I didn’t get this email yet. But I would like to send in LORs, does this mean I don’t get the opportunity to even though I want to? And is this a good sign that I’m not a borderline applicant?(My application was pretty strong so I don’t think I was rejected, also applied as mechanical engineering)
Hi Archilion,
At least for my (rather elite) school, there were two tranches of letters sent out - one within 2-3 days of the university receiving the application, and one that just came in the past couple days. The first set of recipients were those who had 3.9+ unweighted GPAs AND 2200+ SATs, i. e. “high-stats applicants”. The second set included more high-stats applicants, but also included more borderline people who had some sort of saving grace (i. e. 3.7-3.8 GPA but 2200+ SAT). Naturally there were some individuals in each of these groups who didn’t receive letter requests as there’s no way for them to handle everything.
IMO, the university sends out letter requests to those whom it views as strong candidates for selection. They don’t want to waste time and resources doing a holistic review of candidates who would be rejected right from the beginning. Receiving a letter request (I think) merely reflects the fact that they would anyway take your application seriously, but not receiving a letter request doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t.
Wait a few more days for the applications to propagate through their system, and then see.
Thanks,
Please note that Berkeley Engineering is reach for everyone, even those with high stats.