Waitlisted Mechanical Engineering
In state
4.0/4.4/4.56
13 APs, 5s on the 8 he’s taken so far
Heavy involvement in robotics (9-12)
Varsity swim captain (swam all 4 years)
School band, jazz band (9-12)
Other misc activities
National merit scholar
AP honors with distinction
Accepted at: UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD, Cornell, Calpoly SLO
Schools that one day will regret not snatching him up: MIT, Caltech
Lots of great options, no tears here, just a twinge of disappointment
Our year (CLASS OF 2025) was quite different than the previous years. We had 2 waves consisting of almost 90% In-State Changemaker kids.
Dates were Tuesday, May 10th (small but adequate) and Tuesday, May 24th (this one was super small).
The glitch is when the yellow box shrinks and the bear is only there and it always happens between 11 AM - 1 PM PST.
Our waitlist got extended from June 1st to June 30th (I anticipate that it will get extended even more cuz that is how Berkeley is).
The moral of the story is that do not depend on the Berkeley waitlist and don’t get your hopes up too high because they waitlisted quite a lot of kids after being test blind. No point holding any hope after the second wave is done.
The point that I want to make fully clear is: OPT INTO THE CHANGEMAKER PROGRAM IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GO TO UC BERKELEY (if you are instate you will most probably get in if you select this program).
Otherwise, it is okay if you do not get off the waitlist (I know it can be heartbreaking, but in reality, this school is quite competitive).
I myself was an out-of-state kid who opted into the changemaker and FPF program as an L&S Economics major, and of course, I did not get the result I anticipated.
It is still a great accomplishment getting waitlisted from this high caliber of a school, and regardless all of you guys will be fine and successful.
Edit: Waitlist was closed June 30th, Wednesday around 6:01 PM PST
Congratulations to all the students who got accepted to Berkeley today!! We all are excited to hopefully attend UC Berkeley in the fall.
BUT……
Fair warning for students wanting to pursue CS in the College of Letters and Science. I spoke with an advisor in the CS department and was told that there is a new policy that has been voted on and approved by the faculty department that will limit undeclared majors from taking the essential classes to declare as a CS major. This policy will (if enacted) prevent L&S undeclared students from taking CS classes. I’ve been told that no matter when this policy is enacted, before or after May 1st, the restriction on CS classes will apply to the Fall Class of 2022 (no grandfathering exceptions will be made). Professor Nicholas Weaver on Reddit has explained that if you are an incoming freshman in L&S but didn’t indicate CS, it will be impossible to get into CS as a major. I was very shocked when I read this on Reddit.
The failure of the CS Dept. to communicate this policy change to the public will affect a lot of incoming freshmen, so I advise everyone to dig deeper into this issue, whether it be calling the CS advisors or emailing the EECS department. Here’s the link below.
S22 accepted college L and S but declared physics(?)
4.0 uw/4.65 wuc
8 aps
Eagle Scout
President of drama program
Little volunteering except scouts
French fluent ( lived abroad for some years)
Accepted UCLA , UCD, UCSC (with merit money!?!)
Wl UCSB, ucsd
Rej U Chicago
In state Bay Area
So proud! Now to decide between UCLA and Berkeley
Waiting on Carnegie vassar and Wesleyan but will prob choose here…sister at UCSB seems surreal when I look back when we all wondered what would be, right?
Thank you for the update. I am very surprised this information was not formally relayed to applicants applying this admission cycle or at least grandfather in this years class. Not a good move on UCB’s part.
admitted
in-state (LA area)
political science (L&S)
3.98 UW / 4.23 W / 4.33 UC
7 AP’s (including this year), 5s on the three APs taken so far
1520 SAT (National Merit Finalist using 1470 SAT)
main ECs/awards:
speech & debate - event co-captain, board positions
newspaper - page editor
social science research + silver medal from Harvard Int’l Review
girls state + student election volunteer
scholastic regional gold key
Accepted: WashU, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis, UW Seattle honors
WL: n/a
Rejections: n/a! (unless you count QB National College Match Finalist)
Waiting on: Boston University, CMU, Tufts, Brown, UPenn, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Stanford, UNC Chapel Hill
No additional info + LOR was requested, portal astrology was accurate.
No rejections so far !! plenty of scholarship rejections though, and the schools ahead are tough. overall very blessed :]
It seems unlikely that UCB would attempt to implement this backdoor policy without notifying the applicants up front. That’s a class action waiting to happen. I appreciate Weaver bringing this to the public’s attention, but I highly doubt it’s going to go through.
Turns out the SEED program application invite is based on some basic qualifications, according to their website. Applicant must have completed the FAFSA, taken or be taking at least one calc course, have a min of 2 community service activities, have taken or be taking 2 AP stem exams, avg score of 4 or better on all AP stem exams taken, and minimum 3.0 gpa.
Good luck to all of you applying for the program, it seems super intriguing.
I encourage you to look closely at the Reddit post and to call the CS advisor at Berkeley. I couldn’t believe my ears!! Let me know if you hear or read otherwise. I’ve been looking into this for the last 4 days…very discouraging.