I got a LOR request 3 days ago and I’m pretty surprised since my test scores are very low for Berkeley.
SAT (new): 1270
ACT: 25
SillyJilly, you are right, but it is clear that engineering and science majors are more difficult to get in as opposed to some unknown unpopular major. The majors are impacted majors meaning that it is more competitive because the science majors have more applicants, whom have higher average scores gpas etc. Good luck yall!
Jose Lee: I think you misunderstood engineering is more difficult because major matters. You are applying to a major within the COE. Chemistry in the COC is harder because that is admit by major. But physics, bio etc is just as easy as English. Impacted majors only matter when you try to declare once you are a student. For L&S which includes science and humanities majors alike admits by the entire school. It simply doesn’t matter because everyone is a pre major. They have to fulfill GPA requirements to declare.
@johnlimster last year for the first time ever Berkeley let a select group of students (I think it was like the top 2% of applicants?) know early that they got in, so I found out in early February. That was when all the potential regents scholars were notified. After that there was no additional application, just one interview. I think around 50% of people who were interviewed actually got regents
@captainswan What were your GPA and test scores, if you don’t mind me asking?
@berserkkiwi If there an official source to back up the December 15th date as the last day LORs get sent out?
No official source. I learned of this date by the previous reply which is posted by PivotXD on 12/02/16 “…Some speculate that there might be specific impacted majors in which all applicants will be asked to submit a letter (can somebody confirm this for biology). BTW, they also said that they will send these emails in batches and the last emails will be sent by December 15th?”
@inpottershandsx2 Berkeley sends them in the first three weeks of December. I found it here:
http://admissions.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/Tools%20for%20Students.pdf
Scroll down a bit and you’ll see a little timeline
Hi, I did not get an email but I got the option to do so on my portal today, and I thought the last batch of emails went out yesterday. Is this a glitch or is it really true?
@berserkkiwi bio isn’t an impacted major at berkeley. it’s in l&s, and all l&s applicants are admitted as undeclared, regardless of their designated major.
I did not get a mail ask8ng fir lor…but when i opened the portal …i saw a request for lor…i m surprised why they dint send a email
@USUG21 and @acpadt What does your request for LOR on the portal look like? Im looking at my portal now and i dont see anything, nor did i receive an email
@inpottershandsx2 under application checklist, it leads me to a link saying Letters of Recommendation (bold/underline in blue). When I click on it, it says the whole “after initial review of you application, we invite you to…” and I can also add recommenders to my list.
@LeReddit I submitted 11/29 and received login on 12/6
The last day that Berkley sent out LoR requests can’t have been December 15th. I received mine on the 16th.
Can any one guide if the letter of recommendation can be of 1 nad half page or we have to send only 1 page lor
I don’t know that getting a request to submit letters of rec is necessarily indicative of a borderline candidate. Last year was the first year Cal did this letters of rec thing, and I believe all of the kids at D’s public high school who applied to Cal were given the option to submit them. The theory for why they all received the request was that the college counselors at her HS had participated in some Cal-sponsored rec letter class or program or something, so Cal may have felt it made sense to “test drive” these kids since it was the first year doing it. This is all speculation, of course. Even D, who was very qualified to attend Cal (and did get in and is attending) got the request. She submitted one from a teacher and one from her mock trial coach. It wasn’t a big deal for her as she’d had to get letters of rec for her private school apps anyway, so she either already had a letter ready to go or knew how to go about getting one quickly. The kids who had only applied to public schools were a bit freaked out and found themselves scrambling because they hadn’t planned on having to do this. As you may or may not know, some teachers/counselors/coaches/etc. require advance notice and/or even limit the number of recs they will do each year.
My advice? Ignore the “it’s optional” tone on the Cal website - get the letters of rec and submit them. With the number of applications exceeding last year’s, everything you can submit to give the admissions folks a complete picture of you can only be to your advantage.
Got an email today, but noticed it was on my portal 2 weeks ago.
Really anxious about LoR - Stats are 35 ACT, 3.88 UW, 4.46 W, 4.04 UC Capped, and I sent in a 760 Lit SAT 2.
Is it for borderline or is it a random sample of the applicants?