UC Berk LOR 2017

I submitted my UC apps on Nov 10 and yesterday I got an email from Berkeley asking me to submit two letters of rec. I’ve already seen many discussions about this topic from previous years regarding who might have been selected for these letters.
Does anyone know around how many people who received letter requests were accepted into UCB? Or around what percentage of people were rejected and received letter requests?

There is a video out there that explains the LOR and stats. The only number I am very sure of is that 1/3 of the applicants who were asked to send LOR were accepted.

My daughter is a freshman this year and she had to submit LORs.

Found it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-4pi-zlk8g

I watched the one hour video. Summary:

  1. they mostly ask LOR to the “Maybe” candidate
  2. the admission rate of applicants who have been asked to submit LOR is 40%, plus 16% being offered waitlist and 6% eventually admitted from waitlist.
  3. if you are a strong candidate, submitting LOR can only hurt you; if you are a weaker candidate, LOR can help you.

So, in conclusion, if you have received the LOR request, congratulations, your admission rate has increased to 46%! But if you have a high GPA and ACT/SAT score, don’t submit LOR.

@bogeyorpar Thanks for the summary. I disagree with your conclusion in point 3. “If you are a strong candidate, submitting LOR can only hurt you”

As presented in the video at 32:00, the regression discontinuity is between essentially identical students who were ASKED for letters vs those who were NOT ASKED for letters. So if you’re a borderline yes/maybe candidate based on the 2015 quantifiable model, you don’t want to be asked for letters. Most of the people who were asked for letters submitted letters, so it’s probably a true statement to say “the borderline yes/maybe candidates who submitted letters were less likely to be admitted than the borderline yes/maybe candidates who were not asked to submit letters.” But it’s not clear whether the borderline yes/maybe students who were asked for letters but who DIDN’T submit any had a higher acceptance rate than those who were asked and DID submit letters.

Another factor to consider is that it’s possible that Berkeley admissions have continued to tweak their algorithms. For example, they observed that many of the people who didn’t bother to submit letters ended up being people who had already decided to go elsewhere, either by indicating that they had accepted ED, or by rejecting a waitlist offer (if I understood correctly). So it is possible that this will bias the process in the future.

@rocket88 , thanks for pointing that out. That’s my understanding as well, but I just worded it poorly. I should have said “if you are a strong candidate and asked to submit LOR, now you have a lower chance of admission (than if not asked to submit LOR.) If you are a weak candidate and asked to submit LOR, now you have a higher chance of admission (than if not asked to submit LOR.)”

I agree that if you are asked to submit LOR, you’d better submit it, otherwise it can be misinterpreted as “lack of interest.”

From the YouTube video, it sounds like they have two processes – one is automatic based on GPA and scores and happens a few days after submission; the other is slower, after AOs read the application and felt someone is on the Yes/Maybe borderline. 80% of the requests come from automatic, 40% come from manual, 20% overlap (I’m not clear if the student will receive the LOR request TWICE?!)

When did your kid submit the application? Has he/she got the LOR request yet?

I just did a little bit of research and there are considerable changes to the process for this year. Now, all UC campuses can ask for LORs as part of “augmented review,” but can refer no more than 15% of applicants for augmented review. This is a contrast to the 30% who were asked for letters by Berkeley last year:

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/17/the-uc-application-process-is-about-to-change-and-some-people-dont-like-it/
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-uc-regents-recommend-letters-20170712-story.html
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/augmented-review-policy-2017.pdf

Students can also be asked for fall semester senior year grades, and can be given a questionaire as part of augmented review.

Here are the five specific conditions under which an applicant might be selected
for an augmented/supplemental review (quoted from the augmented review policy linked above):

 Evidence of focus on an area of special talent which may have limited a student’s
time to participate in a broader range of activities.
 Evidence of character traits that imply a strong likelihood of making a significant
contribution to campus life.
 Evidence of significant academic achievement or the potential for academic
achievement at the University in spite of extraordinary or compound
disadvantage or learning difference, or physical disability or other unusual
circumstances.
 Evidence of significant improvement in the academic record accompanied by one
or both of the following: reasons for the initial poor performance; and/or sustained
and in-depth participation in educational outreach programs, which demonstrate
the applicant’s commitment to succeed academically within a challenging
environment.
 Evidence of relative lack of access to, counseling about, or support to take
college preparatory, honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International
Baccalaureate (IB) classes or required college entrance examinations.

oh wow, you should start a thread with this info. I have never seen it before.

The UC’s have always had an augmented/supplemental review but not as heavily utilized by all UC’s vs the LOR’s for UCB.

While the LOR’s can be a bit of a scramble for kids not prepared to have to get them (if they aren’t already gathering them for apps to, say, private schools), being given the opportunity to provide another couple of data points for admissions officers (assuming they are positive) can definitely be a benefit. D, along with everyone else who applied from her HS, got the LOR request the first year they rolled this out. I don’t know if she was truly on the bubble or it was a rando thing (maybe #2 on @rocket88 's list above, because none of the others would make sense for her situation), but they gave her the nod in the end. She’s a sophomore STEM Bear and killing it academically, so it was a good match.

Since I received my letter requests like 2 days after my submission I’m guessing mine came from the automatic pool?

If you don’t get a letter request a few days after submission, is it possible to still get one later?

Yes, according to the video, you may get one in January or February, after AO read your application and think they need the recommendation letter.

I have an SAT score of 1510 and an overall pretty good application… I haven’t yet been asked for a LOR… is that good or bad???

If you are high stats applicant and haven’t got the request, it’s good news.

Has anybody who submitted their application on November 30 received a request for LORs yet?

My friend got a LOR from Berkeley because her ECs were abysmal (low-income family/high school with not a lot of opportunities) and she feels that the LORs justified why she couldn’t/didn’t do much outside of her school work. She was very qualified in every other respect, just didn’t do much.

She was accepted.

yo I got an LOR request during winter break. Does this mean that I have a good chance of getting in or no?

3.88 UW, 4.04 UC Capped, 4.31 Weighted GPA. 34 ACT. 800 on Math & Physics, 780 on Chem. DID NOT receive LOR request from UCLA, UCB, or UCSD. ECs are strong.

My question: I know my test scores are strong but my GPA is relatively lacking (especially my 4.04 UC/Capped GPA). Since I did not receive a LOR request, does this mean Im not getting in?