Average Grades: Chances at U Mich, Berkeley, UCLA. Does Legacy make a difference?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I am an Asian Indian minority I go to a ranked high school in Illinois. Geographically I think I have an advantage as I live pretty far downstate in a rural area. Not many kids go out of state for college. My GPA is by no means fantastic but I do have legacy from my dad at Cal Berkeley both undergrad and graduate (Engineering) as well as Michigan's Ross School of Business (MBA). If you're wondering what happened to me and why my grades are so low, yeah I don't know either. I have huge shoes to fill. My dad has given a decent amount of money to Cal but not much to U MICH, although I am from Ann Arbor and was born there. I don't live there now but my grandparents live there and I was thinking about moving to claim residency if it's worth anything. As for UCLA I was curious as to if legacy counts for all the UC's or just that specific school. </p>

<p>Income: 300,000+ I will not be getting any financial aid whatsoever, but I don't think I'll need it.</p>

<p>Major: Biomedical Engineering or Economics in LAS
3.56 UW GPA (On pace to get it up to at least a 3.6 before I graduate)</p>

<p>ACT: 30 (am retaking at least twice) - also if anyone has any advice on whether I should take the SAT II's or not it would be appreciated.</p>

<p>EC's: 3 years of Freshman Adviser(leadership position), 2 years of JV Baseball, 1 year of Soccer. Founder and President of the Investment Club. Officer position in FBLA with 4 years of membership, and will have two years of attending state competition. Summer Internship at Caterpillar Inc. in accounting. Summer Program at University of Chicago.</p>

<p>Hooks: Bilingual -Fluent in Bengali and Hindi. As an expat (dad worked for Ford) I spent my entire elementary education abroad in Bangkok, Thailand. Witnessed and experienced first hand the 2004 Tsunami (lost two friends). My life is summarized with 11 houses, 5 schools, 3 states, and 2 countries. Wondering if that would sound interesting to admissions?
Majority of classes have been Honors and my Senior year I will have AP Calc and AP Bio. (My school does not offer many AP's and all but 2 can only be taken your senior year, I don't have any room on my schedule because of all the required classes I had to take.
Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I would recommend taking SAT II depending on your classes and desired major. In my opinion, Cal and UCLA are difficult to get in, but you can raise your chances if you raise your GPA as predicted. Currently, I think it is at high match-low reach. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Your chances for cal and LA are slim, but still apply!! At UC schools legacy does not count AT ALL. And how I wish it did(both parents ucsd…sigh)! No matter how much your dad donated, it will not make a difference. I don’t know about u mich but typically public schools do not consider legacy. </p>

<p>I would recommend for the UC schools apply as an undeclared major, the sciences are brutally hard to get into. Also, make SURE to apply to other schools. Don’t bet only on these two.
Check out:</p>

<p>-UCSD (right on the beach) - reach/high reach </p>

<p>-UCI (large minority population, about a match for you grade wise, in the safest city (w/ over 100,000 ppl in america as classified by the FBI, lots of really good restaurants, no night life though, 15 minutes to a beach)</p>

<p>-UCSB - match, isolated location though, lots of parties.</p>

<p>Also, transferring within UC schools isn’t that difficult. I have a friend who went to merced (worst uc) and was easily able to transfer to UCSD. You could go to a lower tier UC and transfer to cal or LA. I think it is unlikely you will get in as a high school student.</p>

<p>PS: write an essay about the tsunami for one of the essays, moving around the world for the other UC essay. If I were a counselor I would find the topic of the tsunami very humanizing and powerful; very unique. I’m sure it must have been a turning point in your life and affected the way you view the world since.</p>

<p>Don’t limit yourself to only top tier schools, AND APPLY UNDECLARED!!</p>