<p>i think caiacs has it right. i should know since i went to one of these ridiculously easy schools and was valedictorian and grossly underestimated berkeley’s difficulty (again, in my opinion). while i did take every AP course that was offered, it was no where near the number of classes some schools offer their students. i even concurrently took my HS classes at a CC all while juggling a 500 hour clinical internship, but i definitely was overwhelmed my first two years at berkeley. it may be easy to get in when you are in a situation like i was, but its a whole other beast when you are sitting in a class like bio 1a (or even physics 8 which some consider “easy”) and haven’t taken a single ap bio or decent physics course and have to to compete with the same kids who earned 5’s due to their blue ribbon schools and teaching quality.</p>