2300 SAT student not getting in? I’d consider it pretty hard to get into, especially in light of the fact that I didn’t get in.</p>
<p>I think these are outliers, not the norm. Most people with those stats would have been accepted if they were CA residents.</p>
<p>Cal likes students who can actually think, not just churn out good grades and test scores. But obviously you need those too. The admissions process sometimes seems to be completely random, but OOS applicants need higher scores. </p>
<p>And in state tuition is around 10k not including room and board. OOS is around 30k. You can find off campus housing for much less than what the university offers.</p>
<p>You’re not entitled to admission to any school just because you have high academic performance and standardized testing scores.</p>
<p>There could be critical flaws in your personality, revealed through your applications. A poorly written personal statement is fatal. Even a place like Berkeley wants students who are capable of the most basic kind of thinking:introspection.</p>
<p>Any sort of thinking ability beyond that is up in the air, but a high-ranking 2300+ should not have too much trouble gaining admission to a top university/college.</p>
<p>Honestly, I know quite a few people from my high school whose minds don’t work as well as you’d expect, but made it to Cal by dint of hard work (not to devalue a good work ethic). With numbers-based admissions, it’s easier to get in as a grind with the grades, especially since recommendations and such aren’t used.</p>
<p>It’s about as hard as its rank would indicate (although it favors SAT less than most).
For my school on Naviance, for people from 2100-2300, 3.6-3.9:</p>
<p>Stanford: 19/101 = 19%
WUSTL: 24/42 = 42%
Vanderbilt: 6/10 = 60%
Notre Dame: 3/7 = 43%
Emory: 7/17 = 41%
Berkeley: 58/133 = 44%
Carnegie Mellon: 13/20 = 65%
Georgetown: 4/25 = 16%
UCLA: 53/130 = 41%
USC: 50/60 = 83%</p>
<p>In-state tuition this year was $8900 + $1400 health insurance
Non-resident tuition was $30,900 + $1400 health insurance</p>
<p>No I totally agree that those are outliers (and just for the record, I was born and bred in SoCal).</p>
<p>… and to add to cherokeejew’s info, total costs would be ~32k for instate, ~50k OOS.</p>
<p>[UC</a> Berkeley Financial Aid Office: Undergraduates Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/cost.htm]UC”>http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/cost.htm)</p>
<p>31,044 and 53,923, actually.</p>
<p>Berkeley and NYU are peers. =)</p>
<p>Not harder to get in from out of state anymore and they seek to increase full pay out of staters.</p>
<p>Growing up in NorCal it was my backup school. Now I want to go there more than the places that I thought might be reaches.</p>
<p>It is not that hard to get in. Just get a unweighted GPA that is 3.9-4.0, get an 750-800 on your SATIIs and get over a 2100. Since that is pretty much what the entire applicant pool looks like applying to a place like MIT (9%) you’ll have a fairly good shot at Cal. OOS you just need to really pull together a strong application and good ECs.</p>
<p>It has the requirements like a top private, but they can accept so many more people. What they said at an MIT admissions event was that 90% of the people applying probably can do the work, but they can only accept 10%.</p>
<p>I like to think that Berkeley can accept those top people, but then bring in a lot of other well qualified people. So, have good grades or average College Confidential grades and you’ll probably get in.</p>
<p>Berkeley haters out in force here today. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>
And peers to Amherst…
Cost of attendance: $53,140-$55,090
<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/admission/financial_aid/tuition[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/admission/financial_aid/tuition</a></p>
<p>I don’t know who was hating on Berkeley, and I might just think you were referring to me because that smiley was looking upwards.</p>
<p>There are only two schools that I’d rather go to over Berkeley and even then I would probably still pick Berkeley because of its generous financial aid and helpful faculty (departments, fin aid, grad students, all were very helpful).</p>
<p>My comment that it wasn’t difficult to get in to was based on CC standards, where the average unweighted GPA is close to 4.0 with SAT scores typically being 2100-2200+. Out of the 20 people I personally know going they are all really qualified ambitious students, so assuming that students applying are in that range it is not difficult to get in to if you work on your application and show your interests. It seems if you deserve to get in and really want to get in, then you will, unless you are borderline in terms of scores.</p>