<p>she said to be competitive, u need a 3.5</p>
<p>and after that, what distinguishes applicants is the essay so apparently thats the determining factor...so i'm hearing from one side that the essay will make or break the applicant..and then from the student front, all i hear is 'gpa! gpa! gpa! essay and ec dont mean anything, do all major prep, igetc, and get as close to a 4.0 as possible'</p>
<p>so who to believe?</p>
<p>any comments from people who know what they'r talking about?</p>
<p>they are full of it</p>
<p>wow you were sooo quick to respond lol</p>
<p>oh and whos 'they'?</p>
<p>Depends which major you're looking to go into...I think Wilderr put it perfectly, getting to your major's average GPA of accepted students gets you to the door but it's the EC/essay will take you through it.</p>
<p>what can i say, i'm an omnipotent hobo :)</p>
<p>i think gpa is the number one criteria, but essays do count. In any case don't worry about it, you still have like 2 years to go.</p>
<p>Don't you mean omniscient?</p>
<p>When I first asked about getting into Berkeley Haas she told me that you have to be insane to do it. She said she wouldn't advise going for Haas but at the same time she didn't want to discourage me. I told her I am insane enough to do it. Har har har....</p>
<p>i can't help but worry...i'm not studious and school doesn't come natural to me...in order to get good grades (As) i need to focus on school..i am not at the level yet to manage my time and be able to get A's and do a meaningful extracurricular activity = /</p>
<p>that's why there's ratemyprofessors.com =)</p>
<p>Then worry even more. Worry to the point you are willing to spend whatever time it takes for you to get straight A's. My thought process before I started this Berkeley thing is, if I want to get into Berkeley, then i'm going to get into Berkeley. There is no point in me of even ATTEMPTING getting into Berkeley if I cannot even attain the average GPA of accepted students. </p>
<p>Just think, how much do you really want to go to Berkeley? How many nights and weekends are you willing to sacrifice for it? Predict all the sacrifices you need to make if you really want to get into Berkeley, and make a firm decision now. It's either your going to execute everything that entails getting X GPA, X E.C.'s, X essay, or don't even try at all. </p>
<p>This is my PERSONAL philosophy by the way, it is in NO way a philosophy that everyone should or needs to have, it's just...the way I went about it.</p>
<p>no, i'm pretty sure i'm omnipotent.</p>
<p>This is my "law of UC admission" that I believe in:</p>
<p>The higher your GPA is, the less the essay matters, vice versa.</p>
<p>But of course, even if you have a 4.0 GPA with extremely hard courses, if your essay is like two sentences long, they will most likely reject you.</p>
<p>If your GPA is above 3.9, You'll be ok with a C-level Essay.
If your GPA is above 3.7, You'll be fine with a B-level Essay
If your GPA is above 3.5, You better get at least an A-level Essay.
If your GPA is below 3.5, you better work you butt off to write a nearly perfect essay that truely stands our from the rest.</p>
<p>But of course, the above figure is just a very rough generalization with a so-so impacted major.
If it's super impacted like Haas, you better write a Perfect essay even with a GPA above 3.8.</p>
<p>Hrrrm...why take the chance? Just write an A-level essay. I mean...we only have about four-five months to do it.</p>
<p>I just think that's it's important to write an A-level essay for every college you seriously want to go to. It's just too important to...write a subpar essay.</p>
<p>thanks to everyone...</p>
<p>and also for Berkeley, which is more important ECs or ESSAY???? does anyone know? or are we all basically told that both matter...</p>
<p>Scour through the undergrad site. It will give you a percentage break down of importance.</p>
<p>johnzen is absolutely right.</p>
<p>ECs don't matter much for transfer students than it does for the freshman applicants. However, they (adcom) expect you to write a decent essay.</p>
<p>And regardless of where you are applying, this is what they are looking for you to answer:</p>
<p>WHY did you choose to attend Community College for your freshman year (and for some people, sophomore year) rather than going straight to a 4 year institute.</p>
<p>I know that this isn't one of the prompt for any of the UC essays, but they expect you to answer it or at least briefly include in one of the three essays.</p>
<p>So I'd say Essay > EC</p>
<p>"The Gospel According to CardinalFocused"
I agree with johnnzen. You might as well write a stellar essay given the immense amount of time you have and as you never know if you are a borderline candidate (even with a gpa). So just write the damn essay as good as you can, if anything, its just fun writing about yourself and reflecting upon your college experience.</p>
<p>Surely, if you pay the boss ten thousand yen, any UC will be within reach.</p>