<p>My subjective, not-enough-data-points experience is that UC Berkeley is willing to admit out-of-state students who are eligible to apply based on their test scores notwithstanding their failure to meet the A-G standards. My son and three of his friends were accepted at Berkeley. Only one of them had met the art requirement, and she was offered admission for January, not September.</p>
<p>I would add that, for at least two of the three kids admitted without a year of high school art-type class, their ECs (dance, extensive participation in drama club, significant studio art, editorship of school literary magazine) might well have helped them meet any kind of informal well-roundedness standard. But strict adherence to the A-G curriculum clearly was not a de facto requirement. (I AM talking about strong candidates, here. The other colleges to which they were admitted included Brown, Penn, Chicago, Barnard.)</p>