ilovepeople712

Is one really harder to get into than the other?

I mean on rankings, etc Berkeley is slightly higher always than UCLA. But is it that much harder to get into?

Does anyone have information/stats on this?

I'm an oos and I was accepted to UCLA last night. I'm just really nervous that the schools might be communicating and not wanting to accept oos students to both schools.

Any thoughts?

LeftistHominid

the schools don't communicate, it is an unsubstantiated myth

Aphrodite99

In recent years, UCLA has actually become more selective statistically than Berkeley. I think that you'll get into Cal ^_^, good luck next week!

RML

Aphrodite99, Cal has always been more difficult to get into than UCLA. Never was it the reversed despite that Cal's admissions are holistic. You can review the stats of both schools. Cal students have higher GPA and SATs scores.

mathboy98

"Selectivity" does not necessarily correspond to higher GPA + SAT scores. Several comparably selective schools have, for instance, much lower average GPA and SAT scores than Caltech does. It's a mixture of what they're looking for + what kinds of applicants they get which gives us a relative view of how selective they are.

fortify

Yeah, they just look at different stuff

ilovepeople712

thanks aphrodite99!

is it true that cal really favors rigorous course loads? that's what I've always heard...


for example if i've taken 11 ap's during my junior and senior year and maintained an unweighted gpa of 3.98--is that expected by cal? at least for oos?

ilovepeople712

what does cal look at different than ucla?

like what do each tend to favor?

JBM

Every school in the nation favors a rigorous course load...

RML

But isn't Caltech one of the most if not the most selective school in the nation?
I've never met anyone at Caltech who has not been accepted at one of the top schools. I mean, if you're strong enough to get into Caltech, you're most likely strong enough to get into any of the top 10 school of the nation.

Boiker

I was accepted to UCLA too and am waiting on Berkeley... I hope I get in

mathboy98

Oh yeah? Some students have outstanding academic strengths, but don't get accepted to schools like Princeton, MIT, etc. I know enough examples of this. Caltech admits students almost solely based on technical + academic achievement, and that's not how most schools do it. Sure, someone accepted to Caltech is qualified to get into other top schools, but that doesn't mean in reality that he/she will get into the other top schools applied to.

So "selectivity" is not solely a function of grades. If it were, the classes of most schools would look a lot, lot different. The fact that several schools foster different kinds of outstanding achievement is enough to guarantee that a Caltech student, though outstanding, isn't guaranteed a free ticket to other top schools at all.

UCBChemEGrad

How Berkeley says it selects applicants:
http://students.berkeley.edu/admissi...?id=56&navid=N

How UCLA says it selects applicants:
UCLA Undergrad Admissions: Freshman Selection

You can read between the tea leaves for differences (if any).

RML

mathboy, Cal applicants are smarter to begin with. (The stats are on the UC website.) But I must admit that I am talking in generality.

svcreddy91

^ not true, berkeley accepts a lot of UCLA rejects