Finally a decision. UC Berkeley it is. Ended up coming down to liking Cal’s campus best, a preference for the pace of semesters vs. quarters, perceived academic reputation across the board, and – believe it or not – proximity to the hiking trails in the Berkeley hills and the fact that Cal has an on-campus football stadium (totally ridiculous, but that’s youth for you!).
I will say this: Cal did a really nice job welcoming prospective students and their families to campus for Cal Day. There was a lot of energy and a real sense that this place is big-time.
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Anyone with a current or recent Cal student who has inside info on the Tang center? We are trying decide between SHIP and staying on parent’s insurance. Cost and benefits are roughly the same for each - the main difference would be the place and doctors (Tang center vs. Sutter). How is the Tang center for basic care? Easy to make an appointment? Decent doctors?
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Son also finally decided to attend Cal. Before we hit submit for the housing application. Just make sure we get it right, we didn’t apply for “singles” as it seems to be reserved for special needs students and we didn’t want to waste a choice if regular students won’t ever get it. The other question is about this description for the Foothill suites: “Single, double, and triple rooms arranged in suites that vary from three to eleven bedrooms.” Just curious on average how many toilet stalls/showers are typically in a suite/per person? If there are 11 bedrooms in the suite, there must be more than 1 toilet and 1 shower to share, right?
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So, Both of my boys have SHIP. It’s been good, and you definitely don’t have to go to Tang for your medical care if you don’t want to. My older son has made a few PT appointments for an old skateboarding injury, and it has been easy. He also used the Optometry insurance at a local practice and got and exam and glasses and didnt pay much. Appointments are all made online. It’s easy. If there is no premium difference, I’d vote for it.
The dental insurance isn’t bad either. It’s a metlife PPO and offers better coverage than a lot of local companies offer their employees.
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Suites in Foothill that have that many( 11) rooms are mixed gender. I’m sure the bathrooms are bigger to accommodate that many kids, but I don’t know specifics. My son is in a 9 person, single gender suite (3,2,2,2). The bathroom has two toilet stalls, two tub-shower stalls and four sinks. I’ve never heard that the bathroom size has created any issues for them.
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Thank you! Housing application submitted!
And added bonus that Cal doesn’t seem to note in the housing site is that someone comes and cleans the bathroom regularly and vacuums the common area (but not the actual bedrooms).
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just for reassurance - if a student feels they scored poorly on an AP exam, is there any risk for admission rescindment? Like, if they get a 1 or 2 on an exam? (this has NOTHING to do with my daughter coming home from school today in a really bad mood after her AP Lit exam. Really. Nothing.)
They have indicated that scores on AP exams do not affect admission (only grades in AP classes). AP exams are just for class placement.
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Actually, Cal does consider AP scores in freshman admission. Since @scrambro’s daughter is already admitted, it shouldn’t matter anymore because getting a specific AP score post-admission is not a condition of admission. But if she indicated a low AP score in the original application, that could have affected admission. But, this AP score post admission shouldn’t matter 
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Yes, I wasn’t very specific in my wording - I meant in terms of possibly rescinding admission that had already been offered 
They will not rescind based on AP exam scores; but they might if you get below a C in an AP class.
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My Kid also said Prompt 1 was difficult and he did well on the rest for AP Lit exam. We will see what he scores in July.
A separate question: Sending AP scores to Cal is free? I got an email its free and son says its free for one AP test score only. You need to pay if you want to send multiple AP scores to college.
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I think it is free to send all of your scores to one college
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That’s right. You are allowed one free report (of all your scores from all years) to the college of your choice. Which is why it makes sense to wait to use that free report until after you’ve decided which college you will attend. However, I seem to remember a timing issue in 2021 in terms of not wanting to order the score report too early since you want to capture the latest/final round of tests in Senior year, but it needs to be early enough that you get it to the school by their deadline (I think it’s July 1 for UCs – and scores don’t always come out that early). I cannot remember how we resolved this issue to be honest! But that might have been an anomaly year since it was still COVID and there were several sittings for each exam, some online, some in person. And maybe that’s why it was hard. If anyone knows when is best to order the report so it catches all the testing, please remind me!
My D23 also took the AP Lit exam today and feels not half bad given that they really didn’t teach to the test at all in her particular section of the class. But mainly I think she’s just relieved it is over! She had three tests, three consecutive mornings this week, and they were the first thing she was able to get out of her room to do following a week at home with COVID! She’s overjoyed to be more or less finished with the academic part of HS (other than a few projects here and there – no final exams, I don’t think).
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I am no expert in this, but I’ve never heard that low AP or IB scores can hurt a student (as far as admissions or being rescinded). I agree not to include 1, 2 scores in the application, but if they appear on the College Board report I don’t think it’s a problem. My son got a 2 on AP Physics 1 senior year (he wasn’t in AP Physics) and it appeared on the College Board report. I was unaware at the time that apparently you can omit certain scores from the report. We never heard a peep from Cal about that failed test being an issue, that score just didn’t receive any sort of credit when they calculated units. But the self-study 3 in AP Chem that he reported from 10th grade did earn credit. I have always been of the opinion that AP/IB exams can only help.
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Admitted students won’t get rescinded by AP score (1 or 2) but AP Lit score with 3 or higher can satisfy “UC ELWR” as with the score 680 or higher of SAT.
Entry Level Writing Requirement | University of California
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Right. Thank you. Good to hear. I think She’s OK regarding the ELW and R&C 1A using last years AP lang test. She was hoping to get out of 1B, but it looks like that won’t happen lol
If not, another option might be taking it this summer at a community college.
I love the city college option for some requirements. My middle son is taking Calc 1B right now online at Peralta college to satisfy an econ pre-req. (some majors allow you to take specific pre-reqs outside of UCB. I told him if he can do Calc 1B ANYwhere else, do it. That class was ridiculous in 1992.
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