Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

Brother had a 3.98 at DVC and an A in a class he took at Berkeley in fall. Applied to Haas and was denaid. Super disappointed but he's going to try to appeal. If it's denaid he's going to take a year off and also apply is other business schools.

Just really disappointed because he has better grades way better work experience and tougher classes then me when I was accepted.

I know I wouldn't be admitted if I applied today. Who knows what the admissions officers are thinking on a particular day and what their mood is. Certainly feel for those families.

However, I disagree with jackbauerish that having parents who are Cal alumni and who may donate to their alma mater should make any difference in whether their child gets a leg up or not in the admissions game. The beauty of the UC and CSU system is that they are equal access for all residents of our wonderful state. This embodies America's spirit of equal opportunity for all. I certainly wouldn't want my kids to get into Cal because of my alumus and donation status. It should be based on their merits and their merits alone.

PapaBear93;842487381 said:

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The beauty of the UC and CSU system is that they are equal access for all residents of our wonderful state.

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That's precisely the problem; it's not true. Today, it seems to be an advantage if your from out of state and/or if your parents can't afford to pay your way. If your parents are doctors, lawyers or other professionals your odds of getting into Cal are not good.

I've become so disillusioned with Cal's admission practices that I've decided to no longer make my annual contributions to academic departments.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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They, um, sound like your typical/average UC Berkeley applicant. I bet the admissions office is flooded with people with more than 4.0 GPAs and very high test scores who've done a ton of extracurriculars. I bet they could fill many classes with those kinds of applicants.

okaydo;842487388 said:

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They, um, sound like your typical/average UC Berkeley applicant. I bet the admissions office is flooded with people with more than 4.0 GPAs and very high test scores who've done a ton of extracurriculars. I bet they could fill many classes with those kinds of applicants.

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Yeah... That all sounds basic these days...

The out of state deal is definitely true. People I know had a grandson admitted who was out of state with an approx. 3.7. Nothing else special about his background.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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There are so many applications for Cal that a large number of well qualified applicants do not get admitted. And since the process involves reviews by individuals who read the applications and the essays, the decisions are not all uniform. this is why the essay is sooooo important. That is what hooks the reader.
I have thought that if you are the child of an alum you should be entitled to an interview (not special admission criteria). But that might be too prefertial or too difficult to administer.

File an appeal and make the points in the appeal. These two kids might be able to make a good case.

SRBear;842487394 said:

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The out of state deal is definitely true. People I know had a grandson admitted who was out of state with an approx. 3.7. Nothing else special about his background.

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The stats are available, the out of state kids have higher everything than the in state kids.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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Wah wah.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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You basically just said they were admitted to schools all ranked and is considered to be below Berkeley. If they were accepted to stanford, Ivies etc then your complaint is valid. Getting accepted to USC, UCLA, Duke is good, but not berkeley good.

Golden One;842487385 said:

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That's precisely the problem; it's not true. Today, it seems to be an advantage if your from out of state and/or if your parents can't afford to pay your way. If your parents are doctors, lawyers or other professionals your odds of getting into Cal are not good.

I've become so disillusioned with Cal's admission practices that I've decided to no longer make my annual contributions to academic departments.

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This is just silly.

I understand the disappointment, for many of you on a personal level, but there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of applicants, with the same credentials, background, etc., that many of you are saying should have given your relatives, loved ones, etc., a boost in admissions. I have a close friend that sits on the Admissions Council at Cal (yes, really, would disclose his name but obviously, I can't for his confidentiality). During the entire process, he called stressed out because of the sheer number of qualified applicants that they had to reject. He let me know about the myriad variables that go into play in trying to choose a well-rounded, diverse class, but had to concede, there was nothing they could do to make everyone happy. And yes, we both said straight up, WE WOULD HAVE BEEN REJECTED FROM CAL HAD WE BEEN APPLYING TODAY. When the process was over, everyone on the council was briefed about what to expect from those that were rejected: angry phone calls, accusations of racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, heterophobia, political agendas, (insert anything you can think) of, and the one thing this thread made me think of "my son's friend's cousin has this grade point average which is lower than my daughter's, yet she wasn't admitted".

jebus;842487406 said:

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You basically just said they were admitted to schools all ranked and is considered to be below Berkeley. If they were accepted to stanford, Ivies etc then your complaint is valid. Getting accepted to USC, UCLA, Duke is good, but not berkeley good.

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UCLA is now the toughest UC to gain admission to, so more power to them on that. Ridiculously tough now to get to Westwood. Depends on what ranking system you're looking at in terms of Berkeley being ranked higher than Duke, for many, a private school whose prestige has become comparable to Stanford's outside the Ivy League.

My son had a number of friends from a local JC all applied for transfer, all exceptional students. All got rejected, except for one student. Guess where he's from? Asia.

I think the problem is grade-inflation at the high school level. You have to do something to let kids separate themselves.

MolecularBear007;842487419 said:

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I think the problem is grade-inflation at the high school level. You have to do something to let kids separate themselves.

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Extra-attention should be given to applicants who check the box: ()go to football games
We need students who will fill CMS for our few home games.

What this topic does make clear is that the competition in the classroom is an even bigger challenge for Cal student-athletes, especially revenue sports with the travel time to away games added to their schedules.
.

HungryCalBear;842487417 said:

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My son had a number of friends from a local JC all applied for transfer, all exceptional students. All got rejected, except for one student. Guess where he's from? Asia.

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Makes sense. Asian students study a lot harder and focus on academic achievement from their early childhoods. Their devoted parents do everything they can to push them to success and provide excellent role models.

conservativebear;842487416 said:

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UCLA is now the toughest UC to gain admission to, so more power to them on that. Ridiculously tough now to get to Westwood. Depends on what ranking system you're looking at in terms of Berkeley being ranked higher than Duke, for many, a private school whose prestige has become comparable to Stanford's outside the Ivy League.

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The Average GPA and SAT score of incoming students at UCLA is lower than Berkeley... Just because more students apply to UCLA doesn't mean its harder to get in. Thats like saying SDSU is harder to get into than UCSD because lots of those applying to SDSU wouldn't have a chance at getting into UCSD.

Let's show a little empathy. From a parent's standpoint it hurts. I wanted both my kids to go to Cal as I did, following both my Mom and Dad. We donate. My daughter was admitted, but chose to go elsewhere. My son got an athletic scholarship to go elsewhere. They were happy, and that is good enough for me. There are no legacies. Admission standards change to reflect the times, but children of Regents and politicians have always gotten in.

The real problem is that because of budget cuts and rising costs, Cal "balances" the class with out of state and foreign students who pay full tuition. This is a nation wide problem. Complain about the bloated Cal budget due to too many administrators. meanwhile, tell your kids to do well in college and then apply for grad school at Cal.

I do think we will discover that in the long term, these skewed admission policies will result in fewer donations.

Does anybody know if you can get a copy of your essay? Assuming one got into Cal, would it be in your registrars file? I would assume that the others are discarded.

I'm one of those who had to have gotten in on my essay alone. I never kept a copy of it as I finished it about 60 minutes before the post mark date. It was pretty much a pull it off the word processor and take it to the post office.

CALiforniALUM;842487430 said:

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Does anybody know if you can get a copy of your essay? Assuming one got into Cal, would it be in your registrars file? I would assume that the others are discarded.

I'm one of those who had to have gotten in on my essay alone. I never kept a copy of it as I finished it about 60 minutes before the post mark date. It was pretty much a pull it off the word processor and take it to the post office.

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I don't understand the point of this post. Is it to humble brag about how great your essay was despite spending little time and effort on it? Or do you actually want a copy of some meaningless essay from years ago?

I swear there are some real dbags here. A guy comes here to vent about how his kid got rejected at his alma mater, and everybody's reaction is to just tell him that his kid is nothing special. To the OP, chin up. If your kid really wants to go to Cal, there's always a chance he or she could transfer. If not, there's always grad school. It could also be a blessing in disguise to go somewhere less academically competitive/cutthroat.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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Ok, it has been a while since I was in high school, but how does one get a GPA of 4.5? I remember an A got you 4 grade points, an A minus got you 3.7, a B plus 3.3.... We didn't have A+ in my school but I understood that some schools did which would earn you 4.3. How do you get a 4.5? Is this some new-fangled 5 point scale? If so, I'm not sure 4.5 is all that good. Some schools have very lax standards (e.g., over 90 percent of Harvard undergraduates graduate with honors... what does it mean to graduate with honors when 90 percent of you do so... that you showed up sober?).

Is there some new 5 point scale?

maybe their essays sucked.

okaydo;842487388 said:

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They, um, sound like your typical/average UC Berkeley applicant. I bet the admissions office is flooded with people with more than 4.0 GPAs and very high test scores who've done a ton of extracurriculars. I bet they could fill many classes with those kinds of applicants.

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Yeah, but my kids are special!

I sure hope that this board is not representative of the entire Cal family. What a bunch of entitled whiners. Redneck f&$@ fAces.

:gobears:

BluesandGold2;842487433 said:

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Ok, it has been a while since I was in high school, but how does one get a GPA of 4.5? I remember an A got you 4 grade points, an A minus got you 3.7, a B plus 3.3.... We didn't have A+ in my school but I understood that some schools did which would earn you 4.3. How do you get a 4.5? Is this some new-fangled 5 point scale? If so, I'm not sure 4.5 is all that good. Some schools have very lax standards (e.g., over 90 percent of Harvard undergraduates graduate with honors... what does it mean to graduate with honors when 90 percent of you do so... that you showed up sober?).

Is there some new 5 point scale?

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AP (Advanced Placement) and Honors classes in High School get an 1 point bump (ie - an A is worth 5, an B is worth 4, etc). I do not know how a class is determined to really be an AP or Honors class - whether that is left up to various school districts or if there is some independent means to determine if the class is truly challenging enough to warrant the extra 1 point.

If half a kid's classes are AP or Honors classes and half are "regular" and the kid gets straight A's, then the GPA for UC purposes is 4.5

YuSeeBerkeley;842487431 said:

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I swear there are some real dbags here. A guy comes here to vent about how his kid got rejected at his alma mater, and everybody's reaction is to just tell him that his kid is nothing special. To the OP, chin up. If your kid really wants to go to Cal, there's always a chance he or she could transfer. If not, there's always grad school. It could also be a blessing in disguise to go somewhere less academically competitive/cutthroat.

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He didn't say it was his kid.

Hail2Calif;842487438 said:

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AP (Advanced Placement) and Honors classes in High School get an 1 point bump (ie - an A is worth 5, an B is worth 4, etc). I do not know how a class is determined to really be an AP or Honors class - whether that is left up to various school districts or if there is some independent means to determine if the class is truly challenging enough to warrant the extra 1 point.

If half a kid's classes are AP or Honors classes and half are "regular" and the kid gets straight A's, then the GPA for UC purposes is 4.5

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It just seems they're handing out 4.0+ GPAs like hot cakes these days. It's like Oprah's going, "you get a 4.0 GPA, you get a 4.0 GPA."

Or perhaps being able to easily apply online has resulted in more applicants with 4.0+ GPAs.

Anyways, what I don't understand is this: Do well-off schools, or schools filled with smart kids (like North Hollywood High) have multiple AP classes on the same subject?

At my high school, we didn't have that many AP classes, and you had to compete to be 1 of 25 to get into each one. I can't imagine academically inclined schools limiting each AP class to just 25 people.


Oh, and here's a NY Times article by a UC Berkeley essay reader:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/education/edlife/lifting-the-veil-on-the-holistic-process-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley.html?_r=0

Better to have a lottery but then people would still be disappointed. There are just too many kids chasing too few elite schools. The Universities make it worse by telling everyone what they want- academics, service, passion - so everyone checks off the same boxes and has the same profile. Build a house in Mexico, play a violin. Fact is, it's just the new normal except future anthropologists will wonder why there were so many violins and so little music.

bearsandgiants;842487436 said:

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maybe their essays sucked.

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Maybe they wrote them all by themselves instead of hiring an essay life coach.

jackbauerish;842487368 said:

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Two kids from different Cal families with 4.5 and 4.3 GPAs; ACT scores in the upper 30% percentile of admitted students; extracurriculars the length of War and Peace and all of their parents graduated from Cal are denied admission, however admitted to Usc, Ucla, Claremont, Duke and Vanderbilt. ANd they want money from alums???If they had just checked the unverifiable box their parents didn't attend college and not tell the truth!:headbang
Pretty shi**y when Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians get all their friends and family tagged!

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ACT in the 30th percentile? That's weak. It's been over 10 years since I graduated high school but even back then you better have had a 4.5 gpa and top 10% SAT and great extracurriculars.

Is upper 30% good? I'm not sure of what it is now but I remember when I was doing the SATs, we were aiming for higher than that

HungryCalBear;842487417 said:

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My son had a number of friends from a local JC all applied for transfer, all exceptional students. All got rejected, except for one student. Guess where he's from? Asia.

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I view JCs as less competitive than good high schools. That may not be true today, but I don't know that. When I came out of high schooI, we called the local JC a high school with ashtrays. I know the JCs are supposed to be feeders to the UCs. I do not see why these days an excellent JC student would have much of a chance at getting in to Cal. One of the other campuses, maybe. But not Cal.

Dbearson;842487447 said:

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Is upper 30% good? I'm not sure of what it is now but I remember when I was doing the SATs, we were aiming for higher than that

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He said upper 30% of admitted students. Work on reading comprehension people!

oski003;842487450 said:

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He said upper 30% of admitted students. Work on reading comprehension people!

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I'm a third generation bear and made that well known in my essay. I'm not sure if it made a difference, but I got in with grades and test scores that were right about the median for my incoming class. This was about 15 years ago, so times may have changed.

The kids who got in to Duke, Claremont etc have great choices. Most successful people in this world never set foot on the Berkeley campus.