<p>I'm probably not smart enough to get into Cal, but I just might because I'm hispanic. Even if I got in, I'm interested in business/economics, and those are both capped majors, and business is almost impossible to get into. As for economics, I need at least a 3.0 to declare the major, and I just don't know if I'll be able to do that well taking Cal classes. If I have lower than a 3.0, I'm screwed. If I do get in, should I go and work my ass off, considering Cal is where the best opportunities will be? Or should I opt for a less competitive school like Davis and pretty much be guaranteed an Econ major?</p>
<p>Are you a transfer or freshman applicant?</p>
<p>getting at least a 3.0 is not that hard…</p>
<p>Your ethnicity has nothing to do with admissions. Don’t be so ill-informed. Other then that good luck.</p>
<p>To be honest, you won’t know until you get down here and try it. If you’re accepted at Cal, then you probably have what it takes to get a 3.0 here. 
As someone said before, I don’t think it’s super impossible or anything. That being said, if it makes you feel safer, come in with some kind of back-up, talk to some counselors about it, try meeting some people who are already Econ majors to talk to, etc. Cal is an awesome school and it would suck if you ended up graduating from any place solely because you were too scared to try it out. </p>
<p>BTW, I’m Latina and also an intended Econ major Cal has a reeeeally amazing Latino/Latina community! That’s something I totally didn’t get from my high school, at all. I really value that, here.</p>
<p>I’m a freshmen applicant. And Jayo, ethnicity has a lot to do with admissions. It may not make much of a difference in terms of GPA, but in terms of SAT scores, the average scores for admitted hispanics are about 200 points lower than admitted asians and whites.</p>
<p>“The most comprehensive review ever performed of UC Berkeley admissions found little support for criticisms that some students are accepted because of ethnicity or other nonacademic factors.”</p>
<p>“Hout said grades carried the most weight in admissions, and that high grades and Advanced Placement courses were responsible for some students with lower SAT scores being admitted over students with higher SATs.”</p>
<p>Don’t buy into hearsay.</p>
<p>Here is the report. The research paper is linked at the bottom of the article.</p>
<p>[BERKELEY</a> / Ethnicity called tiny factor in admissions / Cal study finds only 2 small areas where race had effect - SFGate](<a href=“http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-05-17/bay-area/17375188_1_uc-berkeley-college-admissions-class-admissions]BERKELEY”>http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-05-17/bay-area/17375188_1_uc-berkeley-college-admissions-class-admissions)</p>
<p>Prop 209 also says no to your view of UC admissions.</p>
<p>Proposition 209 (also known as the California Civil Rights Initiative) is a California ballot proposition which, upon approval in November 1996, amended the state constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity.</p>
<p>^I agree with Jayo in the sense that’s its hypocritical to to be against the repeal of Pop 209 and then say the race plays a role in admissions in the current system. Prop 209 is the current system, thus any URM who gets admitted into Cal for the most part got in because of their academic and/or extra-cirricular caliber, and it’s extremely insulting to them to say things like “you got in because of your race”, especially when Prop 209 is law.</p>
<p>I’m not a URM and I don’t support AA (though I understand the need for more diversity), but if I was a URM and someone said I got in because of my race at a school that implements a law that forbids such a thing, I would be strongly offended.</p>
<p>there is a plausible middle ground here. Cal admits holistically, not strictly by stats. Further, it does not admit by lumping everyone into a giant single pool. If it did, we might see that the most competitive and high performance high schools would have half the senior class accepted while low performing schools would have zero accepted. Instead, Cal tries to maintain some balance geographically across California, a percentage of other states and countries represented, and it tries to achieve a mix of different backgrounds. </p>
<p>That means if someone is in a school district that has lower SAT score distributions, in part because of poor quality education and perhaps in part because of the disadvantages if english was not the students primary or exclusive language, then the geographic objective would cause such discrepancies. If you simplistically accepted the top 2% of each high school, then a high school with lower outcomes would probably have lower SATs than the top 2% in the highest performance school districts. </p>
<p>In other words, it is hard to look at numbers like SAT scores of admitted students by national origin or ethnicity and conclude that this results from different acceptance practices based on those factors. Instead, it may be a result that occurs as a secondary consequence of the actual admissions factors, including geo distribution. </p>
<p>Lest you think Cal is unique in this, look at the relatively consistent admissions ‘quotas’ across different high schools by Stanford and the Ivies, who otherwise would end up with a concentration of their student body from the highest performing school districts.</p>
<p>^That makes perfect sense and probably explains all the opinions and statistics talked about in this thread. Thanks rider.</p>
<p>Well getting back to the main point of this thread… would statistics be a good replacement major if I can’t get economics?</p>
<p>If you don’t get into economics I doubt you could handle statistics</p>
<p>Umm…what is it about Stat that would make you say that?
Stat is my back-up…LOL. Well, not really a back-up, but I’m thinking of minoring in it, maybe. Is it that friggin hard??</p>
<p>Look at the requirements [Statistics</a> Major](<a href=“http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/94]Statistics”>http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/94)</p>
<p>Ok, that’s true, it’s way more stuff than the Econ.
For anyone who is thinking of Econ/Stat (and who may not be too good at math), I wanna just let it be known that I’m taking Math1A instead of Math16A (Econ only requires 16A, but Stat requires 1A). I’m pretty much effing up real bad, lol.</p>
<p>If you can’t handle math 1a, maybe a math-ish major might not be the best choice.</p>
<p>Also, a 3.0 in econ is far easier than a 3.0 in stats. If you don’t get into Econ, apply for Political Econ, Enviro Econ, Public Policy etc instead. :)</p>
<p>But honestly, don’t be scared. If you know you’re academically weaker, just take light coursework and plan your schedule out better. Cal is a great school to learn Econ/Bus, so definitely take the opportunity if you get it.</p>
<p>Jayo, I wouldn’t be so dismissive or disdainful of Andre’s belief that his Hispanic background may play a role in admissions. One of the two essay questions for new applicants is: “Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.” This strikes me as an opportunity for an applicant to talk about coming from a family, school district or economic circumstance that was less conducive to high achievement and how he overcame it. Since UC does not accept letters of recommendation, the essays may well play a greater role in its application decisions than they do in other universities.</p>
<p>That essay may be the means for ethnicity to come in the back door, so to speak, while perhaps avoiding the tendency of schools to accept upper middle class kids ‘of color’ to buff up their ‘diversity’ statistics. (I know one kid who’s being recruited by numerous top Little Ivies because he is “black”; even though he’s probably only about 1/8th black, his parents are very wealthy and educated, and he lives in one of the most exclusive towns (with one of the best public high schools) in our metropolitan area.)</p>
<p>If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you will do fine. Don’t let your race or background or anything else hold you back. There are enough resources here for you to succeed but u just have to want to succeed. You can’t be premed and not really like medicine or you will fail. Well not fail, but you will get C’s…which leads to nothing after a bachelors. But your past has nothing to do with how well u will do here (sort of)</p>
<p>Ursa is right. In the years following the passage of 209, Berkeley has bent over backwards trying to find “backdoor” ways to get URMs into the school. The most obvious channel is the essay. </p>
<p>I went to an admissions fair in LA a few years ago and was shocked when I heard an admissions officer telling minorities to include “clues” about their ethnicities in the essays, so that the law could be circumvented. </p>
<p>Basically, if you are a so-so candidate and talk about how you always looked forward to your mother making fresh tortillas or chorizos on Sunday morning, or about how your quinceanera was a transformative experience, you’re IN.</p>
<p>I find all this pretty disturbing; perhaps some other don’t. But the race games played in the admissions office are pretty shocking.</p>