<p>Also, anyone know how much weight a letter of recommendation gives in an appeal? as oppose to not having one at all?</p>
<p>^ In situations like this the letter of rec is probably more important than your appeal. </p>
<p>@bookham: I do not know about that, but seeing how low acceptance rate is for appeals I would urge you to do whatever you can to submit one. The odds are already slim as it is so just submit one.</p>
<p>@bookham good luck man!</p>
<p>@bookham I hope you hear good results soon!</p>
<p>I would be more than willing to help!</p>
<p>Blagh. I submitted my appeal on the 14th, and my professor said that she would have her letter of rec in on the 15th at 5pm. 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, 11:55pm and nothing. I decided that it would be safer to just check the “Did not ask for letter of recommendation” box before midnight. I honestly don’t know what happened; I spoke to her the other day, and she seemed certain on submitting it. I sent her an email today, and nada… no response. I hope I made the right decision… the last thing that I wanted was for my appeal to be unread for being incomplete. It seems like I can still uncheck that box though… just in case my professor had some crazy emergency and wasn’t able to submit it, but still wants to. I guess I could just call the undergrad admission office to see if having that letter of recommendation box unchecked would jeopardize my appeal process.</p>
<p>Turns out she did actually submit one earlier on the morning of the due date (15th). There seems to be some kind of technical error, because I don’t see the checkmark in the box saying that she submitted it. I’ll have to call the admission office in the morning. This is the second time I’ve gotten technical errors with letters of recs! One for some private school with a different professor who I asked, and now with UCB!</p>
<p>You guys can still submit it after the deadline, so don’t worry too much. Just don’t wait till june 1st when they actually finish reviewing after all the SIRs have been sent. </p>
<p>@JewBacca @toughTulip Thanks for the support! hopefully it turns out well! but i guess for now UCLA it is. Hopefully well all hear good results :)</p>
<p>Hello all, I am also appealing. My letter was very concise and to the point. I will post it on here and ask for feedback even though I am unable to make changes to it now. I applied as Environmental Econ in CNR.</p>
<p>"In the Fall of 2013, I was enrolled in Math 192. After doing well for the first part of the semester, my progress in the class declined as I had to deal with circumstances that were out of my control. My father lost his job at a civil engineering firm after working there for 8 years. During this time, my parents sat down with me and urged me to find job where I could work more hours to support myself and be financially independent. Towards the middle of Fall 2013, I was working 25-30 hours a week and couldn’t keep up with my more demanding classes. This resulted in a “D” grade in Math 192. Even though I am still currently working many hours, I have been able to manage my time better to be successful in the classroom and at work. Dealing with this challenge has made me a better student and also helped me realize that it is okay to fall down. It’s okay to fall down so long as I get back up a better person and student.</p>
<p>After this bump in the road, I am retaking Math 192 and I currently have an “A” in the class. I can provide documentation from my professor if necessary. I plan to take Math 193 in the summer of 2014 and can also provide documentation stating that I am registered for the course. I have no doubt in my mind that with the help of my professor and tutors, I will succeed in Math 193. Doing well in this course will not only boost my confidence as a student, but also be a positive indication that I can succeed at UC Berkeley. Based on this information, I sincerely request the UC Berkeley admissions committee to reconsider their decision to not offer me enrollment for Fall 2014."</p>
<p>Let me know what you guys think. I will delete this post soon.</p>
<p>You need to put that you are already confident, not that you will be confident. @hoops786 </p>
<p>I’m going to throw a curve ball at you guys, just to hear what you all think about the direction I took my appeal in. I started writing my appeal the day I was rejected, and I wrote about 6 different drafts until I finally polished a rendition that I was happy with. My first 2-3 appeal drafts focused on economic hardships, domestic issues, and being the first in my family to attend a university, but there was something about those topics that didn’t feel genuine to me. </p>
<p>After sitting and contemplating for about two weeks, and also after receiving some input from professors, classmates and close friends, I decided to change the direction of my appeal completely. I read UCB’s FAQs on appeals, and I noticed, “…significant, new information (i.e. grades, additional achievements),” which seemed to be intentionally vague, but also very broad. </p>
<p>While I was writing my paper, I was told countless times (from friends AND CC) to ask myself, “Why/how would UC Berkeley benefit from having me as a student, and what new information can I provide them that wasn’t in my original application?” I scrapped the sob story approach, because I had a gut feeling that a LOT of people might be going in that direction, and instead I talked about a project that I’ve been working on since last year. </p>
<p>Just to briefly summarize the project, it’s basically a movement that I wanted to pioneer with other students to ultimately promote kindness/empathy in our society, and to spur cooperation without discrimination (I won’t get into specifics here). I elaborated on the mission statement of the project, how it related to my major, and the steps that I wanted to take to make it possible. Very subtlety, I snuck in my status as the first in my family to work towards a 4-year degree, and how there was no other campus where I preferred more, to bring this idea to life.</p>
<p>I suppose it was kind of a risky move, because it’s not exactly focusing on any achievements, rewards, gpa trends or drastic family situations, which seem to be the foundation for 80% of appeals. I dunno… I wanted to talk about something I could be passionate about, while providing new information like they asked. Instead of talking about negative hardships, I tried to focus on positive ones that allow me to reflect my personality through my goals. I was also lucky enough to get a professor of mine to write a letter of recommendation as well, which ALMOST didn’t go through because of technical issues… How do you guys think about this approach? I kept it very concise, and under 600 words. It took me SO many attempts to cut the fluffy, wordy language bullsh*t that many of us seem to gravitate towards.</p>
<p>I figured a 3% chance of a reversal rate was low enough to get creative with it… I know that not a whole lot of people go this direction with their appeals–from what I’m aware of at least ._.</p>
<p>@Anxiety94 i really like this approach cause it comes off much less whinny and more genuine than how i feel my appeal went; also it shows what you can bring to UC Berkeley, something my appeal doesn’t really have. Idk, hardship/personal story was the only new information i could really provide to explain why some of my grades weren’t up to par. i would’ve loved to take your approach on the appeal but because i used to worked, i never really had time for extra curricular like you, so i couldn’t really write anything that i could bring to UCB besides like fostering growth and other generic stuff like that. dang your making me regret my appeal already >.< oh well, whats done is done. </p>
<p>@Bookham First of all… Hello my friend from the old official UCB thread; it looks like we’re in the good ol’ nervous loop again just like a month ago! Huzzah! Second, based on some of the exceptional compliments you’ve received from other people on CC who have read your appeal, I don’t think you have too much to worry about. There doesn’t seem to be any real criteria for these appeals except for providing some kind of new, significant information… it seems like it can really go in any direction! If anything, I’m the one who should be nervous for floating away from the norm. My personal justification for what I wrote was based on the extensive activist history that UCB had during the Civil Rights/Free Speech Movements, and I chose to write about it for the same reason as you, but in reverse. I had a handful of hardships of my own, but I didn’t feel like they were drastic enough to write about.</p>
<p>@anxiety94 I would be happy to read yours if you read mine, just to kinda settle our anxiety, you see what I did there? hahaha</p>
<p>@chaoscuber
Bahah! Sure, I’ll send you mine. Be warned… it’s VERY different than most. Go ahead and send over yours as well :)</p>
<p>@hoops786
I don’t think talking about grades is a good idea for an appeal because a good number of people with low grades, (e.g 3.3s or 3.5s) are getting in.</p>
<p>@Anxiety94
I’d like to read that essay. Sounds like an interesting topic. I personally kept with the sob story approach because I saw a good number of people accepted with those essays and I personally got rejected talking about the skills i learned and what I wanted to do in the future. </p>
<p>@bomerr There is absolutely no issue with the hardship approach. A lot of people have significant information they can provide in that regard, but I just didn’t feel like that direction would be strong enough for my situation. I think that the topics should vary depending on the person submitting the appeal. I’ll go ahead and send my appeal over to you :)</p>