What University Of California, Berkeley Admissions Officers Are Looking For Today

What University Of California, Berkeley Admissions Officers Are Looking For Today

By Christopher Rim | Oct 23, 2026, 07:51am EDT

This year, Berkeley became the most selective campus in the University of California system. The university received more than 150,000 first-year and transfer applications for fall 2026, about 6,300 more than the year before, and offered admission to 19,000 students. This translates to a first-year admit rate of 10.5%, just below UCLA’s 10.8%, establishing Berkeley as the UC campus with the lowest admissions rate for the first time in several years.

With UC applications due at the end of November, many students and families are asking: what does Berkeley actually look for? Given that Berkeley is embedded within the broader UC system, how can students demonstrate their unique fit for Berkeley over other UC schools?

Whether you’re applying this cycle or dreaming of a Berkeley acceptance in the future, here’s what you need to know about how the institution conducts admission reviews:

1. Berkeley Emphasizes a Holistic Approach to Admissions Reviews.

While the term “holistic review” has become ubiquitous as the predominant way that admissions officers at top schools evaluate applications, Berkeley is serious about the holistic approach. In fact, Berkeley was the first school to pioneer this method of admissions evaluations in the UC system. According to the admissions website, this means that admissions officers “review each application in its entirety, word by word, page by page.”

What do admissions officers look for in this type of rigorous review? While admissions officers certainly want to see academic prowess, the school stresses that leadership, service, and mission alignment are equally important factors: “The goal of our selection process is to identify applicants who are most likely to contribute to UC Berkeley’s intellectual and cultural community and, ultimately, to the State of California, the nation, and the world.”

Not only do individual reviewers take this in-depth approach, but the entire review process is designed to allocate as much time as possible to understanding and contextualizing each applicant. As Dean of Admissions Olufemi Ogundele recently stated in an interview with U.S. News and World Report, admissions officers “read every first-year application at least twice from admissions professionals who are not just interested in what students have accomplished but are actively looking to understand who they are and who they want to become.”

2. Berkeley Looks For More Than Academic Skills.

Berkeley’s commitment to holistic review shows up in the criteria the institution publishes. Readers use a set of factors that carry no pre-assigned weights. They include the full academic record, likely contributions to the intellectual and cultural life of campus, achievement in academic enrichment programs, and sustained accomplishment in any field, from the arts and athletics to employment and volunteer work. As a part of the school’s holistic methodology, all of these factors are evaluated within the context of a student’s background and opportunities.

The most revealing part of Berkeley’s criteria is its list of personal qualities. Readers look for leadership, character, motivation, insight, tenacity, initiative, originality, intellectual independence, responsibility, maturity, and demonstrated concern for others and the community.

This emphasis on character and personal qualities is evident in the unique structure of the UC application. The UC schools do not require a personal essay or specific “Why this school?” prompts. Instead of one long essay, students answer four of eight Personal Insight Questions, each capped at 350 words. UC frames them as a stand-in for an in-person conversation: if UC met you face to face, what would you want it to know? The prompts map onto the personal qualities Berkeley lists in its criteria, asking about leadership, creativity, a talent developed over time, an educational opportunity or barrier, a significant challenge, an academic passion, contributions to community, and what else makes a student a strong candidate.

3. Berkeley Remains Test-Blind—For Now.

Unlike the many elite private universities that have reinstated testing requirements, Berkeley and the rest of the UC system do not consider SAT or ACT scores in admissions decisions. That policy has recently come under pressure, with members of the UC faculty, including several math department chairs, urging the university to reinstate testing requirements, citing declines in incoming students’ academic preparedness. This comes after the legal settlement that locked in UC’s test-blind status expired in 2025.

For this year’s applicants, Berkeley remains one of very few top-ranked universities that does not consider test scores at all. This has likely broadened its applicant pool by drawing students who might otherwise skip a testing-required school.

Even if Berkeley and the UC system more broadly reinstates testing in the coming cycles, what will likely remain the same is its emphasis on qualitative credentials alongside quantitative ones. Standardized test scores will likely be evaluated in the context of a student’s transcript and high school offerings, course rigor, and pursuit of learning outside of the classroom.

With record-breaking applicant pools and a 10.5% admit rate, Berkeley is a reach for any student, regardless of their profile. But the data indicates that there are some qualities successful applicants share: track records of pursuing their genuine passions, evidence of taking initiative within the context of opportunities available to them, and narratives that reflect leadership, community-mindedness, and curiosity.

Originally published on Forbes on Oct 23, 2026