Chance for Berkeley RD

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

<p>General Information:</p>

<p>Year: Senior this Fall.
Age entering college: 17
Ethnicity: African-Canadian (Born in Nigeria, West Africa)
Location: Canada (I go to the top public school in Western Canada)
Class Rank: School doesn't rank, I would probably gaurantee top 5%
SAT: Not taken yet (When answering, assume a 2250+ score, I never score lower on practice tests. Will be taking it in October)
SAT II: Math II and Chemistry (Will be taking these in November on the same day, expect a 750+ based on practice)
Family Income: $150000-$200000 (Not something we talk about lol)</p>

<p>Grades</p>

<ul>
<li>Freshman Year Grades: N/A, these are not put on transcripts where I live (Alberta) because high school starts in grade 10.</li>
<li>Sophomore Year: Essentially straight As, marks ranged from high to mid 90s.</li>
<li>Junior Year: First semester I basically had straight As, with one 89% (we do percentage GPAs here) and one 87%. Second semester I fell off a bit, with all my grades in the high 80s; which is why I'm making this thread haha. </li>
<li>Senior Year: Unknown so far, I'm going to work WAY harder than I did in the second half of my junior year and shoot for straight As.
-Cumulative GPA: 3.8 UW (I THINK), well over 4.0 W</li>
</ul>

<p>Honor Level Courses: I'm in the IB Certificate program because I had a teacher in grade 9 for Humanities who decided not to give me a recommendation for Social or English IB despite having high 90s in both her classes. The IB Classes I do take are:</p>

<p>IB French A (IB 10, 20, 30)
Pre-IB Science (Pre-IB 10)
IB Biology SL (No HL offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Physics SL (No HL Offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Math SL (Couldn't fit HL into my schedule because I'm taking all 3 sciences) (IB 20, 30, 31)
IB Chemistry HL (IB 20, 25, 35, 30)</p>

<p>I only started taking IB exams this May so I don't know any of my scores out of 7 yet, I felt good when writing them though so I expect to do well.</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars</p>

<ul>
<li>Club Basketball for about 5 years (Equivalent of AAU in the USA)</li>
<li>Varsity Football (Sophomore and Junior years, will likely play as a Senior)
Community Basketball (9 years)</li>
<li>Royal Canadian Air Cadets (For 3 years, attained the rank of Flight Corporal, Cadets is a great leadership program)</li>
<li>Patti Falconer Acting/Modelling Agency (Received many scholarships to acting schools outside Alberta, that I was unable to attend because we won't move. I also received an offer of a lead role in Like Mike 2 the movie; but was unable to participate because my parent's were not around for me to go to Vancouver for the casting. I was 12 or 13 iirc.)</li>
<li>Debate Club, never won anything significant </li>
</ul>

<p>Awards:</p>

<ul>
<li>Honor Society (All of High School)</li>
<li>Alexander Rutherford Scholarship (National Scholarship for Academic Acheivement, received for all of high school)</li>
<li>Northern Basketball Camp All-Star x3</li>
</ul>

<p>Work/Volunteer Experience:</p>

<ul>
<li>Refereed basketball for 2 years. Paid about $13 per game.</li>
<li>Calgary Women's Show: Packing gift bags for thousands of attendees</li>
<li>Helped paint a bridge and do a garage sale for a Women's Shelter in Okotoks</li>
<li>Vacation Bible School Crew Leader at Church for 2 years</li>
<li>Volunteering every Sunday at church for 6 years as a youth leader, teaching younger kids</li>
<li>Tech Management Leader at Church</li>
<li>Miscellaneous other things that I could bring up if I had my resume handy haha.</li>
</ul>

<p>The last thing I want to say is that I'm well respected around the school by teachers, and I'm a good writer so the essay and teacher recommendations shouldn't be a problem. </p>

<p>In regards to the essay, I'm still debating between writing about how travel (I've lived in Scotland, Norway, USA, Canada, Nigeria) has affected my output on life, and writing something race-related. Input on that would be appreciated.</p>

<hr>

<p>When chancing me, take my black URM status into account so it's more like what would happen with the real admissions officer. </p>

<p>Also I will be applying for pre-med if that is relevant at all.</p>

2

<p>You’re in.
I was from Canada too.</p>

3

<p>Thanks man. Actually I recalculated my GPA and it’s more like 3.6 or 3.7 unweighted.</p>

4

<p>You probably have a better chance at privates tbh (apply to all the ivies)</p>

5

<p>

I’m genuinely glad that you’re cognizant of the admissions processes at American universities…People who (pre)tend to be oblivious annoy the **** out of me.</p>

<p>If you pull off 750+ on SAT IIs and 2250+ on SAT I, consider yourself in. But I agree with flutterfly…Apply to privates.</p>

6

<p>Your GPA is low for Berkeley. But what’s your intended major?</p>

7

<p>My intended major would be arts and sciences (I know that’s broad, but something in that category). I want to do pre-med and become a doctor.</p>

<p>Why do you guys recommend privates? (I am applying to a few - HYP, Duke, Cornell, Columbia). But why am I better suited for those? Not that I’m complaining lol, Duke is my ED school.</p>

8

<p>Berkeley favors numbers more than privates. You fill in a near-vacant niche (high-performing URMs) that private schools use to leverage higher rankings and greater funding.</p>

9

<p>Interesting, so as long as I do well on my SATs I should be able to get into these schools. </p>

<p>I want to say I feel bad about AA but I really don’t. It makes sense to take advantage of what’s there, and if I’m performing at a high level for people of my race that’s not really my fault right?</p>

10

<p>because Berkeley doesn’t do AA (yay)</p>

11

<p>Ohhhh. So you’re saying I’d have a better chance elsewhere because UCB doesn’t do Affirmative Action?</p>

<p>Could I still get in though?</p>

12

<p>Berkeley weighs HS GPA more than they do SAT scores. </p>

<p>The average HS GPA for Berkeley is 3.93. <a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/freshmen.asp[/url]”>http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/freshmen.asp&lt;/a&gt;
Yours is something like 3.6 or 3.7. So, obviously, you are in the bottom based on that information. Getting high SAT scores would help your case. But bare in mind that Berkeley does not have FA for international and OOS students, and Berkeley is expensive to live in, so make sure your parents are willing to finance your education at Berkeley. The good side about going to Berkeley as an international student these days is, there are a lot of them in the university, so you won’t feel lonely and student diversity is thriving.</p>

13

<p>@RML thanks.</p>