CAN I GET INTO UC BERKELEY???

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

So I am an upcoming senior, and graduate 2019. Im going through the college application process right now and i feel very anxious. I really want to go to UC Berkeley, but I would not mind going to UC San Diego, or Santa Barbra. My grades throughout highschool were ok, I have a 4.13 weighted GPA, and 3.72 unweighted (I think). Sophomore year is where I screwed up the most, but in junior year I got Straight A’s with a 4.5. I think that shows progression? But who am I to say. My SAT is my weakness, in my opinion, I took it twice with a 1360 on the first (760-Math, 600-Reading/writing) but on the second I got a 1450 (770-Math and 680- reading/writing). As for extracurriculars I was on the varsity swim team for all three years, and also will be senior year. I was a part of drama, with a lead role in the play and was vice president my junior year but will be president senior year. I was also part of a start up with my brother a couple of friends and I was one of the co-founders. We actually got funded by the Thiel foundation for $1000. Those are primarily the things I will talk about in my essays, but along with that I was part of a few clubs here and there that I will mention in the extracirrulars section of the application (like girls who code and other clubs). I am also applying for L&S for computer science, I know I will go as undeclared but that is what I intend to study. Also I am a girl in engineering, so I don’t know if that will play a role in my admissions, just putting it out there. Along with everything I just said, I attend a very competitive highschool, where about 60 people end up going to UC Berkeley, I know a lot of people that get in with bad stats and no extracurriculars. There is a saying in our highsscool that “Cal fiends for dv kids but UCLA hates us”.

PLS HELP IM SO STRESSED OUT!!!

2

Welcome to College Confidential as a first time poster.

The first thing you need to know is the UC’s only use 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements for their GPA calculation. Freshman grades are reviewed to make sure you passed your a-g courses and you need to pass all your Senior courses with a C or higher but since the application is due Nov 30th, Senior grades are not considered in your admission decision.

Here is the Calculator for the UC GPA. Please post your capped weighted UC GPA which is used by all campuses and also your fully weighted UC GPA which is considered by UCB and UCLA also.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Your SAT is low for competitive majors and UC campuses so aim for a 1450+.

Attending a competitive HS will be considered but your whole application including essays, EC’s, SAT subject tests etc… will be evaluated for admission consideration.

The UC’s tend to be very GPA focused but due to the increased competitiveness of all the campuses, you need the whole package. Being female interested in STEM is not an advantage at the UC’s, perhaps at some private LAC’s it might give you a bump.

I suggest you look over the UC Freshman profiles for each UC campus of interest and see how you compare.

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/profiles/index.html

I also suggest you apply widely to the UC system, consider some competitive Cal States and identify 1-2 safety schools before focusing on any Reach schools like UCB.

Here are some UC GPA capped weighted admit rates by campus and percentiles for SAT scores to gauge your chances.

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above:

UCB: 42.7%
UCLA: 47.2%
UCSD: 84.2%
UCSB: 82.0%
UCD: 90.3%
UCI: 94.1%
UCSC: 92.7%
UCR: 97.5
UCM: 98.1%

25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCB: 1280-1490

UCLA: 1280-1500
UCSD: 1250-1470
UCSB: 1210- 1450
UCD: 1190-1430
UCI: 1190-1420
UCSC: 1170-1380
UCR: 1090-1310
UCM: 1020-1230

Best of luck.

3

for the future, there are templates you can fill out which makes it easier for people to assess who you are as a candidate. you can find these on other chance me threads. this will help improve the likelihood of someone responding.

4

I think that for your GPA, you’re going to have to be north of 1500 in order to be real competitive for UCB. Almost all the kids that got into Berkeley from my kid’s HS that he knew was north of 1520. A lot of it comes down to your essays as well, there’s going to be too many 3.75-4.0 uw GPA applicants to choose from.

Declaring for CS may not help, as everyone goes in L&S as undeclared anyways. Hopefully you have a ton of AP classes taken or already taken.

5

However, the common templates tend to leave out information relevant to UCs, such as the UC-recalculated GPAs and intended major(s).

6

The other gotcha is that OP is being compared to the other kids from her HS that are applying. Sometimes it’s better to be at the top of the food chain at a school that only admits a handful of students vs. mid-pack of a group of 60-something attendees (and more admittances). Should definitely have UCSD and UCSB on her list - chances may be better at one of those schools.