^ Interesting perspective and I think probably correct.
http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ucberkeley.html indicates a 3.29 average GPA at UCB. So plenty of students do well enough to earn grades higher than C.
If you want to see some exams (at least in STEM subjects), you can look in https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/ .
@ucbalumnus Great links. Thank you! Amazing that the old exams are available so students there can gauge their readiness, and high school students can get a feel for what will be expected. I see that the average GPA has been gradually inching upwards.
I think that the person who gave the presentation to prospective students and their parents would have served the interests of UC Berkeley better if he had emphasized mainly positive aspects that would make students envision having a good experience there rather than a frustrating one. While it is true that many of the A students accepted to Berkeley will have to adjust to being B students in college (as is true with many colleges), I don’t think it was necessary for him to put such emphasis on how difficult it would be. It just seemed as if he was trying to intimidate people to make them go away. It is especially bad since students admitted to the College of Letters and Science can’t declare majors until after two years, and those trying to get into impacted majors will have to use their grades to compete for limited spots.
On the Berkeley prof comment about simply learning the material not enough to do better than a C – as a parent from a faculty family, I hear a remark like that as advising high school students and their families that “just doing the work” – which is often enough in high school to get an A – is not enough in college. College work is about grappling with the material – challenging it, pushing it – not just reading it and taking notes and then spitting it back on an exam. Understanding that before a student begins can make the transition to college coursework smoother.
On the Amherst point, there are some kids–and I’m not naming any names here, for example, my own kids–who would hear “most of you won’t get in” and think “yeah, most of these other people here probably won’t get in.”
It was absolutely the tone in which the message was conveyed at Amherst. We had rushed there across the state from Tufts, a day after visiting Brown and Wesleyan. So the comparison was fresh and shocking. Honesty yes, elitism no.
I had a professor explain the first day of school that half of us would not be in the top half of the class. @Hunt is correct that everyone thought it would be ‘the other half’ of the students who would be in the lower half, not them.
And of course, not me!
During the Amherst session, one kid, who looks like he rolled out of his bed at Exeter (I think I even made the comment to my D at the time), made an amusing comment about Williams, where he’d been that morning, which led into a brief discussion of schools Amherst saw as peers and which ones admitted students choose if they don’t choose Amherst. Since i’ll guess most of the people in the room planned to apply to many of them, it really didn’t seem that off to mention that kids in the room had an 8 to 1 chance of getting in.
While I wasn’t bowled over by Amherst’s info session, we were very impressed with the conversation we had with the admissions rep afterwards, who struck up a conversation with us, welcomed us from Ohio, knew our town, and was super friendly and encouraging. It’s that conversation I remember most about our visit. I even saw that rep eating lunch with his family when I was there to move her out of her dorm, and wanted to say so to him but didn’t want to disturb…he had a grandkid looking toddler with him at the time.
@Midwestmomofboys I agree that advice like that is appropriate in discussions that prepare kids for college in general. For example, I have advised kids many times that, unlike high school, professors may or may not assign study problems, but nevertheless students need do as many of the problems at the ends of chapters as possible on their own to really fully learn the material. But even though that type of advice is important and a helpful heads up, I don’t see it as appropriate in what is supposed to be a welcoming presentation on the highlights of a particular university.
On the other hand, maybe I should give the presenter the benefit of the doubt. He may actually have been trying to do some of the kids a favor by steering away those who would not do well in a high pressure environment. That’s a bit different from colleges that try to increase the number of applications just so they will have a lower acceptance rate.
The snooty Amherst admissions dean/info session trope has been around for at least as long as I can remember. The only explanation I can think of for its endurance is that people at Amherst think it’s amusing or that it is expected of them at the his point. And, let’s admit it, some people are attracted to elitism. 
Maybe it’s a way for Amherst adcoms to bluntly screen for high confidence/leadership traits they’d define as kids having the “Yeah, most of these other people here probably won’t get in” mentality and regard “Most of you won’t get in” as a challenge to be undertaken, not one to shy away from.
Prospective applicants who’d be discouraged from applying by hearing “Most of you won’t get in” would be regarded as those lacking such traits.
But they would be discouraging even higher confidence kids–the ones that think “I don’t need to put up with this crap.”
@cobrat And many of them would hear that and say: Well I’ve got great leadership skills. Too bad those Amherst Adcoms lack them. I’ll just go lead in my own non-Amherst direction, thank you very much.
Who needs that stuff anyway. Sheesh!
Maybe this statement wasn’t as fraught with meaning and tone as it is being made out to be? We went to the Amherst session twice and it didn’t seem any different than the others from similar schools. I guess there is no way to know.
Regarding all of the bad experiences at Amherst: a friend of mine who is very up on college admissions told me that no one she knew had a good experience visiting Amherst. And when we went there I thought it was fine–and I enjoyed their art museum while S was at a class–but S didn’t like it. He said it was “too new.” What???
We toured Amherst because D was interested in MHC and had heard some consortium theater was done at Amherst . We thought the info session was good, the AdCom was maybe a little snarky, but we read it as him taking the students seriously as adults. Two of his statements stuck with us: First, when someone asked if they accepted AP/IB credit, he laughed out loud and said “No! If we did, no one would be a freshman!” Second, he said that reading essays can be kind of boring, so if you are funny, then by all means write a funny essay. But if you aren’t funny, please don’t.
We liked him.
The tour guide, on the other hand, was dull and felt kind of pre-professional, too earnest (and we weren’t shown the theater even though we asked.)
When I was in HS, I applied to Amherst, so clearly I liked it then. As a parent, not so much. The info session was fine but our tour guide was really snooty.
Exactly @hebegebe. My D was accepted to Williams, Middlebury, Tufts, Northwestern, etc…; she’s now at Penn. She wanted nothing to do with such a snooty attitude.
There’s a joke that circulates around the 5-college consortium. The joke is intended to show the different personalities of the schools. It’s not necessarily flattering and not necessarily unflattering. If you want to pm me or sanction me, be my guest.
The joke goes as such:
Professor speaking to class of consortium students: Nice day today, isn’t it?
Mt. Holyoke Student: Why yes, Professor!
Smith student: Typical statement of the Paternalism.
Hampshire student: Well how do we define nice? And what is a day really?
Amherst student: Sir! Nice day, yes sir!
UMass Amherst Student: Is this going to be on the test?
And . . . . go! (With the comments about how this is wrong, and short sighted, and not fair to xyz group)
It’s a joke. Just remember: J. O. K. E.
I’ve mentioned this before on the tour thread, but I’ll tell it again here. At the UPenn info session the guy leading it (who reminded me of Elder Price from Book of Mormon) was talking about Ben Franklin’s legacy at the university. He specifically brought up that, like their founder, UPenn has a deep distrust of politicians! It felt very tone deaf - what if one of the prospective students was interested in politics? Or what if one of the parents was involved in politics?
I also disliked the vibe I got from the UChicago adcom who ran their info session. He ran through their spiel as if he had memorized a script that included not only instructions on what to say, but also hand gestures, voice inflections, and facial expressions.
I’ve never been to an Amherst info session, despite it being an hour from my house. However I did go to Amherst Splash, which is a day long program where current Amherst students teach classes to high schoolers. My impression from that event was that the facilities were pretty outdated and run down (at least the ones I saw). The art museum was awesome though!
Edit: @Dustyfeathers Love that joke! :))