Why my friends(intl.)with 2320 and 2200 up SAT respectively got rejected at Berkeley?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>So I have two friends who got rejected at Berkeley. </p>

<p>One friend who had 2200 and up SAT (I do not know his specific SAT score /breakdown) and he had amazing GPA (ranked top 1%~2% in his class). He took many many IB classes. He got rejected at Berkeley although he did apply to very tough engineering program. He did cross country and he has an amazing personality (if that add anything to college admission).</p>

<p>Other friend who had 2320 did get rejected at Berkeley. She had 116 TOEFL (out of 120) However, I do not know her GPA. But she did not have that much amazing extracurricular I believe.</p>

<p>Now, they are all international students from Korea. My first friend did definitely have great academic background, so maybe it was just the fact that he applied to competitive program at Berkeley. For second friend, maybe her GPA wasn't that great (which I have no idea).</p>

<p>Is Berkeley this competitive to get accepted? I see some out of state students with much lower SAT score to get accepted. Maybe is it just the fact that Berkeley have quota for international students and Korean students are statistically much more competitive.</p>

<p>Luckily, I am Permanent Resident (I have green card) of United States living in other state than California, so I think I would probably considered as Out of State rather than International (which I do not know if that makes any difference).</p>

<p>I was curious how qualified candidates (in my opinion) get straight rejection from Berkeley... Any opinions?</p>

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<p>Berkeley is tough and has too many applicants.</p>

<p>UC’s have obligations to in-state students first and foremost.</p>

<p>Berkeley has tough, competitive majors.</p>

<p>OOS students pay full freight at California universities because scholarship monies are reserved for in-state residents whose parents pay California taxes.</p>

<p>If you are OOS and your stats are competitive, you will probably get in because California needs you at full pay.</p>

<p>If you apply for financial aid at Cal, it will be noticed and you may get rejected.</p>

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<p>The problem is, there are another 5,000+ students with 2200 or 2300 SAT scores, so you need to be an outstanding student AND be different and stick out from the crowd. Having a good story helps a ton in your personal statement.</p>

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<p>I appreciate it! Is there any difference between OOS and international students??</p>

<p>Wow, I am not sure if I applied for aid. So in this case, International students are preferred over OOS, who can technically get little bit of aid while international students have almost no chance…</p>

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<p>International students pay full fees too and have limited financial aid.
OOS pay full fees-Cal doesn’t really have merit aid for OOS.</p>

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<p>Green card means you have permanent residency, so you may go in as OOS if you’ve taken your high school courses in the US.</p>

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<p>Berkeley looks at GPA more than test scores.</p>

<p>Also, what division (L&S, CoE, CoC, CNE, CED) matters in terms of selectivity. In the CoE, what major also matters.</p>

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<p>Ok! I applied to L&S. And if I could have able to specified, I definitely chose Chemistry (number 2 in the country…oops…I shouldn’t have chosen this!).</p>

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<p>Don’t you need to be in the College of Chemistry in order to be a chemistry major?</p>

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<p>There is a Chemistry Major in L&S where you take the exact same classes except you take the seven breadth requirements in subjects that aren’t chemistry, while in the COC you take all science breadths.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine with 2050SAT got accepted last year to Berkeley from Canada. His major was undecided Engineering (which is one of the most competitive majors in Berkeley). His GPA was unimpressive IMO (~37/45 IB diploma), I’m guessing he was in the top quartile of his class, but not too spectacular.</p>

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<p>I had a 1940 when I was accepted. Obviously not a great test taker but I was confident in the rest of my application. The standards for international students are known to be much more strict compared to domestic applicants, so that might be an influencing factor.</p>

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<p>Maybe your two friends were competing against an extremely competitive Korean pool. Even though their stats were high, their fellow Korean applicants stats/EC/etc. were even higher!</p>

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<p>OP never mentioned the GPAs of the high-test-score applicants who got rejected. Berkeley does emphasize high school grades more than test scores.</p>

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<p>This data is from UC Berkeley’s admissions website and details the freshman class that entered Fall of 2013:</p>

<p>CA Resident Out-of-State International
Admits/Apps 9,124 / 42,548 3,341 / 13,856 1,647 / 11,288
Admit Rate 21.4% 24.1% 14.6%
Avg. GPA Apps 3.60 3.7 3.69
Avg. GPA Admit 3.89 3.92 3.9
Avg. SAT Apps 1839 1985 1980
Avg. SAT Admit 2044 2141 2132
Avg. ACT Apps 27 30 28
Avg. ACT Admit 30 33 31</p>

<p>Interesting notes: the strongest group is OOS, and the international group with just a 14.6% acceptance rate faces the toughest odds. Both of the OP’s friends had SAT scores above the average for admitted international students (2132).</p>

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<p>Also note that the above numbers are across all majors. The average is higher for certain majors/colleges (ie, EECS, undeclared engineering, Chemistry in College of Chemistry, and probably some others I don’t know about).</p>