Chance a somewhat unique applicant for UCs, USC, CMU and others?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well first of all, thanks for taking the time to visit this thread.
I'm a US citizen living abroad in a third-world country (So I'm NOT an international applicant). I moved here after completing freshman and sophomore year in a California high school. </p>

<p>SAT I (second try): 2280 (800W 750R 730M)
SAT II: Predicted: MathIIC-800, Chemistry-800, Physics-750.</p>

<p>Sophomore year GPA (weighted): 3.3
Sophomore year GPA (unweighted): 3.0</p>

<p>I am now attending an international school which follows the British CIE A-level curriculum.</p>

<p>Junior year grades: (AS-level)
Mathematics: A
Physics: A
Chemistry: A
Computing: A
General Paper (English): A
-These are the highest grades possible for that year.</p>

<p>Predicted grades (by teachers) for senior year (A2):
Mathematics: A*
Physics: A*
Chemistry: A*
Computing: A*</p>

<p>Basically, I was a slacker during sophomore year. However, I worked EXTREMELY hard after I moved. Hopefully the upward trend will count for something. Also, there is no concrete way to convert A-level grades to GPA, so I didn't do that.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-My main extracurricular has to be my passion for computer science. I've been learning how to program since middle school, and so far have learned a variety of programming languages (PHP, C/C++, C#, Python). I'm not sure how exactly I would portray this on my application, as I did all of this in my own free time through out the years.</p>

<p>-After my move however, I held a paid internship at a small software development firm for 2 months, and I actually utilized my programming skills to work alongside employees of the company.</p>

<p>Others:
Before move:
-About 50 hours of normal volunteering (library, small events, etc.)
-Member of a few clubs/societies (computers, science, etc.) but nothing important.
-JV on a sports team.</p>

<p>After move:
-Volunteered for a nonprofit organization that builds schools for children who cannot afford it. I basically acted as a teacher for a class of about 20 children during their summer camp (80 hours total)
-Volunteered at a small tuition center where I taught a few children basic spoken English. (4 weeks, 5 days a week, 2 hours a day)</p>

<p>I've always dreamed of going to a school like Caltech, MIT, Stanford, but I'm pretty sure applying there would be futile given my lack of strong ECs and my sophomore year gpa.</p>

<p>Intended major: Computer Science
Places I'm applying:
-UCs (Berkeley, LA, SD, Davis, Irvine)
-USC
-U of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
-Carnegie Mellon (any chances here?)
-Cal Poly</p>

<p>Anyone willing to give me my chances of getting into these schools. All help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Bump. Help me out guys.</p>

3

<p>130 views and no replies? If it’s because you guys aren’t familiar with the British A-level system, let me know! </p>

<p>Help me out!</p>

4

<p>as an IGCSE/A-level student, you’ll probably find this US forum a bit barren of meaningful information pertinent to your unique situation; however, i’ll present you my perspective so you won’t leave empty handed. assuming your major is related to computer science, i would say your SAT test scores are quite good for all of your non-dream schools. unfortunately, your valid sophomore GPA is quite below average if not below 10-20 percentile for these schools. how they will interpret your junior grades from a third-world education system is beyond my scope of context. assuming your gpa for freshman year was similar to your sophomore year, you have fair chances at SD, Davis, UIUC, Irvine, Cal Poly - possibly in that order from hardest to easiest. Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, USC, and LA seem to be reaches.</p>

5

<p>Thanks readteabag. I really appreciate it!
I know my sophomore gpa is low, but my first year A-level results are actually pretty great. I was hoping that the sharp upward trend would help my situation a bit more :confused:
But then again, my lack of ECs hurts me a lot as well.</p>

<p>I guess I’m going to have to work extremely hard on those essays!</p>