Either, or… not both?

Posted by Dee

Robin left us a comment on AdmitSpit’s About page:

“I just heard through the grapevine that students who apply to both UCLA and UC Berkeley are only admitted to one or the other but not both. I really want to go to UCLA but also applied to Berkeley even though it is not one of my top schools. Does anyone know if this is true and if I can withdraw my Berkeley app?”

Basically, I can say quite firmly that this myth is entirely untrue! I too heard this idea “through the grapevine” when I was applying last year, but alas, I was accepted to both schools, and plenty of other students I know were accepted to both too.

Keep in mind that Berkeley is slightly more competitive than UCLA, so even if you didn’t get into one of them, chances are it’d be Berkeley you would not be getting into. I think basically that it’s rare to be accepted to Berkeley but not UCLA; if Berkeley accepts you, UCLA will too, but if Berkeley rejects you, UCLA you may still be accepted to. (I say this of course from both a statistical perspective as well as based on my experience).

Basically, I think it would be very, very foolish to withdraw your Berkeley app (which, by the way, is not possible to do anyways. See the post titled, “Response to Stephanie and stressed applicant on changing UC apps” for details on this matter.) You’ll be fine, Robin; this myth is definitely busted!