Are all Cal students overachievers?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>After looking at these "chance me" threads, I'm starting to worry that maybe I don't deserve to go to Cal and that it would be too overwhelming for me. Does this website represent the Cal population, or are there more "average" people?</p>

<p>My stats don't even compare to the people on this site and I'm wondering if I made the right decision.</p>

<p>SAT I - 2080; Math IIC - 730; Bio - 790
GPA: 4.4 (I know it's high, but I only took 3 AP classes whereas many people here have high GPAs with many more AP classes. And I haven't taken a college class until this summer.)
Extracurriculars: tennis (3 years), art (10 years), peer adviser (1 year), tutor (1 semester)
Community Service: 18 hours (so pitiful)
Essays: one I thought was excellent and the other well written but cliche</p>

<p>I haven't won any awards or held any leadership positions except for having a couple paintings displayed in public. I haven't done anything outside of school related to my major.</p>

2

<p>Typically people on this website will end up being more educationally aware than many others in the Cal student body (a majority of which aren’t on this website). </p>

<p>Also, please don’t get intimidated by stats. People are a lot less brilliant than they seem once you strip away the stats and see what they really can do, usually, and the few ones who’re still brilliant are the really brilliant ones.</p>

3

<p>Cal is one of those schools which stats matter than activities. don’t sweat it</p>

4

<p>What about my lack of AP/college classes? Are there a lot of other people who took less than 5 AP classes?</p>

5

<p>I honestly think you shouldn’t trip.</p>

<p>I’m from Vallejo High School, a school considered quite pitiful, and I was accepted into Cal.</p>

<p>In my opinion, it’s all about drive, conviction, and passion. Everyone has potential and as long as you prove to/convince the Cal admission people that you can do “it” and do “it” well, they will notice that. </p>

<p>You obviously have to work hard at Cal, but nothing is impossible. There will definitely be students there who are more qualified than you, but don’t let it phase you. </p>

<p>Don’t be intimidated okay? :] Work hard and work well.</p>

6

<p>I only took 2 APs in my Junior year, the other 7 were during my senior year so I don’t think they matter much. Well they do, but they wont reject you because you haven’t taken as many as another applicant.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the responses everyone! I guess I worry too much, but I’ll definitely work hard.</p>

<p>calbear2012: I got accepted; I’m just wondering how I can compete with other Cal students.</p>

8

<p>I think it depends more on the classes you take. Like for example I found that us who didn’t take AP Chem in HS had a tougher time in Chem 1A than those who did take the class.</p>

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<p>i’ll say don’t worry about it. you’re stat definitely is better than mine. i just finished my first year at Cal and i managed to do pretty well. i’ll admit, it was a bit hard since my high school didn’t have good science and math programs and i’m a science major. i just ended up going to tutors and office hours a lot in order to understand the material better. like sushifiend said, it’s about your attitude at Cal.</p>

10

<p>the difficulty depends on the major ur in and how good u are at it.</p>

11

<p>I’m an integrative bio major (not pre-med) and I want to have an emphasis on ecology. I also haven’t taken AP chem, but I plan on going to tutoring and office hours. Is the IB major difficult, especially since I’ll have a lot of pre-meds in my classes?</p>

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<p>i hear its easier than mcb, at any rate</p>

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<p>I’m an underachiever when it comes to school</p>

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<p>same here fortify. same here. lol</p>

15

<p>It doesn’t matter whether or not you under- or over-achieve. There’s gunna be a lot of people that do better than you and worse than you.</p>

16

<p>I think in the end, it really comes down to one thing. Self-confidence.</p>

<p>The key to succeeding at Berkeley is to realize that everything and anything you did in high school is in the past. You are who you are today and you got into Berkeley for a reason. You’re going to feel dumb sometimes, and you’re going to feel smarter than some of the students here. All of that is irrelevant, because the greatest gift about going to Berkeley is how much you learn from yourself and everybody around you. Anybody who puts in genuine effort and seeks out their passion(s) at Berkeley will succeed – maybe not on every quiz/hw/final, but in a much bigger way because you’ll discover who you really are.</p>

17

<p>A lot of the lower-divs for IB require the same classes as prereqs for medical school. Without taking AP courses, you will be disadvantaged because you’ll actually be learning stuff rather than review stuff. I took the AP sciences in high school and found them extremely useful, sometimes more in depth and difficult than the Berkeley courses. I’m not saying you can’t succeed or that you don’t deserve to go here, but some of my friends who did not take AP equivalents had to seek out extra resources - which you plan to do so that’s great. It also depends on the person - you may find that chem/bio or whatever comes easy to you! There will definitely be overachievers that are always on top of things and get good grades, but you’ll find a lot of the opposite - people who procrastinate or think they can get by with what they already learned in AP - so it all kind of evens out in the end b/c you have HUGE lower div classes.</p>

18

<p>there’s a lot of lazy people at Cal, as there is everywhere else as well.</p>

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<p>No, but a good chunk of the entire student body is.</p>

20

<p>hell yeah, that’s how u get into berkeley. but really, people u see in berkeley are just like everywhere else. there are people who want to get good grades and others who party like there’s no midterm tomorrow.</p>