<p>@ocnative </p>
<p>Yeah, lol. It’s nothing personal, though. I’m just an argumentative person.</p>
<p>@2016Candles I agree d: It takes me perhaps a hundred more tries to make it work. So let me try again: I’m really sorry, 2016Candles. To me, collegeconfidential was indispensable for my successful admission, and I treat any weak argument like poison in the veins of a loved one. Mistaken assumptions are deadly, and can alter the fate of an otherwise successful future. I don’t want people giving advices based on unproven assumptions.</p>
<p>@CollegeDropout1 </p>
<p><a href=“Student Profile - Office of Undergraduate Admissions”>http://admissions.berkeley.edu/studentprofile</a> </p>
<p>@sarahchun</p>
<p>I feel your pain. I took 19 units last fall on 2 campuses, including an incredibly tedious calc 1 class and I was also rejected from Berkeley. i think the problem you, me, and that other guy with a 3.98 have accepting our decisions is because we assumed the college admissions was something different from what it actually is. What I am saying is college admission to these ~Top 25 National Universities is NOT merit based. The fact is you could have had a 4.0 GPA, assume ECs, and “good” (and I’ll get to what good is later) essays and still have been rejected. (the reality for a lot of freshman applicants)</p>
<p>1st) On the application it asks for your last high school, your address (Zip Code), and your parents jobs and incomes for a reason. Basically they don’t weight your application in absolute terms, instead they scale it to your demographic info. If you come from a good HS and you like in a rich zip code and your parents make a lot of money you are EXCEPTED to get good grades so your 4.0 doesn’t mean as much. Likewise for ECs; the bar is raised that much higher. Inversely the same is true if you put down that you live in a crappy zip code and you went to a bad HS. </p>
<p>2nd) Essay. What is a good essay? From what I have seen basically it’s one that emotionally moves the reader. If your essay is amazingly well written but it doesn’t talk about saving food for the homeless, or being homeless, being an adopted sun to your neighbor or coming from an abusive home, then your essay doesn’t matter. So content such as volunteering at your local high school or doing a great job at your internship or anything like that doesn’t matter at all. </p>
<p>3rd) Let’s just say you did get passed whatever arbitrary bar they set for your GPA/EC and they your essay was good enough (or they didn’t care about it) well that still doesn’t mean you will be accepted. Maybe your application will be rejected because they need to make full pay intl student or maybe because they need fulfill their demographic (UMR) target. </p>
<p>Basically there is always an element of luck / chance when it comes down to ~top 25 university admissions. Like I said originally you were probably rejected because you didn’t have enough ECs but as I laid out above you could have been the “perfect” student and still rejected. As transfer applications increase, the results become more and more like freshman applications. </p>
<p>In an attempt to close the matter, let me summarize a consensus:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA is crucial.</li>
<li>ECs are important, but in the case you have a valid reason for not having ECs, write them down in your application</li>
<li>AA happens in the holistic process (based on the application reader’s confessions) but do not rely on it</li>
<li>If you have a 4.0 GPA with impressive ECs and you are an underrepresented minority in-need, and you are sure that your magnificent person was reflected in your personal statement, yet despite all of the above you were still rejected, then no explanation is the best explanation</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m sorry for the hostility, but as I said, not only do unproven assumptions tick me off, they are fatal for someone else’s future.</p>
<p>You sure do have an axe to grind with UCLA and Berkeley rejecting you, @bomerr. Your recent post history indicates it. Do you really think it’s unfair that they rejected you?</p>
<p>If anyone takes the advice, helpful hints, etc, of people on CC without doing their own due diligence, that’s their own negligence. No one here is claiming to be and end all authority on the UC admission process. If someone takes my words or anyone else’s on CC, without picking up a phone or sending an email to someone of authority at their respected institution, that’s on them. </p>
<p>In regards to my post about why you didn’t get a cal grant, I merely threw out possibilities as to why one may be denied. I even used the word “possibly”. If you read the word possibly, and interpret that to mean “I am an authority, please take my words as gospel”, again that’s on you. @sarahchun </p>
<p>@Cayton
I’m sure some of the people who got in were better than me, no question, but I also know some of other people were for a fact not. </p>
<p>@bomerr </p>
<p>Well, forgive me for being skeptical of your claims that you know “for a fact” that some of your fellow applicants who were accepted were less qualified. I doubt you know what made their applications stand out where yours didn’t.Even if you did, I’m not sure you’re right in your implicit claim that you should’ve gotten in while they should’ve been rejected/waitlisted.</p>
<p>But whatever. Best of luck in getting in at Berkeley/LA next year since you’re reapplying.</p>
<p>Bomerr already got accepted to USC, so he is very satisfied with his accomplishments right now haha. </p>
<p>@Cayton
I have their entire application so I have a good feeling I know why they got in. </p>
<p>@UnsungHero1
Strong Points</p>
<p>OK, @UnsungHero1, you sound somewhat racist right now.</p>
<p>It’s also kind of disturbing that @bomerr rated @UnsungHero1’s absurd accusation as “helpful.”</p>
<p>@UnsungHero1</p>
<p>Strong post to avatar ratio. </p>
<p>@Cayton </p>
<p>I also found that disturbing.</p>
<p>@sarahchun This thread was mainly out of curiosity and/or maybe helping someone out who is considering not participating in ECs in favor of maintaining a certain GPA.</p>
<p>I also didn’t appeal because according to the criteria, one must present new information (academic or otherwise) to even be considered for an appeal and I did not have that. Funnily enough, I saw a thread where someone wrote about how they loved the school and how they saw themselves as a great fit and they got in via appeal. And no, I don’t think I’ve ever considered not attending an exceptional school like UCLA to try and gamble getting into Berkeley next year. Who knows? Maybe I apply next year and I get rejected by both UCLA and Berkeley. Not going to take that chance. </p>
<p>I guess I am referring to the more competitive majors, but I still feel like 3.8 is just average for Cal. @collegedropout1 are you going to go to UCSD for comp-sci ??? Congrats on the wait-list acceptance by the way! </p>
<p>@UnsungHero1 I am grateful, which is why I am overprotective of its people.</p>
<p>@2016Candles Yes, but why mention it as one of the possibilities when it is already an impossibility? It’s like saying, that dead person is possibly alive. And the responsibility comes from both server and client sides. Unproven assumptions can be deadly, especially when people strongly forward the claim as truth, e.g. “99.9% probability that it was because you had no ECs.” Again, for a third time, I am sorry for the hostility.</p>
<p>@pragmatic23 I understand. Thank you for sharing us your situation. Yes, I was aware of those appeals as well and that’s why I think you had a great chance. Good luck with UCLA, my cousin went there for premed and then went off to Yale for med school (most of my cousins are from UCLA too, and I’m the only one in Cal, and they are the pride of our kin). Make sure you meet Terence Tao and ask him for an autograph for me!</p>
<p>@Jewbacca Thanks! I still have not decided where to go. I think I’ll have my decision my tomorrow. </p>
<p>@sarahchun as someone said it is all a crapshoot in some ways. Just keep up your GPA and choose your own course. BTW, did you see that article about the seemingly arbitrary nature of selecting students at Cal? It was written about seven months ago, I believe. It was in the NYT.</p>
<p>@lindyk8</p>
<p><a href=“Lifting the Veil on the Holistic Process at the University of California, Berkeley - The New York Times”>Lifting the Veil on the Holistic Process at the University of California, Berkeley - The New York Times;
<p>This is another interesting read by Richard Sander, UCLA School of Law</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.seaphe.org/pdf/uclaadmissions.pdf”>http://www.seaphe.org/pdf/uclaadmissions.pdf</a></p>