Welcome prospective Cal Bears. It’s that time of year again as the UC application has now opened and submission starts October 1 through November 30 for this admission cycle. I am @Gumbymom one of the two UC Forum Champions/Moderators. My Co-Forum Champion is @lkg4answers and we are knowledgeable on the increasingly complicated UC admissions process and hopefully we can help any prospective UC applicants with their questions along with frequent UC Berkeley posters which includes @tamagotchi and @worriedmomucb.
UC Berkeley like all the UC’s are test blind and will use 13 areas of criteria to review Freshman applicants. Each campus will weight the various areas of criteria differently so one size does not fit all. UCB does consider AP/IB scores in their admission process.
PIQ specifics: Personal Insight Questions - Office of Undergraduate Admissions
The UC application website has plenty of information that can help determine if UC Berkeley is a good option when applying.
UCB will consider all 3 UC GPA’s, with an emphasis on the Unweighted and Fully Weighted UC GPA’s.
2026 Freshman (First year profile) 25th-75th percentile:
Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.16-4.28
Unweighted: 3.91-4.00
Weighted Uncapped: 4.36-4.73
Overall Freshman Admit rate: 10.5%
UCB Freshmen major admission information:
Major choice is a factor for admission into the College of Engineering (COE), the College of Chemistry (COC) and the College of Computing, Data Science and Society (CDSS), Environmental Design and HAAS.
Changing majors within the College of Engineering after enrolling is not guaranteed, unless one is CoE undeclared.
Note that L&S admits students as undeclared except for the High Demand majors listed below. UCB also lets you select an alternate major which will only be considered in the waitlist process.
HIGH DEMAND MAJORS:
Art Practice
Public Health
Operations Research & Management Science
Political Economy
Social Welfare
All students who apply to UC Berkeley and select a major within the College of Natural Resources are evaluated based on their application, not on the particular major they select.
Alternate majors will be considered if space is available usually during the waitlist process.
Most selective majors are found in the College of Chemistry, Computing, Data Science and Society, Engineering and HAAS along with the High Demand majors in the College of Letters and Sciences.
UC Berkeley campus tours: Campus Tours | Visitor Services
UC Berkeley College Information Day: College Information Day & UC Berkeley Showcase - Office of Undergraduate Admissions Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Best of luck to all applicants.