It isn’t uncommon in Northern California to see a child dressed up head to toe in UC Berkeley merch. These kids often go on to dream of going to Cal just like their parents did. We work with a lot of these kids and we always get questions from their parents about if their legacy status will help them get in. We have been doing a series on the ins and outs of legacy status at top schools and wanted to dive into what UC Berkeley says about legacy status and what that can mean for your applicant.
Does Berkeley do legacy admissions?
Short answer, no. They say it very clearly, “Per long-established UC Regents policy, UC forbids legacy admissions and does not grant preferential admission to the children of alumni or donors.” Cal is part of a (very) short list of top schools including MIT, CalTech, and the University of Washington who do not consider legacy status.
Berkeley has become more hard-line on this policy due to a recent state audit. Berkeley was audited along with UC Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara about the admissions data from 2013-14 through 2018-19. The audit happened because of accusations of "improper influence in admissions decisions." The audit found that the schools admitted 64 noncompetitive applicants during the years audited. Pretty much there were around 20 athletes and 40 children of powerful donors who were let into UCs even though they weren’t qualified. We know what you might be thinking, 64 students over several years and multiple campuses, doesn’t seem like that much, but this was a huge scandal. Sometimes when schools have a super hardline policy against helping donors/alumni’s kids we take it with a grain of salt, but in this case, we believe it. Between Berkeley’s status as a public school and the recent scandal, we take them at their word that legacy status isn’t going to help (even for big donors and star athletes.)
What does this mean for my student?
Their legacy status won’t be considered. They have to have a great application and get in on their own merits. Berkeley has a competitive acceptance rate of about 14% right now, however, in-state/out-of-state status may affect the rate for your student’s application. Berkeley uses a holistic review for its freshman applicants. Meaning Berkeley is looking at both the academic and personal information presented in the application.
Students need to have great grades, test scores, extracurriculars, and essays to be considered a competitive applicants to Cal. It’s a tall order. On top of being a good student before the application process starts, the UC application has a lot of writing. Students have to write several essays. The UC application is different from the Common App and can be confusing. We know this because it’s one of the ones that we do with many students every year. If your student is serious about Berkeley, we suggest considering working with a counselor. We understand that this might sound self-serving, (like come on - we are counselors of course we would say that), but there are a lot of pitfalls, tricks, and trends that counselors know about in the UC application. The sheer amount of writing often freaks out our students. “What do you mean I have to write 4 personal essays?” is something we hear a lot from our students when we start the UC application with them. Putting their best foot forward is important but can be tricky in this application.
Learning this info can be a shock for parents who thought their kids would be helped by their legacy status at Berkeley. But if your kid has been dreaming about going to a top school since they were in a Cal Football onesie, they probably already have the building blocks they need. They probably have good grades and we can help with everything else. Getting students into college is what we do and crafting a great application is a skill. We don’t expect people who don’t work in this industry to have this skill, that’s our job. So if you are nervous, about your student’s legacy status not being the slam dunk you thought it was, let us help you.
Our door is always open. Reach out here.