I’ve got too much time on my hands, refreshing these pages to check on admission updates.
For context, I have one kid at Cal now. A sophomore. He was admitted in Fall 2020. Unweighted GPA 3.73. UC Capped was 4.09. Good essays ( i think). ECs were in the arts, extremely focused and showed several years of interest. (awards etc). Not really any direct leadership attributes, however.
He went to Lowell HS in San Francisco. He got in from the WL, and Lowell had about 110 kids get in that year (from 450ish applicants)
I have another son who is applying now. Same HS. 4.0 unweighted. 4.42 UC capped. 4.58 weighted. Several APs but not the very highest reaching ones. (hes taking Calc AB, not BC)
His essays were good in the sense that they were very well written and they tell a story about him. But his ECs are limited. He loves music and music production, but other than acceptance into the CSSSA arts program a couple of times, and a City College certificate in Audio/Video production courses, there isn’t much else that looks good on paper. He certainly is at the top of his class from a pure grade standpoint, but there are a lot of kids like him at his school, many with a very impressive leadership and volunteer history.
We’ll see. I’m guessing wait list.
Oh hey, sorry I didn’t see this until now. So pretty much my interview was just a chill 30-minute convo. They get a professor in your major area to interview, so, since I’m mech eng, I was interviewed by a cs professor.
For the questions, I actually wrote them down right after my interview to tell my friends who also had their interviews coming up. So here are the questions I got in order:
Where do you want to be in 10 years?
How do you solve a complex problem?
How have you done community service?
How did community respond to that?
How would you contribute to Berkeley’s environment?
Then he gave me a chance to ask him questions about Berkeley. It’s really an informal conversation so don’t stress it. Anyways, I hope that helps and I hope I’m not too late! Good luck on your interview and also congrats on Berkeley too!!
Lol my interview was way more informal. We talked about the research I did, and then discussed one or two activities. There were very few formal questions like you described. The prof who interviewed me seemed like he was quite tired and was conducting the interview from his bed. Not sure if I should take the lack of formality as a positive or negative sign tbh.
In general, people who interview for scholarships are given a series of questions/prompts. If a student responds to a second prompt while answering the first, the interviewer might skip the second prompt. For example, using the prompts above, if an interviewer says, “Tell me about yourself” and the interviewee talks about community service and their goals for the future, the interviewer might modify how they ask follow up questions. If a student talks about their *research, why they want to attend Berkeley and what they want to do in the future, the interviewer might only ask about additional outside activities.
Edit: @CC_Mike why does the word “research” hyperlink to an outside site? research
it might’ve been talked about already, but has anyone recognized any portal astrology? if so, perhaps the same portal astrology as last year with the withdraw?
Im only here b/c of my best friend but I’m curious what typical OOS acceptance rate is? And do you think it’ll be effected heavily by the lawsuit? (to be fair, I do believe Cali students should get priority) And is scholarship money rarely offered to OOS students? Im asking because I’m getting concerned with my friends naivety on all of this. He thinks he’s getting in and has no idea what it costs….a little worrisome. Honestly, I don’t want to be the one to break it to him though. Im just curious. Thx for any info
Oh really? I’m sorry. I didn’t realize….I’m digging through the news but it seems to be pure speculation. I’ll just keep digging. Sorry if I broke rule.
DadOfJerseyGirl is joking! You are not breaking any rules… from what I can tell most of activity in most forums is the parent of an applicant so most of us would be breaking this rule (if it was a rule). If I were you- just wait for the decision. Your friend will know by the end of March whether he is in or not. Let the worry about cost come only if he happily has to think about it after an acceptance.
I just posted this on the UCB court case page. Looks like there might be promising info for all applicants?
“Scrambling to short-circuit a court-ordered enrollment freeze at the University of California, Berkeley, state legislators Friday unveiled a proposed change to a landmark environmental law that would let the university admit students at its previously planned level despite a lawsuit charging that its growth is polluting the city.”
