Likely Letter for Women in Engineering? (I'm a Guy?)

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>So I was first indifferent to see a E-mail subject line about engineering for women at Berkeley, considering I am not a woman. When I opened it, however, it said this.</p>

<p>Subject Line:UC Berkeley Celebrating Women in Engineering</p>

<p>Dear COE Applicant,</p>

<p>Thank you for your application to the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley! Although Cal has not made its admissions decisions yet, *your application is among those that we consider highly competitive. * We wanted to take this opportunity to give you a preview of what Berkeley engineering has to offer. Berkeley continues its reputation as a world class leader in innovative research and teaching: in its 2009 undergraduate rankings, U.S. News & World Report places Berkeley Engineering 2nd in the nation and the Times Higher Education Supplement of London named UC Berkeley the number two university in the world for technology.</p>

<p>We would like you to take a closer look at how Berkeley’s Engineering’s excellence in teaching and research impacts the undergraduate experience. Our faculty members employ many innovative teaching methods and approaches. Many of our engineering courses include team projects that allow our students to put theory into practice. Some of our laboratory classes train students in the use of cutting-edge research equipment. We also value the role of undergraduates in invention and discovery; many do formal research projects. We also support more than 25 student societies, and revel in their accomplishments, which may range from helping provide clean drinking water in Bangladesh, through winning the concrete canoe competition, to successfully mentoring inner-city school kids in math and science.</p>

<p>At this time, and on behalf of the College of Engineering’s faculty and students, it is our pleasure to invite you to our Annual Celebrating Women in Engineering event at UC Berkeley on Sunday, March 1, 2009 from 11:30-3:30 pm.** This event will be held in the Sibley Auditorium in Bechtel Hall. ** Below are just a few of the highlights for this event:</p>

<pre><code>* Meet our faculty and find out what kind of research they are conducting, and how it is literally helping to change the world
* Meet and interact with current students – find out what it’s REALLY like to be a Berkeley engineering student, and what a great community you would join if you came here
* Meet members of Berkeley’s Society of Women Engineers and other engineering student societies
* Take a special tour of the new Headquarters for the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society: CITRIS

</code></pre>

<p>We hope that you will join us! Please RSVP at <a href="https://forms.coe.berkeley.edu/cues/private-forms/2009/celebrating-women-in-engineering-rsvp%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://forms.coe.berkeley.edu/cues/private-forms/2009/celebrating-women-in-engineering-rsvp&lt;/a> by no later than February 20, 2009.</p>

<p>In addition, there are numerous opportunities to visit our beautiful campus. We strongly encourage you to attend Cal Day on April 18, 2009 (Cal</a> Day 2008, UC Berkeley), when you will have opportunity to attend lab tours and lectures, and have one-on-one meetings with faculty and advisors. If you cannot attend Cal Day, we will also have opportunities to visit the campus and college one day each week in April. Details will be posted nearer the time at: Prospective</a> Students — UC Berkeley College of Engineering. We look forward to seeing you on campus!! </p>

<p>Go Bears!</p>

<p>Fiona Doyle</p>

<p>Executive Associate Dean </p>

<p>Dennis Lieu</p>

<p>Associate Dean, Student Affairs</p>

<p>So it seems like a likely letter, but it's inviting me to women in engineering events which make's me think it's a mistake. But on the other hand, there's all sorts of other information that has nothing specifically to do with women in engineering. The bold information was a different color in the e-mail, not sure what that meant. My name is Michael John, so I certainly don't have an ambiguous name gender wise. I don't know what the hell is going on, lol. Is anyone else in this strange situation? What should I do?</p>

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<p>Go check your receipt. Maybe you accidently put that you were female…?</p>

3

<p>I checked the receipt, I couldn’t find any gender information. I really don’t think I marked female, I mean, I re-read that application hundreds of times. I’m also on the baseball team, another thing that would point to my non-femaleness. Overall, it seems like anyone reading my application would have to be rather dense to think I was a girl. Maybe it was a clerical error? I don’t know. I was hoping this had happened to someone else.</p>

4

<p>does this letter mean anything… is the ‘highly competitive’ phrase legit, or are they just trying to get all those who applied to go to the event?</p>

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<p>I don’t think it was intentional. Your info probably just accidently slipped in. I mean, they have 50000+ applications to go through, it’s definitely a possibility. </p>

<p>I say you should go to the thing and talk to the UC people there.</p>

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<p>Yeah, that’s probably what I’m going to do. Highly competitive got my hopes up for a split second, lol.</p>

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<p>It’s not a mistake. I’m a guy and I got the same email.</p>

8

<p>Hahaha, somebody screwed up. Maybe they got the pile of boys apps and girls apps mixed up. Hahaha</p>

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<p>maybe its a mistake, or maybe its just a general engineering open house hosted by swe because there is no such society for men? i don’t know.
i’m female, and I got it…</p>

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<p>You guys are so lucky. I haven’t heard anything from Berkeley, but I applied to L&S, so that’s expected.</p>

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<p>I would say you are in. My D received this letter last year and she got in. From talking to various people they all said this is Cal’s way of telling their promising candidates early without being too specific.
The fact that you’re not a girl … not sure but I doubt it matters.</p>

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<p>For what it’s worth, my husband is a member of SWE and goes to some of their meetings and sponsors their chapter at his work place. It may very well be a mistake; it may also be a great opportunity to explore Berkeley Engineering, express your strong interest, and learn a little about the issues women face in engineering programs and jobs.</p>

13

<p>Maybe they meant to send it to someone else</p>

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<p>I got the same email and I’m I guy. I checked my receipt but I couldn’t find anything about gender.</p>

<p>If I recieved this email what does this mean about my chances of getting into berkeley?</p>

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<p>i thought i was out of it when i didnt get a questionnaire. i think admissions just like to keep your emotions going…its sadistic, is what it is… =]…
though maybe if i show this to my parents they wil make an effort to let me visit.</p>

<p>by the way, will it reflect badly on us if we don’t attend- i live in MD
CollegeDad2008- did your daughter go to the open house?</p>

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<p>^ It means you’re one of their stronger candidates, appearently.</p>

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<p>wow, i just received this email also, and i’m a guy</p>

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<p>It seems like enough guys got it that we couldn’t all have marked our gender wrong. </p>

<p>@Schmoomcgoo, thanks for the info, obviously I’d be more than happy to attend a women in engineering event, in fact many women in my family are engineers. I just didn’t know if it was a group exclusive to women. Since your husband was a part of it, clearly men are active in the organization. </p>

<p>I emailed Dennis Lieu, I’ll post whatever he says here when he responds.</p>

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<p>im out-of-state, if that matters</p>

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<p>Son received same email today. We are out of state as well. Very interesting - did anyone who applied to engineering not get this??</p>