<p>which means you're very smart and probably made the right decision. But aside from Berkeley, where else have you been accepted? </p>
<p>Rumors are fast circulating around that this year's class is one of the smartest if not the smartest class Berkeley has assembled. Many extremely smart kids are coming despite multiple acceptances to top private schools. So, how true are the rumors...</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to any private schools since they are 2x the cost of Berkeley but not 2x the quality, but I got into every other UC, a couple with Regents.</p>
<p>^ Cool. What was your intended major, btw?</p>
<p>I would not personally regard acceptance to specific schools as an indication of intelligence. The bulk of my HS graduating class (and virtually every graduating class from my HS, come to think of it) stand as living examples of this.</p>
<p>Good question… I’m curious to hear the responses to this one.</p>
<p>UC Davis (regents), UCSD (regents), didn’t apply to UCLA, The College of William & Mary, Lewis & Clark College, Whitman College.</p>
<p>I got into Cornell, Washington University in St. Louis, UCLA, UCSD, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, UCD, and UCSB, but chose Berkeley for the highly ranked engineering programs, price, access to division 1 sports, and proximity to home.</p>
<p>My major at this time is MCB</p>
<p>NYU (Presidential Honors Scholar), all of Singapore’s universities.</p>
<p>But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised. Berkeley is ranked 2nd for its Social Science program (and lots else besides), so why not? (:</p>
<p>I would not personally regard acceptance to specific schools as an indication of intelligence. The bulk of my HS graduating class (and virtually every graduating class from my HS, come to think of it) stand as living examples of this.</p>
<p>Yah, second this. I doubt the intelligence level will change significantly, but perhaps admissions criteria could grow to more closely resemble those of other selective schools.</p>
<p>Let’s not discuss what’s not being asked on this thread please.</p>
<p>Got into UCSB and UCI as super-safeties (ELC guaranteed, how much safer can you get?). Rejected from Stanford, but I’d already decided on Cal anyway.</p>
<p>My friends hated me last winter when I was only filling out two applications.</p>
<p>Well if I had gotten into better schools then I probably wouldn’t be going to Cal lol…
I don’t know if it’s people choosing Cal over top privates as much as it is top privates rejecting/waitlisting more really good students in favor of unique ones/URMs (Stanford comes to mind).
By the way, who’s spreading these rumors that the class of 2014 is smarter than others?</p>
<p>I think that the admissions criteria are about as good as they can reasonably be, honestly; I’d love it if a more personal approach could be taken (more along the lines of U. Chicago), but that’s not really possible given the size of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>@jonnosferatu - yeah, well I’m hoping it’s not changing from what it has been in the past too much, is what I mean.</p>
<p>@RML - if you’re referring to my post, sorry, I felt a small line clarifying was healthy. Proceed with the discussion.</p>
<p>Lol hmm the class of 2014 at my school apparently had the highest GPA and scholarship offers than another other class my school had, maybe they are adding something in the baby formula between the years 1991-1993. I’ll be honest though I wanted a good engineering program and good financial aid so I did apply to MIT and Stanford and was rejected, but if I was accepted I would have chosen those over Cal since at that time I knew nothing of Cal. Stanford was my number 1 choice (MIT was 2nd, Berkeley 3rd) but after CalSO I have come to love it’s rival lol. I also applied and was accepted to UCLA and Boise State, but UCLA’s financial aid was slightly less than the amazing financial aid offer Berkeley gave me, so it’s not surprise I chose Berkeley.</p>
<p>so i was accepted to duke, johns hopkins (BME 
), caltech, washington university in st. louis, cornell, waitlisted for MIT, rejected from stanford…</p>
<p>but the catch is, no financial aid from ANYWHERE 
am i stupid for giving up the jhu bme program?</p>
<p>and i also agree with jonnosferatu that college acceptances aren’t proper indicators, and neither are SAT scores/gpa</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say you were stupid for not going for it - I passed up applying to Hopkins (with stats that should have gotten me into BME) on the basis that I very specifically did NOT want to go to Baltimore for four years for anything short of med school, and very specifically did NOT want to deal with JHU premeds during my undergrad, particularly since I would have been one.</p>
<p>Not getting into anywhere I would have taken over Berkeley is one of the best things that has ever happened to me, and it’s my observation that most of my friends had experiences similar to mine and love it here for the same reasons. I suspect this is because we viewed Cal as a sure thing and didn’t bother to research it, came in with low expectations, and were thus very pleasantly surprised on arrival.</p>
<p>i really hope i find it the same. i really wanted to visit jhu, but i didn’t get a chance (my parents were leaning towards caltech and didn’t want to pay for the airfare)
since i didn’t get to visit, or much less experience what it was like, i can’t make any statements, I talked to a jhu graduate and he tried to convince me to go, although the general impression i got was that he just studied all the time and didn’t have much of a social life. he even called it “blah”. Personally, i also thought caltech was a bit too nerdy for me, and i wanted to be in a larger school, although the research opportunities were appealing</p>
<p>at the end, my decision came down to financial aid, but i’m really excited to go to cal, although i always had dreams of going to a school on the east coast, just to get away for a while and then maybe coming back for grad, but i’m sure cal has a much better social atmosphere (and academics are very good too) i guess i was just afraid of the competition and not getting any opportunities (vs a private school)</p>