Furthermore, UC schools are planning to phase out the ACT and SAT as admissions requirements for California residents by 2025. All rights reserved. UC Berkeley is going test optional for all students for the Fall 2021 application cycle due to COVID-19, and it will be changing its testing policies for in-state students in Fall 2022 and beyond. Check out our guide on how to answer every UC essay prompt to get great writing ideas. It's in these boxes that you can explain any information you'd like the application readers to know. Berkeley wants top students so you need to make sure your application is strong across the board. How to Get Into UC Berkeley: 4 Steps to a Stellar Application, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, In 2019-2020, UC Berkeley received 87,394 applications, UC Berkeley a "strongly competitive school", UC Berkeley has decided to make some important changes to the Fall 2021 application process, For more information about what that means for you, check out this FAQ, the school plans to hold the majority of its classes online for Spring 2021. Your extracurriculars are another important part of your Berkeley application. Below are the factors UC Berkeley evaluates for the minimum requirements, academic assessment, and holistic review. Remember, it's completely possible to get into Berkeley with scores lower than these (most admitted students will have scores lower than these), but setting that as your goal gives you a good score to aim for so you can maximize your chances of getting into UC Berkeley. Your admission won't be automatically rescinded if you can't get your transcript to the school by July 1, 2021 as long as you contact the admissions department well ahead of time and work with an admissions counselor. You can begin the Berkeley application in August, and you have until November 30th to submit your application. In 2019-2020, UC Berkeley received 87,394 applications, and it admitted 14,668 of those applicants, for an acceptance rate of 16.7%. Wondering how to get into UC Berkeley? We posed questions to admissions officials at the University of California—Berkeley School of Law regarding the application process, what they look for in applicants and what sets their school … Be the first to answer! ), Filling out information on your extracurriculars and any awards you've won, Self-reporting your standardized test scores, if applicable, What you'd contribute to the Berkeley community, What causes/topics/hobbies are important to you, Significant experiences or achievements that demonstrate the student's promise for contributing to the intellectual vitality of a campus, Special talent in visual and performing arts, communication or sports, Intensive study and exploration of other cultures, Significant participation in student government. If you're still planning on submitting your SAT/ACT scores, we have guides specifically on sending ACT scores and SAT scores to colleges if you need more information. The majority of Berkeley applicants will have at least one part of their application that isn't as strong as the others, and very few candidates have a stellar application across all areas. When UC Berkeley admissions officers look at your classes, they're looking at two things: the actual courses you took and how difficult they were. In general, it's best to take more classes in the fields you plan on majoring in. How long will the footprints on the moon last? Asked by Otis Steuber. Your grades and overall GPA are another critical component of your Berkeley application. Whatever your story is, this is the place for Berkeley to hear it, and it's the best place in your application to show them who you really are as a person. You probably noticed the asterisks after the SAT and ACT requirements in the categories above. Strong extracurriculars can help reduce the impact of a low grade or test score. If you have a weak area of your application, do your best to explain what you've learned from it and how you've improved since that. How hard is it to get into Berkeley College graduate school? If your school offers these classes, you should take as many as you can without overloading yourself and still maintaining a high GPA. The system plans to phase out the SAT and ACT as admissions requirements by 2025 for in-state students. Or maybe his talents and personal … Toughest to Get Into Showing 1 - 10 of 10 results #1. Again, you want to aim for the higher end of this range, so your goal should be either a 1530 on the SAT or a 35 on the ACT. Here are some of the changes you can expect if you're applying to UC Berkeley this fall: For the most up-to-date information, be sure to check out the COVID-19 page for UC schools and UC Berkeley's COVID-19 response page. That means 25% of admitted students had a GPA lower than 4.27, and 25% of admitted students had a GPA higher than 4.62. For Berkeley, as well as all UC schools, you need to have at least a 3.0 GPA in your A-G classes if you're a California resident, or a 3.4 GPA if you're a non-resident. ... Tell us about life at your school… You'll need to answer four of the UC personal insight prompts, and your responses should show: Maybe you've always been fascinated by space and want to attend UC Berkeley and major in aeronautical engineering, or maybe you dream of being a writer and want to major in English or Creative Writing. After 2021, UC schools (including Berkeley) will be phasing out the SAT and ACT requirement for in-state students with the goal of dropping the SAT/ACT test requirement by 2025. This makes UC Berkeley a "strongly competitive school" : it's not quite as ultra-competitive as Ivy League schools , but you'll need to have a strong application across the board in order to get accepted. All Rights Reserved. For more information, click here. Note that, even if you send in additional materials, such as an art portfolio, Berkeley won't take these into consideration when evaluating your application, so be sure to do a good job describing your talents and accomplishments within the application. For more specific information, visit Berkeley's 2020 COVID-19 response page. We don't recommend waiting until December to take the SAT or ACT because if you're unhappy with your score you won't have any other chances to retake it. For more specific information, visit Berkeley's 2020 COVID-19 response page. You can also use the Additional Comments box in the Personal Insights section (see the next section for more info on this). Exactly which extracurriculars you choose, whether they are related to sports, academics, arts, volunteering, etc., isn't that important. They're specifically looking for honors, AP, or IB courses since these are more difficult than regular-level classes. Getting accepted to Berkeley can be tough. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. How hard is it to get into Berkeley? The 9/11 student may have attended a high school that Berkeley favored. If/when the campus reopens for physical classes, administrators will do so in a phased approach in order to follow public health guidelines. ... To be an Airman you must at least be a high school graduate. While Berkeley doesn't require any SAT Subject Test scores or AP scores, having at least a few of these will further strengthen your application by showing you can score well on tests that cover different topics.