Chance for me EECS at Berkeley, CS at Caltech, and CS Turing Scholar at UT Austin

High School Junior (Class of 2021) at a Private Wisconsin School
Diploma Type: Honors College Preparatory Diploma

Stats and Grades:

Unweighted GPA: 3.99
Weighted GPA: 4.56
Weighted and Capped GPA: 4.13 (UC GPA from RogerHub)
7 AP Courses taken (Max is 8 at my school)
Class Rank: (1/46)
36 ACT Composite Score (Taken Last year)
1,550 SAT Composite Score (Over this Summer)
1,480 PSAT 10 Composite Score (Taken Last year)
Good essays on CS and on my homosexual uncle

Clubs and activities:

  1. Varsity Boys Basketball (3 Years)
  2. FTC Robotics Programming team (5 years)
  3. NHS (2 Years)
  4. JV Boys Basketball (1 Year)

IT Internship at Verizon Mobile (Summer, 2017)
Work Experience at Best Buy (2017-Present)
Letters of Recommendation from Scott Walker (Former Governor of WI), Jacob Epan (My Robotics Coach), and Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell (Personal friend of the Family and author)

More info to come (Awaiting my SAT Subject tests)
Subject Tests:
Physics (750+)
Math Level 2 (750+)
US History (750+)

I think your UC capped weighted GPA should be much higher than 4.13 if your unweighted GPA is 3.99, which essentially is 4.00. Use https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ Take out all the + and -, i.e. a A- is an A, a B+ is a B. I think you’ll find that your capped and weighted is more closer to 4.30.

Having said all of that, the typical admit averages for UC-Berkeley EECS will be very close to 4.00 unweighted, 4.30 weighted and capped, and 1550-1560 SAT. So you’re definitely in the ballpark. But being in the ballpark still technically considered a reach, as Berkeley EECS is a reach for everyone.

I tried it again with RogerHub. Sadly, it was the same. My school works in quarters.
111 A’s
1 B
76 Honors/AP Classes
112 total

Requesting Input- @Gumbymom

You have 112 quarter grades for 10-11th?

112/4 =28

Isn’t that equivalent to 28 year long classes during 10-11th grade. Most kids have closer to 12-14 classes over 10-11th grade not including summer classes.

LORs should be from teachers from whom you took classes from, not politicians/personal family friends.

The essay is about yourself, so a gay uncle is irrelevant, unless he influenced you in some way.

Are UCs affordable for you?

28 classes? OMG… Wow, ok that makes sense then. As mentioned above, taking 5-7 classes a semester, for a total of 20-28 semesters or 40-56 quarters for 10-11 grade is usually the norm. I’m sure the UCs will see this as an anomaly.

@AMDSD2002: Still cannot see how you have so many grades for 10-11th. For example, if you 7 classes with 4 grades each/year since you are on the quarter system, you would have 28 grades for 1 year or 56 grades for 2 years??? Are the classes 1 quarter long?

Other can citing average admit stats, @ProfessorPlum168 pretty much covered all information for EECS at UCB. You are a competitive applicant, have great stats, very good EC’s but a questionable essay about your Uncle? Hopefully the essay focuses on you and not your Uncle.

EECS is a Reach and if your UC GPA is actually 4.13??, it will be a hindrance.

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%

2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23

2019 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT totals:
UCB: 1340-1540

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts
UCB: 28-35

CalTech is also a Reach so hopefully you have some solid Match and Safety schools on your list.

Best of luck.

“Scott Walker (Former Governor of WI)”

As Hamurtle mentioned, do not use a recommendation from a politician, especially someone who couldn’t answer a question on evolution, will not look good at Berkeley or Cal Tech. UCs don’t typically require recommendations but I recall Berkeley has asked for recommendations from some applicants.

I’m still not sure on your recommendation strategy are you planning to use the three you mentioned in addition to the standard three - stem teacher, non-stem class teacher, GC or instead of those three? You should really only use teachers and three max.

Also, for OOS students, only AP/IB/UC approved DE classes earn the weighted GPA points. Your honors classes will not earn the weighted GPA points.

UT will be a reach as well as their mandate is to take their in-state students first.

Hopefully you have safeties/matches (UW/Madison, UMN-Twin Cites) or similar schools in mind.

And to reiterate-teachers/counselors only for your primary letters of recommendation. No politicians/family friends. And the robotics coach would be iffy as well if he did not teach you in any academic subject.

@Hamturtle

yes, the UC’s are affordable for me. My gay uncle was just hard to live and deal with. There must be a glitch with RogerHub because I have a 4.56 weighted gpa and a 3.99 unweighted gpa but my weighted and capped gpa is only 4.13.
@Gumbymom
My school does their classes in quarters. I started taking High School level classes in 7th grade (Algebra 1).

Also, Scott Walker goes to my church and I meet with him regularly. Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell is a friend of my family because my dad is a CEO of a Software Company based in Milwaukee with offices in Palo Alto and Helsinki, Finland.

@Gumbymom
My safety schools are Emory, Stevens Institute Of Technology, Rose Hulman (SWE)

You really shouldn’t post names.

In fact, it would be nice if a moderator could redact the names from the post.

Emory as a safety school… ok.

Exactly-Emory is not a safety for anyone. Also the school does not have an Engineering school in the traditional sense as classes will be taken at Georgia Tech.

Just curious as to why Wisconsin isn’t on the list as it has an excellent Engineering school.

@Hamurtle
I want to leave Wisconsin and go to another state to expand my horizons. That is why I want to major in Computer Science.

^and depending on whose rankings you want to look at, UW is in the Top 20 for Computer Science.

Remember that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. Unless there is another reason you don’t want to stay in Wisconsin.

@Hamurtle I want to study at a top 10 CS School

I get this, but the odds are you won’t get in to any of your reaches. Of course you have a chance, but make sure you would be happy attending any of your targets (do you have any?) and highly likely/safeties…agree with others that Emory is a reach. Would you prefer to attend Rose Hulman or Stevens over UWisc?

You haven’t responded to the posters who said you need teacher recommendations and a counselor recommendation…will your applications have these? Only send the ones mentioned in your OP if the school accepts ADDITIONAL LORs.

If a school wants teacher/counselor recs and you only send the ones above, you application may not be considered complete and/or deemed to be from someone who doesn’t follow directions.

For example here are CalTech’s requirements :

http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/apply/first-yearfreshman-applicants/teacher-evaluations