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<p>There are plenty of such cases getting into Ivy League schools and other private schools. They incite many of the flame wars on CC. Truth is that if you want a good chance at any very good school, you should have high stats. It is possible to get in without them, as admissions does make exceptions for various reasons, some good and some bad. </p>
<p>You may have seen more ‘low stats’ acceptances at Berkeley because, as someone stated, this is a big school, and it also caters largely to California students, meaning it is more forgiving of worse students from California than, say, an Ivy League may be. Additionally, public school admissions is numbers-centered as compared to private school admissions (at least generally), and as a result, the strength of high school of origin for a student can be neglected (e.g. a high GPA is almost always better, whether the high school was insanely competitive and strong or kind of mediocre to not so great).</p>