<p>Can people please take a second to check out my stuff? I wanted to hear from Berkeley itself to see if I had a chance there :).</p>
<p>Freshmen * I hear they don't look at these grades.. Thank God. please verify =/*
Sem 1 2.1
Sem 2 2.76 </p>
<p>Sophomore
Sem 1: 3.3
Sem 2: 4.0</p>
<p>Junior
Sem 1: 4.0
Sem 2: 4.0</p>
<p>Senior
Pending..</p>
<p>SAT's: 2170</p>
<p>California Resident</p>
<p>EC's
-Class President
-President/Founder of a non-profit charity organization
-Varsity Basketball
-Varsity Volleyball
-Basketball Most Valuable Player
-Staff Editor for School Newsletter</p>
<p>I always cringe when people think they can just completely ignore freshman grades.</p>
<p>From the mouth of a UC Berkeley senior admissions officer, freshman grades are not factored into the UC GPA, but are most certainly looked at.</p>
<p>You need to have some explanation why you bombed freshman year, even if it is an (best if it is an) essay within the additional information section about how you were overwhelmed freshman year but matured as a person, work ethic, etc.</p>
<p>Your academics aren't spectacular (sorry to be harsh, but honest in context of Cal admissions), but your extracurriculars will probably give you a decent shot if you can write a strong personal statement (which will hopefully incorporate a touching story about why you have a rising grade trend and why you have a 2.__ freshman year).</p>
<p>How many AP's? Are you taking the most rigorous classes avail at your school? Make sure your senior schedule takes this into consideration. I know that CAL's admissions looks at senior year schedule.
Don't worry too much about your freshman year grades. They aren't factored into anything.
Make sure not to drop any EC's. And read the Freshman letter posted on the Admissions website. I found it very helpful. It tells you how to structure your app. Good luck.</p>
<p>My Junior year are hypothetical scores. I just wasn't ready freshmen year. I didn't realize how important grades were at all. Transitioning from 8th to 9th grade, I didn't really know how much it mattered. I never thought it would. Until sophomore year where it hit me. My Junior year courses is the full IB Diploma.</p>
<p>IB HL English
IB HL Geography
IB HL Economics
IB SL Mandarin
IB SL Math
IB SL Biology
Theory of Knowledge</p>
<p>
[quote]
Transitioning from 8th to 9th grade, I didn't really know how much it mattered. I never thought it would. Until sophomore year where it hit me.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Talk about that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And I don't get why my academics "suck" so much? 4.0's are All A's in my school? =/ (i mean besides freshmen year)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Apparently, your school doesn't weight. That's all right, since most schools weight erroneously in terms of college admissions anyway.</p>
<p>Take your sophomore, junior, and senior courses, and find their cummulative GPA, 5.0 for IB courses. </p>
<p>UCs cut off the the 5.0 credits at 3 per school year for the UC GPA calculation, but you have a better idea of where you stand with the cummulative total, since UC Berkeley specifically wants heaviest courseload.</p>
<p>Calculate that, and post your results, then we can give you a better evaluation. But in any case, freshman year needs to be explained. Tell them what you said here.</p>
<p>My accumulative total would be 3.75UW
4.41 W with the IB's. I'm not 100% I calculated correctly though. Better evaluation now?</p>
<p>And, I know that my freshmen year was really bad. I know there are no excuses for just simply not realizing. But is that an automatic-rejection from UC's? Especially one as top as Berkeley.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley uses comprehensive review and evaluates you within the context you're in. For example, compared to the rest of your class, are you doing better than everyone else? Or is your class really competitive and despite your good grades, you're not the top 5%? And how about your scores? Are they low or average in the context of your high school?</p>
<p>If, within the context of your high school, your GPA is considered high and your SATs fantastic, then it will be a different situation.</p>
<p>With so many candidates, a lot depends on your personal statement and what kind of person you make yourself out as.</p>
<p>There's plenty of people I know who had near-perfect academics that got rejected from Berkeley while others that were... less than stellar... who got admitted, based most likely on personal statements. (and others, of course, who knew the admissions staff and donated a million or so during adcom decisions <em>cough</em>, but moving past them...)</p>
<p>As the previous poster said however, it does indeed depend on your contextual academics. Do you at least have ELC?</p>
<p>I never paid much attention to the provisions, because in the end they are irrelevant--just get as difficult a courseload as you can handle.</p>
<p>Unless you are going to a school that still relies strongly on the old UC point system (non Berkeley, LA, or Irvine, and I'm quite sure San Diego at least to a degree), the UC GPA is going to be less of a factor compared to courseload difficulty and other considerations, as so many students have a UC GPA that matches the school's target profile.</p>
<p>where are you from? State (or country if not US). Also, whats your class ranking?</p>
<p>Your UC gpa is very nice, as is your courseload and SAT scores. The only thing is your freshman gpa, but you could explain that in your PS. I think you have a good chance. Don't stress out. Do well, but College isn't everything.</p>