Chance at Berk., Corn., etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

From Rhode Island
GPA Weighted : 3.91
I have shown dramatic improvement over the years, I went from being a B- student with no advanced classes freshman year to an A- student with many difficult classes this year.

SAT : 1140(M-590, W/R-550) essay is 6ish
***(Was a year ago; did not study, came in late, no breakfast, no calc, nothing prepared, nothing on me, I got no sleep)
SAT predicted : atleast a 1360 with essay 7ish

ranking: top 30%(I know that’s bad)
Intended major is CS
Classes(ap/honors):
AP: Bio, Stats, CS(I love that classsss), and Physics Uno
Honors: Bio, Chem, Spanish,
I also dual-enrolled in math classes(algebra 2 & geo)

Extra-curriculars(I have a lot of passions!!!):
Outdoor Track and Field 9’, 10’, 11’, 12’
-Student Body 9’, 10’, 11’ 12’
-Member of the AKA and TFSRI and SNEKA(Fish hobbyist;you probably wont understand but it’s a legitimate thing and I’ve been to national conventions)
-Indoor Track and Field 10’, 12’
-Cross Country 10’, 11’
-Deca 9’, 10’(club was shut down)
-Journalism 9’, 10’
-Drama club 9’, 10’
-Robotics 10, 11, 12(I think im vp? its a small club so idk)
-Rowed during the summers of 11’, 12’
-Rowing competitively for fall 12’
-Head of Charles Qualifier in coxed quads(crew)
-2nd Place in New England for coxed quads(I want to row for college but no one wants me.)
-Captain for Indoor and Outdoor Track
-Knows/self-taught Python and Java programming
-Creating an android app(an addicting 2 d game) cool idea
-(Funfact- I like solving puzzles like rubiks cube and other shapes)

AWARDS:
-2016 Pawtucket Pawsox(Minor League Baseball Team)Academic Incentive(most improved/driven)Award
-1st Place in the Rhode Island(state) Engineering team Competition 2016(robotics boii)

Volunteer work:
-Volunteered for my guidance counselor, cleaned up the beach in front of her shop)(sponsored by Save The Bay)(sad, I was the only one in the school who showed up to volunteer)(she loves me… hinting at rec. letter…)
-Personal trained many of my friends(trying to word that better)

Jobs:
Mcdonalds part-time cook/crew member
East Greenwich Veteren Firemens’ Association part time cook

Possible hooks:
Asian-American who is low income(<60k), first gen imm., first gen college student, parents divorced, makes up a single percent of the asians in my school.

Schools Im looking at for as undeclared:
Berkeley(I got family in cal)
Cornell
UCLA
Northeastern
(suggestions would be nice for schools that are in the city and have a good name; also I need about
a 1:1 ratio of male to female)

Schools for the specific program of CS:
U of Michigan
U of Illinois UC
U of Texas Austin

its 3am so ignore errors please
thank you very much for reading

2

Ill also consider Tufts, BU, and Georgetown as my aunts went there.

3

Since you are low-income, you should take the UC’s off of your list. Being a non-resident with an OOS HS transcript means that you will pay full fees for the UC’s. It doesn’t matter that you have family in California because you didn’t live with them the past 4 years and you are not a resident. Non-resident means non-funded. Pay up- $55-$60K per year.

. In California, you would be considered an ORM- over-represented minority. The UC’s have huge populations of Asians.

BTW, hooks are things that the colleges need, not something you think is a hook.

The schools typically use all of the same hooks:

*Recruited Athlete,
*URM-underrepresented minority students (African American, Mexican American, Native American, and Pacific Islander),
*celebrity students,
*large donors and
*specific musicians or artists.

*First generation is also a hook but many uni’s are not using that as a strong hook…

4

@“aunt bea” Out of curiosity, would other Hispanics be considered URMs? Cubans, Colombians, etc.

5

nm

6

@Pawrrrrrr, I consider them Hispanic, but what the schools use is on them.

7

@aunt bea Thank you soo much for that info!!! Although I am a bit sad, I really appreciate it!

8

If your weighted GPA is 3.91, that means that your unweighted GPA is what? 2.91? 3.41? 3.61? ???

In any case, it looks like all of the schools in your list are super-reach or out-of-reach for admission to the CS major.

In addition, you are unlikely to be able to afford any of them:

  • UCB, UCLA, UIUC, UT Austin give no or little financial aid to non-residents of their states; any merit scholarships large enough to make them affordable to you are super-reach or out-of-reach.
  • Cornell, Northeastern, and Michigan require both of your parents’ finances for financial aid, even if they are divorced. So if the parent you do not live with is uncooperative, or makes significant income but will not pay, you will not be able to afford these schools.
9

Forget about UIUC, UMich, and UT Austin even if you are instate for any of them.

10

Thank you for the info! What sucks is that my dad makes a lot of money(over 100k) but we don’t receive what seems like a fraction of that so what you said relates to me. My unweighted GPA is around 3.0ish(I honestly don’t really know). So it looks like I might just go to Community lol

11

@andrew12k: Are you a senior in high school? If so then you need to get serious quickly regarding which schools you are applying to.

With an unweighted 3.0 GPA then pretty much every school that has been mentioned in this thread is not realistic for you. However, there is a HUGE gap between for example “Berkeley, Cornell, UCLA, Northeastern, …” and community college. You need to come up with a realistic list. You probably should start by finding out which parent or parents are willing to pay how much for your university, and running the NPC on your in-state options.

12

^^^
Theres plenty of great liberal arts schools that arent so competitive, university of rhode island, just get some schools that accept more than 50%

13

@DadTwoGirls Yeah I’m still alive, sorry this is late. Yeah I sent out my apps to 9 schools. My reach being Brown and NYU. Then the rest are moderates like Fordham, Villanova, etc… and then bunch of safeties like Wentworth. My weighted GPA is 3.94 and my unweighted is 3.7(not 3.0 lol). Def agree with you that a lot of those schools I chose were far-reach for me… I lowered my self-esteem and now wear gothic clothing. I am ready for reality. Thanks for that comment.

14

My recs from two teachers are decently strong but I haven’t read them. My guidance counselor
I am very close with did a good one for sure.

Also got a regional award called the Pawtucket Pawsox School Incentive 2016

I literally waited to post this at 1:23 am… Yeet.

15

Im also first gen, parents divorced, mom is a skilled worker(no set income)

16

Are You make a desition about your major yet?
I think you have an option in Umass Biston, i don’t know about the others universities.
If your essay is so strong perhaps Northeastern too.

17

My major is undecided but I mentioned a “second choice” in Statistics or CompSci. I really want to penuer though.
I think I have a chance at Mass Boston too man. Thank You!

18

Im an asian-american(don’t stop reading!).

I applied to Brown, Northeastern, Virginia, NYU, Fordham, Villanova, Lehigh, Umass Boston, Wentworth. (I just realized I have two safeties(not good)…)

NYU is early decision(applied to Liberal Studies Program or LSP?)

-My GPA weighted is 3.9, unweighted is 3.7.
-Rank is 111/375
-SAT superscore is 1230(600CR and 630MATH), no superstore is 1220
-I showed a crazy upward trend!
took many honors classes…only 4 APs, taking 3 now. AP stats, Compsci, and bio
-My school is rural-suburb in RI(“The racial makeup of the town was 97.60% White, 0.39% African American, 0.15% Native American, 0.56% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.31% from other races, and 0.97% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of the population.”…I’m a minority lmao

My EC’s i think are decent, I have a lot, but these are the only ones I put on my app:

I work two jobs(Assistant chef for a private restaurant for 10,11,12)(Chipotle 12)
Rowed for 11 and 12-I rowed in many races such as the Head of Charles(we are not amazing…)(a private club, not with my school)
Did Track outdoor for 9,10,11
Indoor track for 10, 12 and look at me, I am captain now.
Cross country for 10, 11
Writer for the school newspaper 9,10
Robotics club 10, 11, 12 im a mentor/co-president
School Plays for 9,12 main roles and helped the sets
I am a member for many Fish-keeping societies(we raise fish, some endangered/rare, discuss stuff about fish keeping, preservation, and taxonomy.(American Killifish Association, Southern New England Killifish Association, and Tropical fish society of RI) I specialize in Killifish and have been to many conventions and auctions. Volunteered in many aswell.

My common app essay was really strong! I wrote about my failure in bringing home an endangered fish who a superstar in the hobby had gotten for me in the national AKA auction. I talked about my devastation in killing most of my fish in my fish room on accident and how I learned sharing my failures bettered me as a person. I shared it with a mentor… learned that we don’t have to face failure alone…used the lesson with how I helped my teammates recently when they did bad in a race during track…talked about my failures and cheered them up. I think it was a fantastic and insightful essay!

My essays for NYU, Brown, Lehigh, and Villanova were incredibly STRONG. Did a lot of research and really personalized them.

Please chance! I know my grades and scores are bad but hopefully my ECs and essays can make up for that!

Don’t go easy on me, I’m used to being abused.

19

@andrewl2k You’re almost in the same situation as me. I think these will be your chances:

Brown: High reach- Just because your scores and GPA are very low. Unfourtenely, while you do have decent ECs, they’re not that focused on one thing. Ivys want to accept specialists, not well-rounded students. But, if you talk a lot about your ECs related to fish, then you might have a chance.

Northeastern: Reach

Virginia: Reach

NYU: Reach

Fordham: High Match/Low Reach

Villanova: Reach

Lehigh: Reach

Umass Boston: Safety

Wentworth: Safety

20

Based on your stats and scores, I would say that you probably would get into Wentworth and UMass Boston. Why Umass Boston btw? I know they are trying to be more of a residential college but other UMass campuses would be better suited for computer science including UMass Dartmouth or Lowell. Why are you not considering URI or even RIC as they are in state and it seems like budget may be an issue for you?