My daughter got an invite from UC Berkeley asking to submit a letter of rec. We are moving from place to place and she has no teacher that knows her much. (She attended 3 separate HS) I want to know how she was selected by the UC. Is it a random selection or is she in a specific criteria that they chose?
Her UC GPA is 4.30 and ACT score is 31.
Did she apply to Berkeley or send her ACT score there? Any school that she is applying to will need letters of recommendation.
No, the UC’s generally don’t require or consider LOR’s – apparently Berkeley started asking some, but not all, applicants for LOR’s a few years ago – but they are optional, not mandatory.
See: http://admissions.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/Tools%20for%20Students.pdf
& http://admissions.berkeley.edu/freshmanpolicy
To the OP – I think the links above will give you better info than you will get on CC.
The Berkeley web site says,
Only one of the LOR’s needs to be from a high school teacher. I understand it is hard in your situation, but it could be that the moves are part of the reason that your daughter was selected – perhaps the admissions department wants to know more about the reasons for the moves. I don’t think the LOR has to be from the current high school, if you daughter has teachers who know her better from the previous high school.
Your D may have a hard time getting an LOR from a teacher now, as many teachers are happy to write letters, but students must request them by a given date - around here, our pups had to ask before the last day of junior year for any Early application, and by the last day of November for any regular decision requirements.
But your D is an excellent student, and many teachers are more willing to be flexible with high achieving students. If you run into trouble, consider the possibility of asking her current HS principal to write a letter for her - he/she could perhaps help explain how your D has done well despite moving around so much, blah blah blah. he/she wishes your D was there the full 4 years blah blah blah.
It is really not all that unusual for a principal to write a rec letter, especially for unique students.