Thanks! It went really well
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Do we have insight into how Berkeley’s admissions officers triage applications? I believe admissions are done by college, but does that mean applications are grouped by college first and then filtered/sorted independent of the high school the students attended? Or are they first considered for general admission based on their high school (say, the top third of applications from a particular high school (regardless of college applied to) are put in the “maybe” pile on a first pass and the bottom two thirds put in the “no” pile?) and then the “maybe” applications are divvied up to smaller, college-specific review committees?
For example, say a student isn’t in the top ~17% of their school’s applications, but is applying to a college within Berkeley with a higher admit rate, where few classmates are applying (Rausser). Is their application going to be compared to other students from their high school who are applying to colleges across Berkeley and filtered out before it even gets to the college-specific level? Or would it be first considered against other CNR students (from schools beyond that applicant’s high school)?
I know this is all grasping at straws and quasi-kremlinology at this point, as few people outside the office would know how it actually works, but I figured @Gumbymom or someone might have intel about how the sausage is made.
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I do not work for any UC admissions so I have no specific insight into the complex nature of how applications are reviewed other than what I have seen on some UC counselor conferences, what is listed on the UC website, some personal experience and research.
- Very important: Academic GPA, Personal Insight essays, Rigor of secondary school record
- Important: Extracurricular activities, Volunteer work, Work experience
- Considered: Character/personal qualities, First generation college student, State residency, AP/IBLH exam scores
- Note: Thorough review of academic performance; likely contribution to intellectual and cultural vitality of the campus; diversity in personal background and experience; demonstrated qualities in leadership, motivation, concern for others and community; non-academic achievement in the performing arts, athletics or employment; demonstrated interest in major.
- LOR’s by invitation only as of 2017
Division (L&S, CNR, CoC, CED, CoE) matters for admission selectivity.
Within CoE (but not the other divisions), major matters for admission selectivity. Changing majors within the CoE after enrolling is not guaranteed, unless one is CoE undeclared.
Note that L&S admits students as undeclared; admission to capped majors (e.g. CS, economics, psychology, ORMS, statistics, art practice, and a few others) is by college GPA in prerequisite courses (and portfolio for art practice) after attending for a few semesters.
The business major is in a separate division and admits students in a competitive holistic process. Frosh intending business majors begin in another division (usually L&S), take the business major prerequisites and apply (usually in their second years). They also need to take prerequisites for a backup major in case they are not admitted to the business major.
All students who apply to UC Berkeley and select a major within the College of Natural Resources are evaluated based on their application, not on the particular major they select.
For a holistic review, a qualitative approach is taken where there is no fixed value placed on any one criteria.
From a UC counselors conference here are some points to consider:
Because the UC system takes a decentralized approach to admissions where each campus operates independently when making their admission decisions, the application review process will vary from campus to campus. Still, there are similarities between all the different reviews.
All admission application readers undergo extensive professional training before reading a “real” application; Continuing training may also be conducted during the read-cycle.
Internal readers are those individuals within the admissions office such as evaluators, recruitment and outreach specialists, and other admissions team members.
External readers are those individuals outside of the admissions office. These individuals are often high school counselors, teachers, or leadership; campus outreach staff such as EAOP staff; independent counselors, graduate students, department staff, alumni, etc.
All applications are reviewed regardless of whether the student meets all of the minimum admissions requirements.
Multiple reads often occur as part of various quality control measures instituted by the campuses. Each campus may have different requirements on the number of times an application is read.
The admission rates and enrollment targets vary from campus to campus, and can even vary within each campus’s colleges, divisions, or majors.
The PIQs relate to one or more of the Comprehensive Review factors and help inform admission readers of the full context of the student – family, school, accomplishments, challenges, experiences.
Students are encouraged to use the PIQs to address information that does not appear in other parts of the application, or to explain something on the application more fully. This will be especially important for students who were unable to engage with many common extracurricular activities and with increased hardships across the U.S. due to the pandemic.
Each of the campuses uses the PIQs to differing degrees, which points to the different methodologies and processes used at each campus.
Some campuses use the PIQs for admission, some use for scholarships and some for both.
Edited for final notes:
Several factors and variables can influence selection. What is most important to know is that selection looks different at every campus!
• Selection can even look different from year to year for the same campus.
• Things like enrollment capacity (campus size impacts how many students can enroll) and enrollment targets for each campus are factored into selection.
• Campuses use multiple factors when selecting students and the way campuses select students varies.
• It is to the student’s advantage to include as much information as possible on the application.
• Every student is considered in the context of their own environment which includes, but is not limited to, school, family and geographic region.
• Students are also considered within the context of the applicant pool for each campus.
• Each campus will complete their own individual review of the application independently of one another, which means that they’re going to review the information in the application and select students without asking what the other campuses have decided.
• Each campus selects students independently.
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That’s wonderful! Any details or tips you can share?
Thanks Gumbymom… it’s so important for parents and students to remember admissions are not based solely on the student’s status in terms of GPA, # of AP/honors courses and class rank. Each year presents a different constellation of talent- a host of particular qualities the students bring to the table which are considered in relation to the specific needs/interests/ requirements of a program and campus.
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FYI…for anyone waiting on Riverside and Merced results, they are available in the portal. Probably being rolled out in batches.
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Not for everyone though
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yes, thanks! Edited original post.
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97 posts were merged into an existing topic: UC Berkeley may be forced to admit 5100 fewer students
Spring semester normally has lower enrollment than fall semester, because students who graduate one semester early or one semester late have one more fall semester than spring semester if they were enrolled continuously since starting as frosh in a fall semester. That is likely why UCB (and some other colleges) have various means of admitting new frosh to start in the spring instead of fall semester, sometimes with special extension programs with limited offerings of frosh level courses (e.g. UCB’s FPF) or special study abroad programs for the fall semester.
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Please use the above link to discuss the current enrollment issues and repercussions and leave this thread for other questions and comments related to C’26.
While I attempted to move most of those posts to the linked thread, I’m sure I missed some.
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Good luck to the UCB 26s!
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I tell you what…portal astrology discussions are so much more fun 
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Hi, how did you do your Regents interview? Hope you did well. I have seen online mixed reviews about the interview, like some people said the interview was chill and some were like very intense. How was your experience? What questions did they asked?
Good luck 
delete
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Never mind, it may have been due to a concert they attended at Cal ages ago. Don’t know how to delete a post.
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Welcome to the Discussion of Cal where you can post anytime but can never delete
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I deleted it for you.
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