Marine Science sounds fantastic. That’s also interesting that you were able to apply to both L&S and CNR. I wonder how they handle that? Do they evaluate based on first choice? What would make them go to the second choice?
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There is nothing wrong with students declaring CS even if they didn’t say that on the application. That is consistent with how the college of L&S is supposed to work - people take a bunch of classes and decide on a major prior to junior year. Unfortunately, the demand for CS education from the #1 ranked CS department (per US News) far exceeded the supply of resources needed to support the scale.
In the past, COE asked L&S to make it a direct admit but L&S refused. So, a GPA hurdle was created with a 3.0 GPA threshold. Turns out kids smart enough to get into Cal could also easily clear 3.0. So, to tamp down on the #s, the threshold was bumpd up to 3.3. Still, most who want CS and have the aptitude are able to clear that too even if it came at the cost of enormous stress and a terrible rush for the declaration classes, especially CS 70. Further, the declaration process provided significant advantages to folks with math competition experience unlike the EECS direct admit process which is more holistic.
So, Cal was left with the following choices:
- Change to direct admit and provide major certainty and destress the process and make it more equitable
- Bump up GPA threshold to 3.8 or some such ridiculous number
- Eliminate L&S CS pathway completely and preserve resopurces for the EECS department
- Do nothing
Direct admit is probably the sanest choice, and I am glad Cal took the opportunity to adopt the same for other high demand majors.
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I would admissions and ask since there was a deadline listed.
ES is her alternate major.
Students can select a primary major and an alternate major. Berkeley only guarantees the review of the primary major, but may consider alternate majors if space is available when we conduct our waitlist and appeals review processes .
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Ah, interesting. It’s great they let you do that, as a back up plan, and you were probably really smart to go out of L&S as the second choice, as I imagine that could change the equation somewhat in a review process. Although, obviously, hopefully it won’t come to that and your daughter will get admitted with her first choice 
Here’s hoping! Likewise! 
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My D also applied Environmental Science major
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Engineering physics here
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I applied as a CS major. I’m trying not to keep any high expectations and then face disappointment come March. We’ll see what happens although hoping for the best.
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D23 is undeclared humanities. 2 boys there now, one Linguistics, one possible Econ or Philosophy
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D23 applied to CNR too - wants environmental policy studies.
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I’m wondering how LS CS have admission data from last year when they say that this is the first year they are having students apply as direct admit. Last year students were able to declare CS through LAS?
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My understanding is that even though L&S hasn’t been admitting by major, they have internal data showing how many students applied and were admitted, broken out by major chosen on their application.
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My D23 put Environmental Policy as her 2nd choice major (with Environment and Society as #1).
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Linguistics is fantastic at Cal - I did my PhD in a related field, so took a number of classes in the dept, and the “outside” member of my dissertation committee was from the linguistics dept. Very good experiences with the dept overall.
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It’s a tough admit, but some people will certainly be admitted. Why not you? Cal is a reach for everyone, but I am sure you are just as qualified as anyone - and maybe that LOR request is a good sign, it must mean you’re in the running, while certainly many people have already been taken out of the pool.
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Yeah hoping for the best. We’ll see if the LORs do help with anything or not.
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Same here, applied to CNR. Cannot find admission stats for CNR.
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I haven’t seen an overall admit rate anywhere, but I think Gumbymom did post an acceptance rate by GPA - it should be somewhere above.
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Overall admit rate for CNR 2022 was 20%.
Admit GPA ranges based on the Fully weighted UC GPA over the last 3 admission cycles:
| GPA | L&S | CoE | CoC | CNR | CED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.800-4.000 | 6.3% | 2.7% | 4.5% | 11.5% | 8.7% |
| 4.001-4.199 | 10.6% | 3.9% | 8.2% | 23.7% | 14.7% |
| 4.200-4.399 | 21.8% | 8.8% | 17.5% | 38.9% | 29.1% |
| 4.400-4.599 | 34.8% | 16.4% | 33.3% | 53.0% | 39.5% |
| 4.600-4.799 | 40.9% | 21.4% | 39.6% | 52.4% | 49.4% |
| 4.800-5.000 | 41.5% | 20.7% | 36.2% | 46.1% | 43.0% |
https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/ug-admissions.html
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