<p>For transfers, extracurriculars and essays are nothing compared to academic history (not exaggerating). They want students who can succeed, not students who know how to show up to places and volunteer.</p>
<p>This case perplexes me and I wish OP updates us today so we can find out just what went wrong.</p>
<p>@AtypicalAsian
I agree. Thank you for the reassurance.</p>
<p>@xtony1
I will be calling them in about 10 hours and will post back here exactly what I find out.</p>
<p>Please update us when you do call them! Good luck</p>
<p>I think its safe to say many of us are dying to find out what they say!</p>
<p><strong><em>UPDATE</em></strong></p>
<p>Hey guys. I called UCLA and UC Berkeley today. Here is what I was told by each university</p>
<p>UC Berkeley:
I first called the undergrad admissions office. They told me that they cant tell me a specific reason why I was not admitted because the school of engineering decided everything. I asked to be transferred to someone who could help me in the school of engineering. So she gave me another number to call. I called the number, and the person who answered told me to email <a href=“mailto:mthowell@berkeley.edu”>mthowell@berkeley.edu</a>. I felt like I was being put off, and expressed this to the madam I was on the phone with. She assured me that the email would be answered. I have already emailed Edwina Taylor (The head of engineering at Berkeley) multiple times and have yet to get a response to any of my inquiries. This was not very helpful, nonetheless, I will be sending out another email today, and I will update this thread with the response as soon as I get it.</p>
<p>UCLA:
The representative I spoke with at UCLA was far more helpful than anyone at Berkeley. The rep at UCLA actually pulled up my application and had a look. She took a brief look at my requirements and acknowledged that everything was in order. I asked her if taking that Linear Algebra class at Ohlone was a problem, and she said that it absolutely SHOULD NOT be. So taking the Linear Algebra class at Ohlone WAS NOT the reason that I wasnt accepted to UCLA. I then asked her about extra curriculars, and if my lack thereof was the reason for denial. She then told me that THEY DO NOT HOLD LACK OF EXTRA CIRRICULARS AGAINST TRANSFER STUDENTS AT UCLA. In other words, extra cirriculars are not required for admission, and not having them will not affect my admission status to UCLA in any way. In disbelief, I confirmed this with her multiple times. She could not see any reason why I would not have been admitted, and told me that I should definitely appeal. She seemed very impressed with my application. She told me the only way to get a specific reason was to submit an appeal. The appeal would cause my application to be reviewed a second time, and if I was still not admitted, I would be given a specific reason. So by process of elimination, the only reasons that they could possibly have are as follows:
- I got one B, and they only accepted students with a 4.0 this year
- My essays were subpar (those of you who have read them I am sure will agree that my essays while not the best, were definitely adequate for admission)
- I was automatically declined by the computer system for some odd reason. Perhaps the computer thought I didn’t have one of the requirements met or something.
- They could just be racist, although I highly doubt this is the case.
- I am a California resident, and as a result, they wouldn’t make as much money off of me attending the university as opposed to an out of state or international applicant. So they accepted an out of state or international student instead of me for financial reasons.
These are all of the reasons I can possibly think of, and none of them seem plausible. A real mystery here.</p>
<p>Very interesting. I would appeal to both schools!</p>
<p>@luc425
Yea I definitely will. I have had to fight really hard for a lot of my grades along the way. I feel like this is no different. I will have to have one last battle to get to where I feel I deserve to be.</p>
<p>Man, I feel the exact same way you do and I completely understand. I hear back from my Berkeley appeal today or tomorrow in fact. I’m appealing as a freshman though.</p>
<p>Don’t bum yourself out man, you have some pretty impressive stats. It could have come down to something as petty as location within California (wanted diversity outside the bay, blah blah blah)</p>
<p>^^wow never mind I’m way behind here lol. I’m in for an update from Berkeley!</p>
<p>I bet you a million bucks you got denied because you had one B.</p>
<p>@alicantekid
That would be extremely disappointing considering I would have had an A in that class with just 5 more points on the final, which is less than 1 question was worth.</p>
<p>rybridges–Thanks for the update, and I hope both your appeals are successful. Although if they are, you’ll have a dilemma on your hands! ;-)</p>
<p>“For transfers, extracurriculars and essays are nothing compared to academic history (not exaggerating). They want students who can succeed, not students who know how to show up to places and volunteer.”</p>
<p>Absolutely not. At least not at Berkeley. I’ve been around the Engineering department enough to understand what they look for. One professor emphasized the importance of hands on experience, because they often get calls from recruiters saying that some their graduates don’t know the a** end of a screwdriver. A 4.0 means you know how to memorize things for tests, not much else.</p>
<p>Now if your idea of extracurriculars is picking up trash in the local park, that won’t really help you.</p>
<p>Besides, I gather from your previous posts that you’re a high school student? You don’t really have any credibility on transfer student issues.</p>
<p>Avatar: Yes, I’m a high school student. I was simply reiterating what my friends generally have told me (3 transferred into Berkeley, 1 into ucla, and another into Duke). </p>
<p>You have the right to take my post with a grain of salt. I’ll still stand by my statement of academics being much much more important than extracurriculars. Of course, research experience can’t hurt an applicant.</p>
<p>@avatar</p>
<p>Rybridges even stated the UCLA rep said the same thing regarding extra curriculars…</p>
<p>“She then told me that THEY DO NOT HOLD LACK OF EXTRA CIRRICULARS AGAINST TRANSFER STUDENTS AT UCLA. In other words, extra cirriculars are not required for admission, and not having them will not affect my admission status to UCLA in any way.”</p>
<p>Berkeley might be different but the degree of difference cannot be that much. Extra-Curriculars are imperative for freshmen…there is no doubt transfers have it easier.</p>
<p>all you have to do is check out the UCB and UCLA threads where users are posting their stats. I haven’t gone through the UCB one, but for the UCLA one, it seems a lot of people got accepted with no extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Just sent an email to Berkeley today. Will wait for reply and post back here when I see it</p>
<p><strong><em>UPDATE</em></strong></p>
<p>I sent my email to UC Berkeley a few hours ago, and surprisingly have already received a response. Here are some quotes from the response I recieved</p>
<p>** I can only tell you that due to the highly competitive nature of our transfer applicant pool, and in particular our applicants to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, hundreds of students who had excellent academic and personal credentials were denied admission for Fall.<br>
**
I can tell you that we do not have any objection to a student taking Linear Algebra and Differential Equations at different institutions, so that would not have been a consideration in your application review</p>
<p>**I realize you were hoping for a much more personal email response, but we are unable to provide you with that kind of information. I will contact the Office of Admissions and remind them it isn’t helpful to direct students to our office with a promise of response since it sets students up for even greater disappointment when that isn’t possible for us to deliver. **</p>
<p>Basically I came up empty again here. Although I have been able to eliminate the class at Ohlone as being the cause of the issue.</p>