<p>Berkeley, LA, and Irvine use “comprehensive review” in admissions, which means they look at the application more holistically. Therefore, essays might matter more with these schools.</p>
<p>The other UC’s use a point system for admission, which I believe is heavily weighted toward GPA and sat scores.</p>
<p>“Of the six selective campuses using comprehensive review, three (Berkeley, Irvine, and Los Angeles) rely primarily on the judgment of professional readers and do not assign fixed weights to particular factors. Three (Davis, San Diego, and Santa Barbara) rely on the judgment of professional readers for some factors and on computer-assigned scores for others and then combine these ratings using fixed weights for different criteria.”</p>
<p>[10.6.2003</a> - Questions and answers about UC admissions](<a href=“http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/06_admit_ucop.shtml]10.6.2003”>10.6.2003 - Questions and answers about UC admissions)</p>