Berkeley 2010 Forum

[gymboree]

I am so confused right now. Are you all convicted war criminals who wrote your PS in esperanto or are they rolling dice to see who gets in?

made me laugh, thanks!

Also went to FR, but I'm thrilled, amazed, floating, joyous that this is the case. Good luck to all! Feeling very generous right now, would buy everyone a drink if I could!

LSAT ~25%, GPA <25%, non-URM, lots o'softs, lots o'WE, great LORs.

edit: UR since 11/4 (I think, at least I know it's very early Nov.)

[opus127]

Faculty Review isn't bad by the numbers...

According to the website: http://www.top-law-schools.com/boalt-hall.html

Berkeley receives 7100 applications...
1400 - 1600 are sent to FR
they accept 200 of these making the % of accepted 14.2 - 12.5% depending on if its 1400 or 1600

And the other 5500 are decided upon by Administrative Review (AR) aka Dean Tom himself
and of those roughly 550 are accepted meaning the % of AR acceptances are 10%

i know there are subtle nuances such as that AR may be 10% of a less competitive pool....but still strictly by numbers it is not a bad thing...

I'm trying to decide between hope and despair at the FR news, and I just ran the same calculations. The numbers look better than I feared, but all the posts today suggest the FR applicants are a very strong pool, and even a 14% acceptance rate means a lot of good candidates won't get good news.

[Reinhardt]

FR here, which I guess is better than an outright rejection. Won't get my hopes up though.

[galahad85]

Another FR here.

Numbers around medians, Berkeley alum, URM... Not holding out a lot of hope here, after my UCLA waitlist last week.

[hannah87]

rejected?? i'm sorry. been watching your cycle (same #s). at least you have some really fantastic options!

I think this:

looks like my 4 page essay and targeted letters were worthless....damn you berkeley.

was in response to this:

congrats. anything berkeley specific in your app? why berkeley etc?

thanks. no, same essay i used everywhere else. people i showed it to were fairly impressed though. so maybe that had something to do with it.

ahh, haha thanks, parker. sorry for jumping the gun there, tintin!

[strandm2]

No FR review email, UR 11/2, 170/3.9, so hopefully borderline admit/FR vs reject

[5ky]

No FR review email, UR 11/2, 170/3.9, so hopefully borderline admit/FR vs reject

We have very similar stats, and the same UR, as well as no FR email. Makes me feel a little better about our chances.

[tintin]

Faculty Review isn't bad by the numbers...

According to the website: http://www.top-law-schools.com/boalt-hall.html

Berkeley receives 7100 applications...
1400 - 1600 are sent to FR
they accept 200 of these making the % of accepted 14.2 - 12.5% depending on if its 1400 or 1600

And the other 5500 are decided upon by Administrative Review (AR) aka Dean Tom himself
and of those roughly 550 are accepted meaning the % of AR acceptances are 10%

i know there are subtle nuances such as that AR may be 10% of a less competitive pool....but still strictly by numbers it is not a bad thing...

I'm trying to decide between hope and despair at the FR news, and I just ran the same calculations. The numbers look better than I feared, but all the posts today suggest the FR applicants are a very strong pool, and even a 14% acceptance rate means a lot of good candidates won't get good news.

interesting way of looking at the #s, still, like eas331 says, looks like it is a super competitive pool thus far.

[johndhi]

No FR review email, UR 11/2, 170/3.9, so hopefully borderline admit/FR vs reject

We have very similar stats, and the same UR, as well as no FR email. Makes me feel a little better about our chances.

What the F are you guys talking about - looking at their past admissions, you are incredibly likely to be admitted

[strandm2]

Berkeley likes interesting people, and I'm a fairly boring person

[5ky]

No FR review email, UR 11/2, 170/3.9, so hopefully borderline admit/FR vs reject

We have very similar stats, and the same UR, as well as no FR email. Makes me feel a little better about our chances.

What the F are you guys talking about - looking at their past admissions, you are incredibly likely to be admitted

Sure, I realize that we have excellent chances numerically. The fact that we've both been UR since 11/2 without word, as well as not getting the FR email certainly makes me pause, though. If my application isn't borderline, which you could definitely consider the FR group, then it's either a solid admit or solid rejection. If it's a solid admit, why haven't they accepted me yet?

Just something to think about.

Edit: I am also quite boring.

[Reedie]

Dear 5ky:

It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that you are too boring to attend Boalt. While your record of academic excellence might at first glance appear to indicate the capacity to excel here, a more extended inspection yields little more than a yawn. I mean come on dude, where are the hookers and blow? Enjoy freezing your ass off in Michigan!

Sincerely,
Dean "The Dude" Tom.


They may be waiting on you to see if you withdraw, as that is what I think they were doing with managamy.

[pappyjohnson]

Another FR here. At first, after running the numbers, I also thought that the FR pool would be more competitive despite the slightly higher potential acceptance rate because all of the auto-deny kids would already be weeded out. However, doesn't that also mean that all the auto-admit people would also be out of the running? In this round, we aren't up against someone with, say, a 178/4.1. The really interesting question is: what will be most valuable now? Do numbers still rule, or will softs (gasp!) really come into play? If the faculty review really does mean that faculty, not adcomms, are reviewing our files, I would think that factors like undergraduate institution and academic experience would figure more prominently. Does a law professor care about the difference between a 168 and a 169 as much as an adcomm does (with the shadow of US News ever lurking)? I'm not certain.

[CardinalRules]

Dear 5ky:

It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that you are too boring to attend Boalt. While your record of academic excellence might at first glance appear to indicate the capacity to excel here, a more extended inspection yields little more than a yawn. I mean come on dude, where are the hookers and blow? Enjoy freezing your ass off in Michigan!

Sincerely,
Dean "The Dude" Tom.


They may be waiting on you to see if you withdraw, as that is what I think they were doing with managamy.

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

[5ky]

An interesting thought. I feel much better, thanks TLS!

[calicocat]

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

They thought you were decent.

[CardinalRules]

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

They thought you were decent.

Silly of them.

[rsg87]

FR with a 171/3.8 but my softs are not anything special so I am not holding out too much hope.

[JetstoRJC]

No love from Berk...171/3.75. No love from UCLA yet either...I have been very happy with my cycle so far with the exception of the California schools.

[amidea]

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

They thought you were decent.

Silly of them.

178/4.1 = exciting for adcomms.

[Reedie]

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

And though they were wrong about the timing, they were probably right about the decision. It's off to the boring shitty southbay with you!

Personally, I'd have a hard time choosing between the 'Furd and Berkeley. I was hoping I had some shot at that choice, but my rejection from umn despite having auto-admit numbers has me rethinking the value of my softs. I thought they were good, but perhaps I thought wrong. Come on dean Tom, give me a ring and make me feel good again!

[CardinalRules]

+1. I think that they were sitting on their hands until after Christmas, suspecting that I might withdraw over the break.

I'm boring too.

And though they were wrong about the timing, they were probably right about the decision. It's off to the boring shitty southbay with you!

Personally, I'd have a hard time choosing between the 'Furd and Berkeley. I was hoping I had some shot at that choice, but my rejection from umn despite having YP numbers has me rethinking the value of my softs. I thought they were good, but perhaps I thought wrong. Come on dean Tom, give me a ring and make me feel good again!

Fixed.

[protokurios]

Joining the FR boat. 170/~3.9.

[parker09]

You FR people all have great numbers...

Welllll... guess that's another school I can put in "haHA, you thought you had a chance HERE?" pile.

[Saya]

You FR people all have great numbers...

Welllll... guess that's another school I can put in "haHA, you thought you had a chance HERE?" pile.

Big hug? But if numbers were any indication, the people with good numbers would have been in by now. Obviously, there's something wrong with them.