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How was Berkeley's Interview Day
- Thread starter mathcod
- Start date
anyone know if sharon finished calling all the acceptances today? am i out of luck?
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Their office closes at 5pm pst. Oh well, tomorrow's a new day, and i bet there are still more phone calls to be made.
If we're going by order of application submitted, well, let's just say I submitted my application 30 seconds before the deadline.
If we're going by order of application submitted, well, let's just say I submitted my application 30 seconds before the deadline.
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- Optometry Student
I received my call at 3:30 today and Sharon told me that they are RANDOMLY calling people. It is NOT alphabetical she said. Congrats to everyone who got in and I hope they keep calling people tomorrow!
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- Optometry Student
I made a facebook group for us. You can join here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66673439352
If that doesn't work, search for "berkeley optometry" and it should come up!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66673439352
If that doesn't work, search for "berkeley optometry" and it should come up!
yup
Haha my thoughts exactly! I was starting to think it was all just one person who was teasing all those who are waiting!
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Oops, I was going to put up a link to the facebook page but someone already did it. Thanks for creating the group! 🙂
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got the e-mail ):
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- Pre-Optometry
oh nooooooooooo... i'm scared! were you waitlisted? or rejected???? i haven't gotten ANYTHING yet! no phone call no email!
what happened with you mathcod?
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I also got waitlisted, which basically reads as a nicer rejection. Very sad, but no hard feelings. I still love UCBSO! But I was a little confused as to why they offer 77 applicants admission for 66 spots, and on TOP of that, a waitlist of 12. What would they do if all 77 applicants accepted their offers and decided to attend? Unless they are prepared to accomodate that many people, I wonder what they would do. It seems like it would make more sense to just offer 66 spots, and then go straight to the waitlist if spots open up. Any thoughts?
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Rejected, no waitlist for me. I'm shocked at the results.
My GPA is great, I scored a 400/380 on the OAT, I do research, I got awesome letters of rec, my extracurriculars are good, my job history ranged from food service to quality control auditor for a cannery, to a resident advisor position at the dorms, my interview was amazing, and I thought my essays were impressive. I left interview day all giddy and pumped-upped because of how stellar my interview went.
However, I did only decide on pursuing optometry in the last three months (before I wanted to become a biochemistry professor cuz I wanted to challenge myself with a higher education and wanted to teach). I had an epiphany one day that lead me to optometry (won't get into that) and realized that the optometry field offered many different things that made it appealing: opportunities for research, opportunities for entrepreneurship (I was a business minor), opportunities to teach (either at an opt school or just in clinic), an integration of physics and biology which were my favorite subjects, and a chance to provide an excellent healthcare service appreciated by all patients.
I made it clear that I recently decided optometry to be truthful and to explain the large absence of optometric experiences. I said that I was dedicated because I was impressed with the entire field and showed my initiative to inform myself as much as possible about the field by joining the pre-opt club and being active, going on SDN and the internet to research the field, as well as shadowing 40 hours at a private practice (where I got wealth of info and a great letter from a cool optometrist).
I think what ultimately lead to my rejection (in an honest self-evaluation) was lack of optometric experience. Everyone I met at Berkeley and in my pre-optometry club has worked years in optometric offices and such, and I seemed to just meet the minimal requirement.
Anyways, I got rejected by the only two schools I applied:: Berkeley and SCCO. I had an awkward interview at SCCO, but felt my OAT scores would at least have some larger influence.
It's very late to apply for the 2009-10 cycle, but I'm going to try for NECO and OSU. I'll be calling Berkeley for feedback in May.
Also, congrats to everyone who got in. and good luck to those who are without a school.
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- Optometrist
I used to work in an admissions office (for a business school but it's the same idea). There is always a group of people that get admitted and don't attend - they ended up preferring another school, there wasn't enough money, something happened with family and they have to stay closer to home. Each school has their own statistics from years of doing this so they know what to expect. I bet Berkeley typically loses around 11 applicants so that is why they do it that way. The wait list is then there for any additional loss that they might encounter.
I can't guarantee that this is why they do it, but it is pretty typical for admissions offices.
wow that does seem pretty shocking considering your statistics and based on your previous posts in this thread. like i said earlier, couldnt have been be too good statistically for us males! (half joking) that was a pretty risky move on your part to just apply to 2 schools. hopefully you get a chance...my cousin whos currently at PCO applied late (march or april? cant remember) and was one of the last people to join the class, so there is always a chance this time of year. good luck to you! i'll be at ICO - my top choice before berkeley surprised me with an interview invite, wined and dined me at interview day and then dropped me like a 1 night stand.
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- Optometrist
Why worry about a situation that has almost no likelihood of occuring? Berkeley has the highest capture/matriculation rate, and it was still only at 85% for the c/o 2012.
Think about the possible 8 or so people who would have gotten waitlisted, it would be a pointless "waitlist" because in all reality ucb knows that they will ultimately be granted a seat. The applicant on the other hand, can almost certainly guess that they will have a seat, but it is still a guess. The next 1-2 months waiting for others to officially drop would be excruciating.
It is just another way of approching the inherent "problem" of admissions. SCCO's way of doing it works well too, but I don't know if any one is better than the other.
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So, has everyone heard back something from Berkley by now?
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- Pre-Optometry
This thread is old but I didn't want to spam and make a new one concerning Berkeley's interview (2/2/13)
How are you guys preparing yourselves for the interview? Seems like people have been having trouble with the essay portion in the past.
How are you guys preparing yourselves for the interview? Seems like people have been having trouble with the essay portion in the past.
