@boomboom123 I don’t know how long they took to read it. All they said was that they emailed the request after an “initial review,” and this email was sent to me two days after I submitted my app.
@boomboom123 I’m guessing what they’re doing is having a computer go through stuff like gpa, SAT, stuff with numbers. And then asking for letters for students in a certain range. Just a guess though.
Did anyone with stats higher than a 4.5 GPA and a 2210 and not applying to an impacted college receive a request? Concerned because all of my peers with SAT scores in the 1700s (but good GPAs, 4.5+) received request but I didn’t.
My stats: 2350 SAT, 4.58 GPA. Got a request. You tell me?
That doesn’t seem borderline!
@richard4912 Did you apply to school of engineering? Are you in state?
How does one get a GPA higher than 4.4? I thought that was the maximum UC GPA if you had all A’s and the max 8 quarters of honors/AP bump?
@richard4912 what is your major? And what kind of extracurriculars do you have?
UCB and UCLA don’t cap at 8 semesters.
I believe the key detail here is the major. Many very qualified applicants (in terms of GPA and SAT) that applied to engineering college seem to have received the request. I’ve yet to hear of someone applying to a non impacted major that has received a 2200+ SAT, 4.4+ and a request. More people need to post their stats for us to form a better idea of the criteria used by the admissions office.
@AKS754 I applied as a Mechanical Engineer and I didn’t get a request. I am rank 1 in my school, 35 ACT, and have some ECs with lots of leadership and volunteering.
@AKS754 My theory is that it has to do with major as well. I, however, believe that they are sending it to many applicants who chose majors in the college of Letters and Science as well. I applied as Poli Sci major and got a request, and I would assume that major is impacted. However the issue with this theory is that Berkeley consistently states that they do not consider majors in the admissions process (compared to Irvine, or San Diego, for example). There’s a detailed discussion going on about this in the Berkeley Class of 2020 Applicants Discussion thread.
@mang0es they say they don’t consider majors in admissions process?? But isn’t engineering at Berkeley “the hardest to get into”? Isnt that taking major into consideration for admission?
@Archlion Sure, Berkeley is extremely difficult to get into, and obviously some majors are more difficult than others. What I mean by my comment is that for some of the schools at Berkeley, there is no difference regardless of the major you indicate. It matters more if you applied for EECS.
“For applications to the College of Letters and Science and Natural Resources no consideration is given to the indicated major in the review process. However, for the professional colleges of Chemistry, Environmental Design, and Engineering demonstrated interest in the major is also taken into consideration.”
You can see more at http://admissions.berkeley.edu/selectsstudents
I have a 3.93 UW GPA and a 2320 SAT, along with junior level college courses and a research paper. I am from Massachusetts however. Without trying to sound pretentious, I am somewhat surprised I am borderline given my SAT and GPA. If a machine did in fact sort the people out who require a recommendation, I am not sure what is going on. I applied as an electrical engineering major. Good luck everybody
Got one just now! Submitted app hours before the deadline. International, Africa. Applied to School of Natural Resources
@whynotnow @Ballerina016 Applied to engineering undeclared, so-so extracurriculars, from MA
Applied arts and sciences with decent SAT and upward trend (horrible cumulative) GPA. ECs and essays are definitely the strongest part of my app so I’m very very very glad to have gotten this request. I agree that this is probably for borderline applicants! THIS IS A GOOD SIGN GUYS!!!
I think the requests are computerized…I got mine on a Saturday and I don’t think they work during weekends. Thoughts?
My daughter 2260, 3.97 UW, IB, Florida, applied to Letters and Sciences. I read the LA Times article mentioned above (thanks for posting). Her school is a magnet for IB in an urban, low SES neighborhood. That might have triggered the request because of data about the school code. Maybe CAL gets apps from so many stellar students that they need something extra to distinguish among them. Interesting that the request came early on - they’re sorting kids but being careful about it.
SAT 2060, GPA 3.9 UW & 4.4 W, six leadership positions, out of state, and I applied for EECS. Fingers crossed since they’re at least considering my application. Kind of applied for a risky major given my statistics.