<p>Here's 5 actual applications to UC Berkeley, along with the admissions decision. Do your predictions match up with the outcomes? </p>
<p>Woo! Guessed right on every one. I'll admit that I only skimmed and didn't really read the essays. Either I'm lucky or I have a possible future in an admissions office</p>
<p>The decisions did not make sense at all to me.</p>
<p>SPOILER</p>
<p>The last decision didn't make sense.</p>
<p>And it seemed like the decisions were all based on the essays.</p>
<p>END SPOILER</p>
<p>Also...for the 4th guy, the decision said that the person has "a lot of AP classes" when his/her transcript showed one AP class.</p>
<p>I really hope this does not reflect the actual admissions because I really didn't understand how they made them.</p>
<p>i remember having this discussion a lot before. very useful and insightful</p>
<p>There's another thread just like this one from a few months back.</p>
<p>Totally biased & unrealistic. The admission process should (and it should) be much more mechanical than that.</p>
<p>College admissions should be unbiased and mechanistic?</p>
<p>That's a disgusting thought.</p>
<p>5 for 5!</p>
<p>Go me. The last one was a tough one, because grades and scores were low, but ECs were decent and essays were, I think, pretty good.</p>
<p>Everyone else was a nobrainer, IMO.</p>
<p>Yes more unbiased and mechanic. As in, base the decision largely on GPA and SAT I/IIs...you know, four years of hard work and a series of tests demonstrating our knowledge in many subjects? Or is the idea of being admitted to a high-quality University (school of learning) based on past academic performance too hard to grasp?</p>
<p>According to you then, college admissions should be BIASED and based largely on a few essays people write...so one's ability to succeed academically should be reduced to a measure of his writing skills hmm? Not to leave out the fact that scores and grades are solid. SATs are generally the same across the nation. The quality of essays are hard to determine. One reader could love an essay while another reader could hate it.</p>
<p>And on the subject of ECs, from what I've seen they don't make too much of a difference because everyone has generally the same amount. Few people have none or one or two. Rarely do they make a difference.</p>
<p>I think people everywhere have a problem with understanding what the word "bias" means. What human is capable of partial judgement? What person isn't prejudiced, but the one who knows nothing about the thing in question? Maybe dogmatic would be a better word, or arbitrary, or something. To me, biased doesn't make sense here.</p>
<p>Also, what do you know of ECs and how they affect admissions?</p>
<p>I think these are very rare, and exceptional cases that make for interesting news, but not necessarily accurate news.</p>
<p>In general, applying to the UC's is a numbers game, more so it seems than the top private universities, which has its own advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>Exactly, PA,
They're probably taking the extreme cases to prove something, which I don't have time to care for now.</p>
<p>nevermind...................</p>
<p>hahahahahhahaa, ohh ccmadforever, you are ignorant to the point of retardation</p>
<p>After reading this, I realized I could have done 30% of what I did in high school and still gotten in.</p>
<p>End b*tching.</p>
<p>Maybe I'm harsh, but I don't think 1 or 5 should have gotten in.</p>
<p>A 900 something on the SAT?</p>
<p>NeedAdvice, you really can't determine that. Who knows what these five particular cases show, really?</p>
<p>True. I applied out-of-state.</p>
<p>Anyway, these may be outliers, but it still makes me feel that I wasted a lot of time in high school building up a good resume.</p>
<p>Well, it probably benefitted you in many ways, even if it didn't get you into certain colleges. Who knows what it's effects are? Plenty of people end up feeling that. College admissions is often the first time in many peoples lives where they are denied something large for what seems like unfair reasons.</p>
<p>That's the thing though.</p>
<p>I applied to 10 universities and got into every single one of them. However I'd say U Michigan-Ann Arbor and Berkeley were the most competitive ones.</p>
<p>Maybe I should have aimed higher. That's all.</p>