ShareThisThousands of students logged on to their computers Thursday to find out whether they got into the University of California, Berkeley. Most were disappointed -- even many with straight A's and enviable test scores.
Berkeley is the most selective campus in the University of California system and received a record number of freshmen applications this year. Last year, Berkeley rejected three-quarters of the students who applied. Those who were admitted had an average grade-point average of 4.19.
With so many high performers to choose from, how does Cal decide who gets accepted?
Berkeley calls its admissions process "holistic review." That means a person reads each one of the 53,000 undergraduate applications that came in this year.
Admissions officials look for evidence of leadership skills, dedication to community service, pursuit of special talents and how students have responded to the opportunities and hurdles they've faced. Other campuses look at those features, too, but many of them use computer analyses to admit some students, assigning points to different parts of the application.
"(Berkeley) was one of the first institutions in the country to implement holistic review in a high volume environment," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, D.C.
"Historically it's been a feature of highly selective liberal arts colleges that can afford to pay that kind of attention to individual folders."
Since Berkeley began holistic admissions, Nassirian said, the University of Washington, University of Wisconsin and Oregon State have followed suit.
Critics have said holistic review is too subjective and that UC's use of it amounts to an attempt to skirt California's ban on affirmative action in college admissions.
But a 2005 analysis by a Berkeley scholar found little support for the claim.
Berkeley's director of undergraduate admissions said the university is looking for "diversity in its broadest sense."
"Being an engine of social mobility, we want to have students that represent the broadest cross section of not just socioeconomic demographics, but also geographic demographics," Walter Robinson said.
Application readers do not see students' race. But they do see lots of data Berkeley computes to put each application in a broader context.
First, application readers look at data about the applicant's high school: How many students qualify for free lunch, are not native English speakers, complete college-prep courses and apply to UC.
On the next screen, the applicant's grades and test scores are ranked against three groups: other students from their school who applied to Berkeley; the entire class of applicants to Berkeley; and other students from their school who applied to any University of California campus.
"What we're always asking readers to do is understand our pool (of applicants). And given the applicant student's context, where does that applicant fall in our pool?" said Susan Pendo, Berkeley's assistant director of undergraduate admissions.
Context is critical in holistic review. A student who takes three Advanced Placement courses, for example, would be seen as ambitious if his high school offers only three AP courses. But a student who takes three AP courses at a school that offers 20 might not be viewed as favorably.
"Lots of applicants to Berkeley have a 4.0," Pendo said. "What we're looking at is, what's the strength of that curriculum? What's available at that school? ... Is it a 4.0 on the most rigorous program available?"
This review is so much work that Berkeley hires 75 seasonal workers to help read applications for two months a year. They include high school counselors, retired principals, and graduate students.
Most applications are reviewed by two readers. If their scores are very different, the application is read a third time. Berkeley's full-time admissions staff makes the ultimate decisions.
Robinson said that about 1,000 students a year challenge their rejections.
"It's hard if you are the parent, not to mention the student, who has that super GPA, over-the-top test scores and you didn't get an offer," he said.
(Contact Laurel Rosenhall at lrosenhall(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
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