Supplemental Application: Fill & Download for Free

The short answer is no.You cannot elect to submit recommendation letters to the UCs. The only time your recommendation letters will be reviewed is if the UC campus requested them (through “augmented review,” better known as supplemental questionnaires - which only up to 15% of the freshman applicants may get, or supplemental applications for certain majors that require them).The “Berkeley asks for two” you mentioned is for the augmented review process, which the campus will initiate if additional information is needed (but the recommendation letters are optional, you may elect not to submit them). If you randomly send recommendation letters without the UC campus asking for them, the letters will either be rejected (if you submit online) or end up in a file cabinet somewhere (if they are mailed).UCLA and UCSD use supplemental questionnaires to ask for additional information, but neither will accept recommendation letters. UCLA has a bunch of majors that ask for a supplemental application, you will see that if you select a major that requires one on the UC Application. UCSD has some majors that ask for optional supplemental applications, you will also see that if you select a major that asks for one on the UC ApplicationUCSB does not use supplemental questionnaires; the only time you will need to submit recommendation letters (the only time they will be reviewed) is if you apply to a major that requires a supplemental application (all majors in the College of Creative Studies require supplemental applications).UCD uses supplemental questionnaires to ask for additional information and the campus will accept recommendation letters if you are selected to fill out a supplemental questionnaire.

…in the United States…Stating that, you must be an international applicant.And, you are obviously referring to the fact that excellent public universities like UC Berkeley do not require letters of recommendation nor do they require supporting evidence of activities. But you ignored this for out-of-state applicants:However, some campuses/majors may require letters of recommendation as part of a supplemental application reviewSo, you never know…..And, of course, All of the elite private US universities (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc etc etc) Require several letters of recommendation. Indeed, if you state you did something fantastic for an extracurricular activity and that statement is not supported by at least one of those letters of recommendation (from independent, college-trusted people), then you have “shot yourself in the foot”……As for the UC system. If you are a CA resident, and brag about some great extracurricular activity you have led for years, you don’t think it only takes an admission officer less than a minute to “Google” that???? And there is still a Transcript and Secondary school report submitted on you to the college. You don’t think that you as a Person are mentioned in those documents?Do Not lie. Do Not even consider it. It will come back to haunt you when you least expect it.All the best.

While there is a common application, each school has its own “supplemental” application; thus you will need to apply to each school separately.