University of California Berkeley, often just called Cal or Berkeley, is a public university in (you guessed it) Berkeley, California. It is the founding campus of the UC schools, the state’s nine-school university system. The school is famous for research, and in 2021, the funding for research and development exceeded $1 billion. Cal is also a large university with over 30k undergraduates across five undergraduate schools (The College of Letters and Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Environmental Design, Natural Resources, and the Haas School of Business). Some schools are more competitive than others, and some majors have strict enrollment caps, so it pays to do your research into the school and program you hope to attend.
From Big Ten Sports to a historic campus in one of the Bay Area’s quirkiest cities, Berkeley has a lot to offer. However, getting into Berkeley is difficult. They have recently been battling city residents over how many students they can enroll. Furthermore, they take far more Californians than out-of-state students because of their public status. While they have an overall acceptance rate of about 16%, it is probably more like 5-8% for out-of-state students. Even their in-state acceptance is low, so whether you are a Californian or not, you need to stand out. We want to help by breaking down what you need to do to get into Berkeley.
What is Cal looking for?
UC Berkeley looks at several factors as part of their admission process. They break these factors down as part of a document called the Common Data Set.
Pay close attention to the factors marked as “important” and “very important.” You want to make sure you slay in these categories.
One note here. This is from last year, and more recently, they have become “test-free.” So, while they say standardized test scores are “very important” above, they actually don’t use SAT/ACT scores for any part of their process.
Also, strangely, they say they do not consider class rank, but they publish those numbers. This is weird. Either they do care about it and lied above, or they don’t use to choose candidates but still have the data. Sus!
We would love to know, but in practice, it might not matter. Whether they are actually looking at it or not, Berkeley is only taking top students. If you are serious about Berkeley, you should push yourself to be at the top of the class because that’s the type of student they are admitting.
That said, let’s look at the rest of the factors:
Rigor and GPA
Berkeley has a specific list of classes you must take before you apply. Most of them are fairly standard; however, you should double-check that you have met their requirements here. But just taking the right classes is not enough. You also want to take as many courses as possible at a high level. This might mean taking AP, IB, Honors, Accelerated, and/or dual enrollment courses. You want to show you are taking a rigorous class load and challenging yourself academically.
Incoming Berkeley students often take many weighted classes in high school. Last year, their average accepted weighted GPA was 4.45. While their accepted range is wider, their 25th percentile was 4.27, and their 75th was 4.52. This range is a great area to shoot for. Their unweighted average is 3.93. However, many students did have a 4.0 unweighted as well.
This is all to say you need an excellent GPA if you hope to get into Cal.
Recommendations and Essays
Cal gives students a hint on what they hope to see in their recommendations. They write, “Furthering our belief in the value of holistic review, we ask that those who write letters consider the following concepts when asked to add a letter to the application process:
Academic performance and potential (both overall and in the context of the applicant’s high school class)
Love of learning
Leadership (in school, family, or community)
Persistence in the face of challenges
Cross-cultural engagement
Originality/Creativity
Demonstrated concern for others.”
This is fantastic information to share with your recommenders. You can’t control what they write about you, but hopefully, you have teachers who have great things to say about you. And ideally they can speak to some of these factors.
These are also great qualities to consider when writing your application essays. While many schools use the Common App, the UCs are a little different. All the UCs share an application, and you can choose which UC schools you send yours to. However, they will all receive the same information (so be careful if you are applying to multiple i.e. it's not great to say “UCLA is my dream school if you are also sending it to Cal and Davis.) The UC app also asks students to write four essays. We have a blog on how to write the essays for the UC application, but generally, you want to write creative and eye-catching essays.
If you are worried, we can help with this; reach out!
Extracurriculars
You also need a great resume at top schools like Berkeley. You want to follow your passions as far as you can and show commitment and leadership. Berkeley isn’t going to be impressed with a 2-hour-a-week club. You need to push yourself outside of class just like you would in class to build a great resume.
You also need to connect some of your passions to what you hope to study. This can be done through internships, clubs, summer classes, research, etc. However, you want to establish a vibe of intellectual curiosity and drive to learn. For example, if you want to study History, it would be great to see volunteering at a historical society as a research intern and participating in a summer program with a class on American history on your resume.
Double points if your resume includes volunteer work and a job. Berkeley especially likes these types of experiences. However, they still want to see commitment and leadership, especially when looking at volunteer work. Sometimes, students think volunteering twice at a soup kitchen checks this box. It won’t. Berkeley wants students who volunteer regularly and are passionate about it. The bare minimum isn’t impressive here.
If you hope to get into Cal, you need to be an exceptional student with great extracurriculars and stand-out essays. It is a lot to ask for, but you want to shine when applying to elite schools like UC Berkeley. If you don’t know where to start, we want to help!
Get an expert in your corner. Contact us here!