<p>I don’t understand that part???</p>
<p>Students can shift out if they want to?</p>
<p>Most other majors do not admit students directly into the major, so the UGBA major is hardly unusual in this respect.</p>
<p>Maybe they don’t trust high school performance (grades, SAT scores, EC’s) as an indicator of success in their program.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, ucbalumnus, UGBA is by far the most annoying major to transfer into once you’re at Cal. For all other majors you just need good grades; UGBA requires annoying extracurriculars and essays.</p>
<p>Several capped majors require more than GPA:</p>
<p>Art Practice requires a portfolio with twelve images as well as transcripts:</p>
<p>[Graduation</a>, Undergraduate Program, Art Practice](<a href=“http://art.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate/requirements.php]Graduation”>http://art.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate/requirements.php)</p>
<p>Public Health requires an essay and evaluates such things as volunteering experience:</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Major in Public Health : School of Public Health Web Site](<a href=“http://sph.berkeley.edu/students/undergrad/index.php]Undergraduate”>Undergrad journal looks to expose the cracks in public health - UC Berkeley Public Health)</p>
<p>ORMS and Economics say that “many factors” are used in admissions, though GPA in prerequisites is most important:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ieor.berkeley.edu/AcademicPrograms/Ugrad/ORMS_Q&A.pdf[/url]”>http://ieor.berkeley.edu/AcademicPrograms/Ugrad/ORMS_Q&A.pdf</a>
[Prospective</a> Majors](<a href=“http://elsa.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/prospect_admissions.shtml]Prospective”>Admissions | Department of Economics)</p>
<p>Social Welfare does not use GPA; it is first-come first-served up to the limit:</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Programs Overview - School of Social Welfare - UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://socialwelfare.berkeley.edu/AcademicPrograms/UGdeclaremajor.php]Academic”>http://socialwelfare.berkeley.edu/AcademicPrograms/UGdeclaremajor.php)</p>
<p>Media Studies and Psychology appear to be GPA based in terms of admission to the major.</p>
<p>Fair enough about art practice, but I’m pretty confident that the others rarely reject people with very high GPAs. The other factors are probably just to separate the people with mediocre GPAs.</p>
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<p>Probably the case, given it is halfway into one’s undergraduate career (i.e. significant chance to do things). </p>
<p>To be honest, I think I sort of prefer it this way because I find that it’s “easier” to find things to do once on a good college campus. I like that some majors at Berkeley admit you without much EC experience while having a strong GPA / other academic credentials. Finding connections for some work experience, decent EC material, etc is something a little fairer to ask of a student once in college. </p>
<p>The alternative is the craze where people start looking for competitive materials to put on their applications early on in high school, say around sophomore year, so that they can get something application-worthy by the end of junior year of high school. </p>
<p>On a somewhat different note, I feel that medical school should offer a more compact path than it already does.</p>
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<p>Hmmm, isn’t it the case that most majors at Berkeley (i.e. all uncapped majors in L&S) will admit you as long as you take the prerequisites, with no GPA minimum (other than needed to avoid flunking out)?</p>