Any thoughts? USC UCB

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, any opinions would be appreciated as I'm having trouble figuring my chances for colleges, especially USC and UC Berkeley. (graduating class of 2010) </p>

<p>Applying to:
USC
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Davis
p.s. I am a California resident</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.61
UC GPA: 4.1
SAT (one sitting): 800 math 720 reading 700 writing total 2220
Cumulative SAT: 800 math 730 reading 780 writing total 2310
SAT II's: 790 Math 2c 750 US History
AP's: AP Calc AB, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP English, AP Psychology, AP Physics
2 Letters of recs</p>

<p>other classes I've taken or are taking currently are French 4, Finite/Discrete Mathematics, and Honors in all possible classes (Math, English, Sciences)</p>

<p>I don't have a whole lot in the extracurricular area but what I do have are 2 years of varsity basketball and I will be captain senior year. I also have volunteered over 200 hours at the local hospital. </p>

<p>I was also recently named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist and I believe I will be named a finalist. (not to sound conceited or anything but I'm just assuming I'll be named a finalist as 62 out of the 64 semifinalists from my school last year made finalist)</p>

<p>And I'm really unsure about this part but do colleges consider the difficulty of your high school, considering that most high schools have different difficulties. For example, and once again not be conceited or anything, but the high school I go to is the 15th ranked open enrollment public high school in the nation by US News and 60th overall. And I realized my gpa isn't the highest of gpa's, but will colleges take into consideration the difficulty and ranking of my high school?</p>

<p>What can I realistically expect from UC Berkeley and USC and the others listed?
Anyways, thanks for taking the time for reading this and I'd appreciate anything you have to say.</p>

2

<p>You should be in at all UC’s other than the top 2, with a good shot at those and at USC. UCs will not take your letters of rec.</p>

3

<p>Oh yeah I know, they’re only for USC
the chance of getting that half scholarship is too tempting =P</p>

4

<p>Mission San Jose eh? I went to a similar school. (API wise)
I wasn’t even top 10% of my school, but I got into the schools you listed. So they do take in account the vigor of your school. My school sends 50-60 people or so to Uc Berkeley alone (out of 700 or so graduating class) then add in the people who got in but chose to go elsewhere, that comes out to around 20% acceptance rate for UCB! It only get better as you go down the UCs.</p>

<p>I got about the same stats as you. (Except a slightly higher GPA)
And I got into all the schools I applied for.
So you should be able to get into your schools no problem!</p>

5

<p>Yeah Mission San Jose, I hate my school, classes are way too hard and don’t do anything to help our gpa, for example we’re not allowed to take AP’s until junior year. So almost all the top 100 ranked students are students not taking any weighted or honors classes.</p>