Beware SDA seniors who are applying to college! The University of California Berkeley has made a change to their application and will now be requesting two letters of recommendation from certain applicants. These letters will be submitted upon request, and are not part of the original application. UC Berkeley will request these letters if the admissions board wants more information about the applicant.
This policy change took place in April, affecting the high school graduating class of 2016 and beyond. However, these letters are optional. It is not required to submit a letter of recommendation if requested and should not affect the chances of getting in.
“I already have to get letters of recommendations for other colleges, so it isn’t that big of a difference to send them to Berkeley as well,” says senior Justin Seul.
UC Berkeley, the first UC to request letters, made this change to get a more holistic view of potential students. The UC system is known for not having letters of recommendation as a part of their application, so this is an important change.