last year it only worked for the March acceptances
or maybe people didn’t check earlier? I saw that the portal astrology thread only started in March
What is a portal astrology? I’ve been seeing this since last year but never figured out what this means.
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When anxious college applicants believes that any changes in their college admissions portal indicates whether or not they have been accepted or rejected
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In addition, not in contradiction to @Gumbymom:
- Application decisions involve complex operations with systems such as the application portal, admit reception etc. generally disparate from each other
- Each of these systems get through a change management process leading up to decision release and even afterwards based on IT timelines and other considerations
- This process can lead to leaks and indicators in unanticipated ways
- Occasionally, people can hypothesize about potential indicators and identify said leaks by triangulating them to eventual outcomes
- When some of these guesses turn to be right, such as last year’s admit reception loophole, they set expectations for subsequent cycles
In the end, people are doing this as a way to manage their anxiety, commiserate with fellow travelers, and in general have some fun during a stressful time.
Long live portal astrology 
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Yeah, I think t’s hard to just sit on your hands and wait, so portal astrology gives people a sense that they can do something other than passively wait for a decision.
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My comment is the definition of Portal Astrology taken from the Urban Dictionary. I completely understand the thought process and the idea of applicants feeling they have some control but when you are trying to manage several UC discussions with hundreds of posts about this subject, it is overwhelming. This is the reason there is a dedicated discussion for the Portal Astrology.
If I was an applicant, I would find it more stressful especially if I did not have the right indicators for an acceptance. Needless worry is not worth the time.
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It seems that when it comes to Berkeley, the amount of overall interest, commenting and portal-izing is second to none. I believe that r/Berkeley on reddit has the most members of any school in the country. On college confidential, UCB has more comments than any other UC by far, maybe any other school? (someone can confirm). But beyond anything, the portal astrology is through the roof for UCB.
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Perhaps we could speculate that is because of all the super anxious and super smart CS applicants that Berkeley attracts?
UC Berkeley decision came out just now. My DD got in. 125 K applicants this year.
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Was she MET or Regents? Congrats!
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she is not Met . I don’t know regents info as she is still in school. Just sent me text msg. Literally 5 mins back she got mail from Cal to check her portal.
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Congratulations!
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What a difference a few minutes make. right? No need for astrology now.
@primitive_caffeine this is the source code from the withdraw page on my portal.
form.conditionalPromptConfig =
[{“field”:“b2b77b30-6e69-4699-9986-d89930266f5e”,“conditions”:[{“prompts”:[“32b157f3-17ca-4511-b4ed-6bec33c5d94e”],“condition”:function(form)
{return ((true) || (false));
}},{“prompts”:[“I will not be coming to UC Berkeley and wish to cancel my admission. I understand that the admission deposit is not refundable.”],“condition”:function(form)
{return (false) && (false) && (true);
}},{“prompts”:[“I will not be coming to UC Berkeley and wish to withdraw my application.”],“condition”:function(form)
{return (false) && (false) && (true);
}},{“prompts”:[“===RETIRED Prompts===”],“condition”:function(form)
{return (false);
}},{“prompts”:[“I am no longer interested in attending UC Berkeley and wish to withdraw my application.”],“condition”:function(form)
{return (false) && (false);
}}]}];
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Congrats I think you got in
Wdym lol I don’t think it has any significance
what’s your source code look like?
Nah I’m too scared to do it- not 100% accuracy but definitely a good sign.
you just click withdraw the application and it takes you to a confirmation page. It’s not a one-click. On the confirmation page you an check the source code and then cancel the request afterward. But I doubt it has any significance. We could check if the code matches though.