<p>So I keep hearing/seeing that UCLA weighs their GPAs as 70%-80% of an applicant's application while UCB is more "lenient" (for lack of a better word) about relatively bad SATs/GPAs as long as you have excelled in some other significant way. Is this true? I mean, I keep hearing stories about people with lower GPAs getting rejected from UCLA but admitted to Cal because they have significant extracurriculars and awards. Can anyone shed some light onto this theory? Or is it just a myth?</p>
<p>I think speculating on what the UCs look for in an application is just that - speculation, and unfounded speculation to say the least. The truth is, no one except the adcoms know. I have worse numbers than a lot of UCLA rejectees but got in. Someone probably has anectodal evidence of people with poor scores or gpa yet amazing extra curriculars and awards getting rejected from Berkeley. The admissions process isn’t a science; the adcoms may as well be sticking applications to a wall and playing darts, but the crux is that NO ONE ELSE KNOWS and 90% of the applicants will stop giving a crap by the end of the month. Just do your best on the app, take your mind off it and leave it to fate (or, presumably, the highly trained monkeys in the admissions department).</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot of people rejected at UCLA in the last 24 hours who had far, far better “numbers” than I…and I somehow got in. I think it’s impossible to know what they’re really looking for unless you work in admissions.</p>
<p>I know one person who attends UC Berkeley and they had 0 extracurriculars, volunteer hours, and achievements…but an unimaginably high GPA and 2350 SAT. We’ll never know how they choose!</p>
<p>I agree that it is all simply speculation. After all, you can’t really know what a person’s application looks like. They could embellish their achievements, or forget to put some down. Also, many people don’t discuss their SATs or may participate in extracurriculars that you don’t know about. So sometimes it seems as if underqualified people get accepted. Similarly it may seem like people who are very qualified don’t get in - but perhaps they had an abysmal SAT score or personal statement, which no one else would know about. Just do your best when it comes to your things, you should be fine in the long run.</p>