<p>I recently applied to UC Berkeley as a Biological Sciences (Neurobiology) major and I heard conflicting stories about how hard it is to get into Berkeley while aiming for a science (medical school-related) major. For one thing, I heard that since Berkeley doesn't have a medical school, it's not as hard as its engineering program or as hard as another UC school that actually does have a medical school, like UCLA. On the other hand, I heard the complete opposite; Berkeley is a really good school for the sciences so Neurobiology will be a hard major to get into for Berkeley. So which side is right? I'm pretty sure it's the second but I just wanted to make sure.</p>
<p>And sorry but I have one more question. The UC application asked if I had any special conditions that I wanted the admissions office to know about (I think it was during the part where the application asked to check off scholarships that apply to you). I was diagnosed with ADHD a couple years ago and thus I am under the 504 Plan at my school. Will that make my application any more appealing to UC Berkeley (or any other UC schools)? Or, to put it in another way, will that allow Berkeley to forgive some parts of my application that may seem a little less-than-favorable? In my application, it's only my GPA that may be detrimental to my application. Because of some family issues, I did really badly in the first semester of my junior year which I did explain in the additional comments part of my application and so my UC GPA is around 3.6. The other parts of my application are fine. I got a 2210 on my SAT's (in one sitting), I have good extracurriculars with a couple officer positions and was able to fill up the awards section with several high-placing state-level awards, as well as good essays that I spent a lot of time on. Will my special conditions (along with the other parts of my application) be a saving grace from my GPA for my UC Berkeley application? I would really appreciate some feedback on this. Thank you!</p>