<p>I am so mad, I just finished typing this and something happened now I gotta retype it all over again, please excuse the typos, haveing to do all this twice is enough to makeyou sick of it.</p>
<p>I bolded parts of it so you don't neccessarily have to read teh whole thing.</p>
<p>Ok, so what's your take on teh admission essay? Some tell me that I should give ANY reason why my grades aren't as high, others say I shouldnt' do that because it doesn't say anything about me. Some say to explain things that have affected how you perform, other tell me to do the exact opposite, as in 'NO deaths or drugs", and to avoid the sob story. So should I lay it on thick or explain myself and what I hope for in life.</p>
<p>I'm specifically talking about the UC admisssions, but I don't think it really matters since all teh college apps are so similar.</p>
<p>Now the other questions (and yes I have tried to search it):</p>
<p>What's the average SAT score? Because I always thought it was 1500, but I just read a thread here saying they're worried about 'low' test scores, but the score was a 1950. Which is like in the 85th percentile. I mean I only scored around that, and according to collegeboard.com most people score under that, even at the 'better' schools. So is it just this site, or what? And if it's just this site why? I have a theory: Is it because most of the kind of people who post on here care about their grades so, on this site is only the top 20ish% of HS students? Or is it because the people on this site care so much about grades that they are good students and can apply to the higher schools, and the 'low' score is in reference to that top 20 school?</p>
<p>When you guys talk about top 20 or top 50, are you referring to the US news rankings?</p>
<p>Since my GPA is pretty low [a 3.0, with my soph and JR gps being 2.6, 2.8, 3.0, 3.5 respective to their semesters, however my Sr GPA will be 4.67, not that it's going to help me at all] the only school I can shoot for (and this is a real stretch) is something like a UCSB. However, UCSB is 44th on the US news rankings, which would mean it's really hard to get into. However, almost all the CA UCs are in that US NEWs ranking. But that can't possibly mean that all the CA residents are in the top 10%? So does this mean that even though UCSB is a ranked school it'll be easier to get into because it's public and im' a CA resident?</p>
<p>Also, when I look at the average admission GPAs on collegeboard for teh UCs, i see that roughly 5-12% of the people accepted have GPAs of 2.99-3.24. My question is, who makes up this number? Because I have never met a single UC student who got in with anything under a 3.25 (excluding UCR and UCM). Are these the high tests scoreres? The good essay writers? And if that's the case, how good will my essay and/or SATs have to be to make it as one of these 2.99-3.24 people?</p>
<p>Does anyone here know of a person who got into a 'dream/reach' school, through the essay alone? As in their scores were only average, GPA was only average but still got in?</p>
<p>I know that's alot, but thanks in advance.</p>