Which UC do I belong to???

RML
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:43:03 +0000

^ Oh, I guess you did not check the link I provided to you, my friend.

First of all, the OOS at Berkeley is not only 10% but 23.6%. It has exceed Berkeley’s target of 20%, as a matter of fact.

Second, those students who often go to Berkeley did not just come from so-so high schools like you’re assuming. Many students who go to Berkeley straight right out of HS have come from top-caliber high schools too and have also been admitted to at least one or two other top private high schools.

And, lastly, SATs are SATs. It’s there to normalize the so-called inflated HS grades of the students, as others have claimed. So, regardless of how they are applied to one’s admission policies, the fact remains that Berkeley has higher SAT scores than Cornell has, that despite that Berkeley does not superscore SATs and Cornell does.

As to your claims about ECs and essays, here’s what Berkeley says:

*All applications are read in their entirety by professionally trained readers. After independently reading and analyzing a file, the reader determines a comprehensive score which is the basis upon which the student is ultimately admitted or denied. In addition, admissions managers conduct multiple checks for consistency and completeness throughout the reading process. While this evaluation process is based on human judgments rather than a system that quantifies factors and incorporates them into a numerical formula, the extensive reader training, comprehensive reading of a file, as well as other monitoring procedures, ensure that the process is highly reliable. Formal tests of reliability are conducted regularly.

All achievements, both academic and non-academic, are considered in the context of the opportunities an applicant has had, and the reader’s assessment is based on how fully the applicant has taken advantages of those opportunities. For an applicant who has faced any hardships or unusual circumstances, readers consider the maturity, determination and insight with which he or she has responded to and/or overcome them. **In evaluating the context in which academic accomplishments have taken place, readers consider the strength of the high school curriculum, including the availability of honors and Advanced Placement courses and the total number of college preparatory course available, among other indicators of the resources available within the school. When appropriate and feasible, they look comparatively at the achievements of applicants in the same pool who attended the same high school and therefore might be expected to have similar opportunities and challenges. They also consider other contextual factors that bear directly on the applicant’s achievement, including linguistic background, parental education level, and other indicators of support available in the home. **

The review also recognizes a wide range of talent and creativity that is not necessarily reflected in traditional measures of academic achievement but which, in the judgment of the reader, is a positive indicator of the student’s ability to succeed at Berkeley and beyond; to contribute meaningfully and uniquely to intellectual and social interchanges with faculty and fellow students, both inside and outside the classroom; and to make a special contribution to our society and culture. In applying the criteria above, readers carefully consider evidence provided in the personal statement, as well as in the academic record and list of honors and achievements. For example, the essay may reveal a level of maturity and ability to reflect on one’s life experience in relation to the larger world that indicates a high potential to benefit from and contribute to the richness of the intellectual life of the campus. Or it may reveal special qualities of leadership and initiative that indicate unique potential to contribute to the intellectual, social and political life of the State and Nation. *

Source: http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/freshmen.asp?id=56&navid=N

So, you see, Berkeley considers the kind of high school the applicant has attended, and I hope this ends the rumors that they don’t.



Cornell draws from way more competitive high schools with about a third of the student body coming from elite private schools where GPAs are harder to inflate.

If those Cornell kids come from more competitive high schools, they would have scored higher on SATs, don’t you think? But why does Berkeley have higher SAT scores than Cornell has? It does not make sense to me.

Now, to recapitulate, Berkeley requires that their high school applicants come from the best of their graduating class, or they’re busted. Cornell does not require that. So, even if you’re not smart in high school, or you’re just an average student in your class, you still have a chance to get into Cornell. But it’s something impossible to do at Berkeley, unless you are a star student such as star athlete perhaps. Now, after every applicant has been filtered and screened using their HS achievement rank, comes test scores, then ECs and essays. It’s a grueling and tedius process and every single detail about the applicant is viewed and reviewed throughly. Again, even if you’re just an ordinary student in HS, you would still get into Cornell. Something that’s almost impossible to happen at Berkeley. Therefore, berkeley is harder to get into than Cornell.