Good News, I heard from my friend that people he knew that was waitlisted by berkeley or ucla last year were all admitted in the end~ but it was econ major
@Orangered123 I heard that the waitlist has its order, so I’m wondering what’s the purpose of the essay anyway?
@HATETOWAIT47 is this for transfer waitlists? I know a lot of freshmen are admitted from the waitlist but I haven’t of many transfers who have been. Are you extremely sure about this?
@tuannguyenn It does? Maybe the essay would move you up or down by one or two spots? No idea. I mean it doesn’t hurt to try your best on writing a fabulous essay right?
I assumed that there was no order per se. I thought it was more of a situation where if only so many Polisci majors accepted and less than they thought ended up accepting then they might accept a few Polisci majors off the wait list.
Does anyone know how UCB choose from wait-list? I checked the yield rate for my major( computer science in BA). It was 71% last year. I don’t know how this is going to work because there is only one major has 100% yield rate which means most of the majors have additional spots, but if we look at the waitlist, there are people who are not even being offered while there are spots on the enrollment list.
my further assumption is some people were offered off the wait list but they didn’t accept.
@Orangered123 yep, from last year’s transfers. But i’m going to submit my SIR to SD first and wait for UCB.
@Orangered123 I have a friend from UCLA who has been to the admission office several times, and that’s what he said :-?? I think I’m gonna give Cal’s admission office a call after I submit the waitlist opt-in form :-c Anyway good luck to all of you guys \m/
does anyone know if Berkeley notifies students early. (Before June 1)
@xaul95 I don’t think so, the deadline of SIR for transfer students is June 1st, so it will take some time from then for Berkeley to proceed through the waitlist if there is any spot. We will be notified no later than July 1st tho.
@Weilan they perhaps take that into account and offer more admittances than they have spots for. Like the airlines.
@ohm888 at least after they admit me they won’t drag me off the campus and punch my face if students are over-enrolled. lol
Hey everyone! I recently attended a webinar regarding the UC waitlist process and thought I’d share some info. I hope it helps! 
- For the waitlist statement, the two main ideas to focus on are 1) how you would benefit from attending the particular campus and 2) how you would positively contribute to the campus community.
- Use any recent awards, EC's, honors, etc. to emphasize your motivation and drive to improve the campus community.
- Some students get waitlisted because they have in-progress major prep classes. If this is the case, in your waitlist statement, be sure to provide a progress report of how you are doing in the major prep class/classes. Include midterm grades and percentages.
- Regarding waitlist vs. Spring 2018 deferrals: Generally, UCB will only offer deferrals to those majoring in the arts/humanities or political science (don't quote me on this, just what the webinar host mentioned). Those with any other major will be put on the waitlist if qualified.
- The host mentioned that UCB will pull students off the waitlist by division, rather than major. This seems to only apply for majors within the College of Letters & Science. So, it seems that if a particular division is below enrollment, they will pull students to fill that division. Here's the link to L&S divisions and their corresponding majors: https://ls.berkeley.edu/divisions-and-units
- I asked whether the waitlists are ranked, but unfortunately, the answer was pretty vague. Basically, the schools say they don't rank the waitlists, but they do have some sort of system which categorizes students. On what the ranking is based, I'm not sure. GPA, major prep, and your opt-in essay will likely be contributing factors.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any stats regarding admits from the Fall 2016 waitlist. This is only the second year UCB has implemented the waitlist for transfers, so numbers are hard to find.
I don’t know, @Weilan. It is Berkeley. :))
@shayhello17 Can you be admitted to Spring 2018 from the waitlist?
Does anyone know what we should write on the form? I don’t understand why they list 6 courses there while there is a option to submit unofficial transcript
@saimin123 I spoke to a UCB admissions rep today, and they said that waitlisted students may be offered Fall or Spring admission. It depends on the actual numbers and space available.
@shayhello17 thank you so much for all the information! I and everyone else really appreciate it.
A m. @shayhello17 or anyone, has Cal accepted a larger number of students on its waitlist this year compared to last year, or is it just my confirmation/selection bias that are showing?
Also, I have hs friends who were placed on the freshmen waitlist and on their faq’s it mentioned how by previous years info, supposedly about 20 to 50 percent of waitlist students who opted into the waitlist were admitted. Since this is the second year they have had a transfer waitlist, and with the low number of waitlist acceptances last year (I think) do we have any idea what percentage of us will be offered spots?
@HATETOWAIT47 Is that real? How many Berkeley people that your friend knew waitlist off?
@Orangered123 You’re welcome! We’re all in the same boat, so the more help we can offer each other, the better! (:
In regards to your question, waitlist numbers and percentages are really hard to find, especially for transfers. I did ask the admission rep how many students were offered a spot on the list this year, but she didn’t give me a number. I think numbers are low, similar to how freshman waitlists used to be (in the 100s vs. the low 1000s in more recent years). It’s hard to predict who will actually be offered spots since waitlists are notoriously unpredictable. It’s all based on the number of SIRs and school need, and there’s no way of knowing that before June 1st.