<p>Taking open college courses is always a great way to profess academic interest. However, I am beginning to ponder the weight that these courses could carry in admission and their effect.
For instance, I’m taking an open course offered by Yale soley upon my own interest, but while filling out the UC application, I didn’t know whether I should list the course under “coursework other than ‘a-g’.” </p>
<p>Do you think that listing the course could hinder chances, as an admissions officer might wonder why I would want to go to their school, if I’d rather take open courses at another school, especially if the school offers open podcasts? Or am I just over-analyzing?
UCB is definitely my top choice, but their class podcasts aren’t really of the best quality as compared to many other schools.</p>
<p>Berkeley doesn’t care nearly as much as top private schools do how much interest you show in them. I mean, you don’t even have to write the boilerplate “Why X?” essay for UCs. Now, I doubt this will affect your admissions THAT much, but no way will it hurt you.</p>
<p>And that’s true, they take no consideration as to if their school is your top choice. Which kinda instills fear in me, as I’ve known some 2300+ SAT-scorers get rejected for no apparent reason, other than what I’d think is Tufts Syndrome (if Berkeley even DOES that, and perhaps their essays were really bad?).</p>
<p>I guess I’ll look into if demonstrated interest even has ANY effect in UC admission.</p>