Since Berkeley is in the UC system, it has this arts requirement for applicants, which reads as follows:
“One yearlong course of visual and performing arts chosen from the following: dance, drama/theater, music or visual art.”
Since I don’t live in California, I didn’t know about this requirement so I didn’t take a full year class of art. However, I’ve taken two semester-long arts classes: one called “cinema studies” where we watched/analyzed movies, and one called “art studio” where we did various fine arts projects, such as painting and sculpting.
Is anyone familiar with Berkeley’s arts requirement? Would the fact that I have not taken a full year class of art prevent me from getting into the school, or would I be ok with my two (unrelated) semester classes?
Another poster asked this question in regards to OOS courses taken for the Arts requirement. Below is the response.
For more information about what courses may satisfy the requirement you can go to the UCOP website http://ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/f-visual-performing-arts/index.html.
In addition, while the University of California have a set pattern of academic courses that are required for admission, we understand that these subject requirements may be difficult for some applicants to meet due to differences in school curriculum.
All applications for admission are reviewed within the context of courses available to them; if a particular required subject is not available, we will consider the application without it. We would not deny an applicant due to any one single criteria, therefore if the applicant is otherwise a strong competitive applicant but they are missing the VPA course (1 semester or the entire year) we can still admit that student.
There is no single academic path that we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous high school curriculum available to them.