Hi after submitting my app two weeks ago, I just looked at my portal for Cal and saw that after an “initial review” of my application, they invited me to send optional letters of recommendation. Does anyone know what this could be an indication of? Or anyone last year who got offered to send letters, what was your experience? Thanks!!
There is a LOR discussion thread for UCB. Last year and I believe this year it is a random sampling of applicants. It could mean many things such as Low GPA/High test scores, Borderline stats, High GPA/High Test scores, High GPA/Low test scores etc… This your opportunity to showcase your talents, your academics and whatever else that sets you apart from the rest of the applicants.
I could be wrong but based on the sample of responses on this board, it sounds like they are asking more applicants for LOR this year.
Do you mind telling me your stats? I got one too today and I’m wondering if it’s random or there’s a correlation.
My stats:
2120 SAT
4.19 UC GPA
ACT: 34
Unweighted GPA: 4.00
(Im out of state so I won’t bother with my weighted because they don’t consider any of my honors courses in GPA calculation anyways)
I don’t think getting a request to submit letters of rec is necessarily indicative of a borderline candidate - your stats as stated above are very good. 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.
Anyway, my recommendation is to get letters of rec and submit them. I know the Cal website says you won’t be at a disadvantage if you don’t submit them, but why would they ask for them if they wouldn’t make any difference in the selection process? This “optional” verbiage may be there due to either legal reasons or that they are still in the “pilot program” phase and just haven’t made them mandatory yet. With Cal’s more holistic approach to admissions (vs. a UCLA, for example, that leans more heavily on grades and test scores), giving the admissions folks as complete a picture of yourself as possible (assuming it is positive) can only be to your advantage. And now that the stats are out for applications for next year - numbers are up for UC’s across the board - you really need to give yourself every chance you can. Good luck!