From the Berkeley Admissions website. “Holistic review” refers to the process of evaluating Freshman applications where no one piece of information is weighted more heavily over another."
There is no minimum stat that eliminates a student’s application from being read.
One single activity or one single PIQ is not going to get a student admitted. My assumption about these students (and we will never know) is that they went into detail about attributes such as leadership, drive, initiative, compassion, empathy and community in their PIQ and A&A. They may also have spoke about personal family circumstances or overcoming obstacles that you may not know about.
Exactly! He not only wrote about the what, but also spoke about the why. Rather than saying what he learned in class, he spoke about what he did, and what he gained from taking the class. He was inspired and took initiative to make changes as a leader. He was part of a team. He showed sustained involvement and commitment to an activity. All of these A&A and PIQ helped to paint a picture of the student. He didn’t leave anything up to the reader’s imagination.