UC Berkeley - Class of 2022 Applicants Thread

@kornido did your son get LOR or any other supplement requests from UCs?

@ummsail @knowledgeispower18 “New” means 2-3 years they’ve been doing this now. You can confirm this with a google. I know this from a lot of research and experience. My son is a sophomore at Cal now and he submitted the recommendation letter when requested. I’m also an alumna of the Haas Business School.

It’s not exactly accurate if the rep told you being asked to submit a recommendation letter doesn’t say anything about your application status. Common sense will tell you you are in the Maybe pile. You are still in the running.

Not only common sense. This is confirmed by UC Berkeley officials. Watch this youtube video for a detailed explanation.

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

The super good and super bad applicants don’t get asked for LORs. Only applicants on the fence get asks.

Guys march 1 today! 28 days to go!

Just wanted to chime in that the statement “Only applicants on the fence get asks” is not correct. My son was a very strong applicant and got an LOR request within a few days of submitting his application. He has been admitted early to Cal and is interviewing for a Regents Scholarship. Here is a link to UC’s recently revised policy which sets out the criteria for which applicants might be asked for letters of recommendation.

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/2110.html

@formerbear ,

could it be that your son was on the fence for Regents ?

btw, congrats !

The video was very informative…finally got to watch it last night after seeing many references to it on here re: LOR and “maybe” pile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-4pi-zlk8g

@avz11ymc4 ,
Thanks, as a Cal alumna, I am pretty thrilled for him.
Because the LOR request came so quickly after he submitted his application and immediately after the application deadline (maybe even before the deadline, but I don’t remember), my guess is that he was quickly identified as a potential Regents candidate and that that is why he got the LOR request. Another very strong applicant from his school also received an LOR request, but has not been invited to interview for a Regents scholarship (she applied in Engineering, though, which is even more competitive). I think I have seen somewhere on one of these threads, though, that not every Regents scholarship recipient in recent years has been asked for LORs, so who knows?

We have a friend who was asked for supplemental materials in late Jan, including 1st semester senior yr grades. He was admitted in early Feb, without Regents invite.

so…for the future reference, this much is clear regarding LOR/Supplemental info.
anybody who’s borderline whether it be for Regent, Early entrance or General admittance gets asked for additional info.
i’m not sure what the difference is between Regent vs Early w/o Regent (unless ^^above is an outlier) but…the notion that only the regular entrance borderliner gets asked is inaccurate (at least for this year ~).

Does anyone have any additional insight or personal experience with the LOR? D was asked for LOR soon after submitting and we haven’t heard anything since. It’s going to be a long month lol!

Apparently the engineering freshmen decisions were made
Why don’t they send them?

@tarekb22 why do you think the freshmen engineering decisions were made already?

So did everyone here get asked for an LOR

most didnt @Rescuediva

I was not asked for anything but everyone else at my school who applied was asked for a LOR. I’m the val of my class though.

I heard that LORs were only for really competitive majors like engineering or anything in stem really. No one I heard that applied humanities were asked for a LOR.

My daughter who is a Regents (senior year) was never asked for LOR.

I saw a YouTube video about UCB’s requesting LOR. The admissions divided up all applicants into yes/maybe/no, and LOR was meant for the maybe catagory.

@ivyforest - that’s old info. The LORs are being handled differently this year. Its been documented in the press, you can google it.