UC Berkeley Freshman Class of 2026 Discussion

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

Hi !!
My GPA is 4.0 UW, 4.53 weighted.
AP: Physics(4), CalC(5), Psych(5), Lang(5), CS(5)
Honor society, Community service
Speech, and Debate
Software skills and courses

Should I apply to EECS (CoE) or L&S ?
-AJ

22

What is your capped weighted UC GPA?

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

EECS is a tougher admit but a direct admit into the major. CS in L&S is not a direct admit so you need to complete the pre-req courses with a 3.3 GPA prior to declaring the major. I believe about 50% of the students will be able to declare the CS major in L&S.

You are competitive so it is really your decision. I have linked a EECS vs. CS comparison chart: EECS/CS Program Comparison Chart | EECS at UC Berkeley

Best of luck.

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23

Thanks for your response. My capped weighted UC GPA is 4.67

24

Capped weighted maximum is 4.4 while the fully weighted is up to 5.0. Either away, you are competitive for UCB.

25

Hi, I’m confused about MCB and MEB when declaring my intended major and wanted to see if I could get insights.

  1. Does MEB increase my chance of getting into Berkeley versus MCB?
  2. Will selecting undeclared effect my chance of getting into Berkeley?
    Thank you!
26

Neither major will increase your chances so look at the required courses and choose the major that most interests you.

MEB (Molecular Environmental Biology) is in the College of Natural Resources which is smaller and supposedly has more accessible advising.

MCB (Molecular and Cell Biology) is in L&S.

27

MEB is found in the College of Natural Resources while MCB is found in the College of L&S and neither College admits by major. I agree with @lkg4answers that you need to look over the major curriculum’s to determine which major you have more interest in pursuing.

Since all applicants admitted into the College of L&S are Undeclared, it will make no difference on your chances either.

What is your career goal with either major?

28

Thank you for the response. My goal is to apply to medical school but saw that you had posted a response that if you find a major that is in both colleges, your odds are better with CNR. I know MEB is more macro and advising is better due to smaller # of majors compared to L&S but MCB topics covers my interests so I was just not sure which major to select.

29

Your first two years will be basically the same in both majors. Both require a year of math, chem, ochem, physics and biology.

You can look at the upper division courses and see if one interests you more than the other but your interests may change after taking your lower division courses.

MEB requirements

MCB requirements

30

CNR has had a higher acceptance rate vs L&S but it does not mean it is an easier admit overall. If both majors cover the Medical school course requirements then definitely focus on the major that interests you most. Medical school applicants all need a Plan B just in case.

31

Thank you!

32

Thank you.

33

That chart is a wealth of info. My DD is into STEM but she’s more of a math/phys/CS type of a person than an EE. The table clarifies it so well. Looking at it I’m thinking she might do well in L&S since she want to double major in Math and CS with a minor in data science

34

@Gumbymom, I used the calculator from Rogerhub and my son’s Capped GPA is 4.32 and Weighted GPA is 4.76. He basically got all A’s in all classes including the AP/Honors classes. The second semester of his sophomore year was pass/fail due to Covid.

Could you please answer the following questions?

  1. Should I include the pass/fail grade courses in the calculation? In the above calculation, I ignored the second semester of his sophomore year. Is that correct?
  2. It looks like his capped GPA would have been higher than 4.32 if he had taken less AP classes (because UC’s cap the honors classes to 8 semesters in the calculation). Does that mean he is going to lose out to people who took less number of APs, even though he got all A’s and 5/5 in the AP exam? That seems very unfair. Could you please shine some light on how the capped GPA & weighted GPA are used by UC Berkeley?
  3. He got a 36/36 in his ACT but we understand it’s not used at all by the UCs. How do you rate his chances for EECS given that he has good extra curricular activities?

Thanks so much for your time.

35

  1. P/NP courses are not included in the GPA calculation but you still list them on the UC application so HS course rigor will be noted.

  2. The more a-g courses taken, the more diluted the Capped weighted UC GPA becomes but the Fully weighted along with the Unweighted UC GPA will also be considered. His 4.67 Fully weighted UC GPA is above the 75th percentile for 2020 Freshman profile at UCB. Again, HS course rigor and the # of a-g courses that exceed the 15 course minimum will be considered.

In general, the Capped weighted is used for eligibility purposes to apply to the UC’s (3.0 minimum for in-state and 3.4 for OOS/International) so all 3 UC GPA’s are reviewed during the application process.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/how-applications-are-reviewed.html

The UC’s will use 13 areas of criteria to evaluate applicants and each campus will determine their weight of each parameter however GPA, HS course rigor and Personal Insight essays are usually the Most Important part of the application.

  1. EECS is one of the toughest admits at UCB and should be considered a Reach but Reachable. Best of luck to your son and make sure he applied widely and has at least one safety school on the list.
1 Like
36

Duplicate. .

37

Thanks again for the detailed answers. You are so helpful and knowledgeable.

38

Hi,

I want to double major in math and cs at UCBerkeley or UCLA. Can I select Math at College of Letters and Science, UCB and Computer Science at School of engineering, UCLA? Can I then answer PIQ #6 to talk about my interest in both math and cs? Will I be disadvantaged if I talk about 2 academic areas?

39

Since both CS and Math are in the College of Letters and Sciences at UCB and L&S does not admit by major, you can select either Math or CS. Work with your academic advisor to come up with a solid plan to complete both majors.

For UCLA, you would need to select CS in the College of Engineering then work with an academic advisor to see if double majoring is possible.

You will not be at a disadvantage if you talk about your interests in both areas. I would also suggest you look into a Math Minor if a double major is not possible.

40

Yes, you can select different majors in different colleges at different UCs. All UCs see your PIQ so be careful not to mention a certain program at a certain school.

I do not work for admissions but my personal opinion is that schools like students who have interests in different disciplines. We attended an admissions info session at UCLA and the admissions officer spoke about the different areas of study on campus and how they work together. He said, “In order to solve world problems, we need to graciously disagree, work across disciplines and challenge each other respectfully.”

I pulled out my notes from a few years ago to find the UCLA quote above. My notes from the Berkeley info session included the following. (Remember, these are my notes from one AO’s presentation)

  • Berkeley is a large school. With over 30K students, it can be overwhelming and it is important to become part of a community.
  • Chemistry and Engineering are every competitive. 90% of the curriculum is math and science. Know that you want this because you can’t transfer into these colleges
  • For premed, CNR is better than L&S where it can take weeks to see a counselor
  • Sign up for be.berkeley.edu early and let them know you are interested.
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