As the title states, I’m looking for guidance on whether or not I have a “strong”
appeal case for Cal.
Context:
My last two years of high school I was in a unique dual enrollment program, taking all my courses at a nearby university while earning high school credits.
On the UC Application, I had to affirm that I had no courses to report for my last two years of high school and reported all my dual courses separately under university courses.
My case for the appeal is as such:
I believe the admissions officers may have not been able to determine if I completed enough credits to be eligible for admission since they don’t receive official high school transcripts that translate the college credits into high school credits. A few examples.
| College Course |
Credits |
High School Equivalent |
| Calculus 1, 2, 3 |
4 each |
1 year of math each |
| Differential Equations, Intro to Proofs, Discrete Math |
3 each |
1 year of math each |
| American History 1 & 2 |
3 each |
1 semester of history each |
| American Literature & World Literature |
3 each |
1 year of English each |
| Computer Science Course |
3 |
1 semester of elective credit |
As you can see, the equivalency of college units to high school units isn’t incredibly clear, and I fear they may not have been able to adequately assess my application because of this.
Because college-to-high school credit conversions aren’t standardized, it’s possible my application wasn’t properly evaluated.
Additionally, since submitting my application, I have:
- Earned A’s in Calculus 3, Differential Equations, and Proofs
- Placed 3rd in a statewide software engineering competition
- Fully built dynamic math team training website. Provides a much-needed universal training resource for a math organization that previously had none, significantly benefiting underprivileged schools.
What do you all think? I can provide clarifying information and would greatly appreciate any guidance!
No, I don’t think you do.
But you only want to provide new info - so the 3 bullets you listed.
I don’t think you should assume they misread your app - and that’s not new info. I don’t see how your appeal can work.
Best of luck.
Going through the UC requirements at Subject requirement (A-G) | UC Admissions …
A) History: do you have a year of high school world history/cultures/geography in addition to your college US history?
B) English: do you have two years of high school English in addition to two semesters of college English?
C) Math: do you have geometry in your record? Calculus validates all lower level math except geometry.
D) Science: do you have two years of high school science from biology, chemistry, and physics?
E) Language other than English: do you have at least high school level 2 in some language other than English?
F) Visual and performing arts: do you have at least a year of high school arts?
If your dual enrollment was at a California community college, then you can use University of California A-G Course List to see how your college courses fulfill the UC frosh admission requirements.
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It’s not necessarily misreading, since it isn’t clarified anywhere how my credits transfer into high school evaluations. Thanks for your input though!
If something needed clarification, it should have happened up front. There’s nothing new - and that’s what appeals are for.
The reality is these schools get a lot of smart kids - and they simply can’t take everyone. It’s not personal.
You do not. There is no new academic information here.
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Hi, I have all of the prerequisites subject requirements. I took Geometry in middle school, AP Human(9th), Lang(10th), World(10th), Chem(10th), IB Physics(10th), Honors Bio(9th), English(9th), and a performing arts course as well as a music appreciation course in dual. I’m pretty certain I have all the courses needed. I could send screenshots of my transcripts if needed.
I can’t get into all of the details necessarily but the project mentioned in the third bullet point is pretty important.
It’s not academic. They won’t grant an appeal based on new activities. Feel free to file an appeal, but the reality is it won’t be granted, IMO. You need to go with plan B.
I’m sure you’re very qualified but they can’t take everyone
It didn’t happen in grades 10-11. Everyone continues ECs.
Take your shot - but fall in love with #2 or #3 - because you’ll likely be there.
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Listen - you can try - we’re just random people.
One of the posters yesterday showed the stats - it was something like 1400 appeals and 30 approvals.
Too many kids feel there’s only one school. There’s many more than UCB. You will make your success, not your school - and I’m confident you will wherever you land.
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dual enrollment is not unique. Whether a HS chooses to enter teh DE course on the HS transcript is up to your HS. UC has seen this before.
Did you apply to any other UC campuses? Did you receive any UC acceptances?
What universities have you been accepted to?
I just did Berkeley and LA since I’m out of state.
I have Florida on a full ride for CS and Purdue.
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So one for free and one for half the price - would you even go? You have two fantastic admits in addition to UCB.
UF shows an $87,500 median and $94,168 average salary with top placement in Florida, NY, Texas, GA and CA.
Purdue shows - or the 2022-2023 graduating class, the average self-reported starting salary for a CS undergrad was $113,466. Purdue shows 6.6% seeking employment.
UCB shows 20% still looking for jobs - I’m not sure the timeframe - but that’s scary. They do show a median of $130K but I’m guessing a lot is due to location. And CA taxes are scary. They don’t show an average.
What you don’t know about seeking employment is - the timeframe - is it graduation, 6 months out - when was that # calculated.
Best of luck.
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These are both great schools for computer science (and for a long list of other majors as well).
You do not need to go to UC Berkeley. If you want to get a master’s degree at some point in the future, UCB will still be there.
If I had a choice between UF for free, versus full cost out of state at UCB, I think that I would go for UF for undergrad, and then get a couple of years work experience, and then think about whether I wanted to spend the big bucks for a master’s degree at UCB (or at Stanford or somewhere else).
I suppose, there’s a lot I really liked about Berkeley specifically. I’m looking into a transfer application in the fall since I already have a lot of the prerequisites. Should I make a separate thread about that?
Take the full ride and don’t look back! I doubt they couldn’t tell how those courses translated to satisfying a HS diploma. It’s just a hard school to get into.