Chance me for Brown, Columbia, Berkeley, USC

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everybody,
I'm currently a second semester High School Freshman and my High School is currently asking us to pick our courses for next year. I want to get into Brown, Columbia, Berkeley, and/or USC and these are my current stats...</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR (I know it's terrible, the reason why I did so bad was because I felt as if I wasn't being challenged enough. I know this sounds like a ******** excuse but it's true. I even got all advanced on all of my core curricular on the California STAR testing freshman year)</p>

<p>Semester One:
English I (CP) F
Spanish I (CP) A
Integrated Math (CP) A
Physics (CP) C-
Humanities (CP) B
Photography (CP) C</p>

<p>-switched schools to a much harder one, (ranked #15 in California)-</p>

<p>Semester two:
English I (CP) B-
Global Science (CP) C-
Health (CP) D
Algebra I (CP) C+
PE (CP) C-
Wood I (CP) A</p>

<p>*summer school English I: A
GPA: 2.75</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE YEAR (This is where I actually decided to try in school)
Semester One:
Biology (CP) A
English II (CP) A
World History (CP) A
Geometry (CP) A
American Sign Language (CP) A</p>

<h2>*Team Sports (CP) C</h2>

<p>Semester Two: (Classes I'm taking and assumed grade)
Biology (CP) A
English II (CP) A
World History (CP) A
Sociology of American Pop Music (CP) A
Geometry (CP) A
American Sign Language (CP) A</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>As you guys can see, I've obviously changed. Well anyways, here are the classes I want to take next year!</p>

<p>JUNIOR YEAR
Semester one:
English III (H)
US History (AP)
Chemistry (H)
Algebra II (H)
Sociology (CP)
American Sign Language II (CP)</p>

<p>Semester two:
English III (H)
Psychology (AP)
US History (AP)
Chemistry (H)
Algebra II (H)
American Sign Language II (CP) </p>

<p>In addition, these are the courses I want to take Senior year.</p>

<p>Semester one:
Math Analysis (H)
Environmental Science (AP)
English IV (H)
*Life Skills (CP)
American Sign Language III (CP)
*Team Sports (CP)</p>

<p>Semester two:
Math Analysis (H)
Government and Politics (AP)
English IV (H)
Economics (AP)
Environmental Science (AP)
American Sign Language III (CP)</p>

<p>*Courses that I'm required to take in order to graduate.
(Team Sports not on GPA)</p>

<p>Sophomore PSAT: 1720 w/o practicing at all, didn't know almost any formulas for the math portion because I only just started trying in school, so I came up with the formulas as I was doing the problem, so I only got a 610 on that part.</p>

<p>I have tons of Extra Curricular, from football to being a counselor in training at a camp, to doing a Pre-College program at UC Berkeley. These are just some of them though.</p>

<p>The reason why I've been trying in school is because the comfort that I've been finding in learning and enriching myself. I really doubt that I will return to my old habits, only improve!</p>

<p>So, what are my chances??</p>

2

<p>Bump! Please respond. My course selections should be in by Midnight and I’m really stressed about this!!</p>

3

<p>Well, it is pretty difficult to chance you since you are only a sophomore. However, I think that it would be pretty hard to get your unweighted GPA up at over 3.7 or 3.8 with those low grades in 9th grade, and so I think that Columbia and Brown would be high reaches. With your GPA, I think that you should be sure to look at some good colleges that are not quite so selective. I would never say NOT to apply to Brown and Columbia, though. Perhaps IF you had a very hgh ACT (35 or 36), very high SAT (over 2300), very high SAT II’s (at least 2 over 750), and amazing EC’s, you might get in. However, rigor of course work and grades are very important to most selective colleges. Some books say they are MORE important than SAT/ACT scores; some books say the SAT/ACT scores are a bit more important. Bottom line–GPA and SAT/ACT are close to equal in importance, and they trump EC’s/essays/rec letters at the selective schools, although the latter are important, too. As to rigor, it looks like you will only have 2 AP classes when you apply (US and Psych); the selective schools want more unless your HS just doesn’t offer many. They want you to have taken advantage of many of the tough classes which your HS offers. Does your HS only offer 4 or 5? Then you might be OK with 2 Jr Year and 2 Sr Year, but if they offer more, you really should avail yourself of them if you hope to get into a selective school. Also, selective colleges often look for students who have taken challenging math (Calc, or at least Precalc–I don’t see those on your list) and 4 years of the same foreign language. I don’t see ANY foreign language on your list. Hope this helps.</p>

4

<p>Berkeley does not consider Freshmen grades as part of the UC GPA calculation. The other schools do, although you have a very sharp upward trend. This makes it a potential for you to write some good essays. Overall, if you get 2000+</p>

<p>Brown, Columbia- High reaches because you have few leadership positions
Cal, USC - Matches, since they are much more likely to neglect your Freshmen grades.</p>

5

<p>Pre-college programs don’t really help as an extra-curricular. However, they may slightly help if they were taken at the school you are applying to (but they can by no means sway the decision in any way). I would need to see your full extra-curricular list because your GPA can hurt you. Also, your PSAT (172) score is quite low. Many students at my school took it without studying and received scores higher than 190. (Not trying to be rude, just showing you the kinds of students you are up against for schools like Brown and Columbia) But, since you are only a sophomore, you can make a huge impact later. So, as for now, I say high high reaches. But, that may change later. Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Sorry, but those freshman grades kill any chance you could have had at Columbia and Brown. Students with 4.0’s get rejected easily at such colleges so it’ll be almost impossible for you to compete with them. Don’t worry, however, as there are still a couple methods you can use to get into a top 25 college. I know this because I used these methods myself.</p>

<p>I had the same problem as you when I was applying. My freshman grades were bad (had around 4+ B’s) but my sophomore and junior grades were (almost) all A’s. In fact, my UWGPA was actually .1 higher without freshman grades. In addition, the rest of my app was actually quite good (check this thread if you’re interested in my stats: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-2017/1431553-official-carnegie-mellon-2017-results-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-2017/1431553-official-carnegie-mellon-2017-results-thread.html&lt;/a&gt;). </p>

<p>I knew my freshman grades were bringing me down so I deliberately searched for colleges that didn’t consider freshman grades. By a happy coincidence, Carnegie Mellon, which was already one of my top choices, didn’t consider freshman grades at all. I applied to Carnegie Mellon ED and was accepted. Had I applied to any other school with a similar USNW ranking, I would probably have been rejected due to my low GPA. There aren’t many colleges that ignore freshman grades (Stanford and CMU are the only two I know of) but you should look for those colleges when applying. If you continue working as hard as did last semester, you can present a strong application to those schools and get admitted. Don’t give up yet; there’s still hope.</p>

7

<p>My EC’s are so far…
Sophomore Year
JV Football
Future Business Leaders of America (Might win State, I’m really good at my topic)
80 hours of Community Service
Peer Counseling
DJ Club
CIT at my local camp for three months</p>

<p>Junior Year
Planning to do a summer at Brown Pre-College
Probably 80 more hours of Community Service
FBLA
Advanced Peer Counseling
DJ Club</p>

<p>Also, taking three AP’s in one year, can that really be done? My school is considered to be really hard, so most people who take three AP’s can’t pull off getting A’s in them. Also, I’ve been studying a ton for SAT’s, I think I can get a Junior SAT score of around 2100. Berkeley is my first choice just because I love the school, then USC, then the two IVY’s.</p>

<p>BTW, thank you for all of your responses!</p>

8

<p>Ow yeah, USC, the UC system, and I’m pretty sure both Columbia and Brown consider American Sign Language as a “Foreign Language”. Even if they don’t, I speak another language fluently other than English so I could get an 800 on its SAT subject test and therefore get it to count as a Foreign Language when I apply to colleges.</p>

<p>I’m going to talk to my counselor tomorrow and see if they still have some space to put me in English III AP. Will three AP’s do it for Junior year? Because I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get into Berkeley, even take Chemistry AP, it’s just that Chemistry H is already considered an EXTREMELY challenging course at my school.</p>

9

<p>Hey guys, I am a high school senior who currently resdides in Texas. I’m not trying to take this thread over or something, but if you’d chance me I’d appreciate it.</p>

<p>I want to know my chances of getting into brown, Columbia, and Cornell. ( I know they are reach schools but who knows right?)</p>

<p>I am a Canadian citizen and a resident of Quebec.</p>

<p>My GPA out of a 4 is a 3.8
My GPA out of including ap classes is 4.5
This past semester my GPA was a 5.6 out of 6.
I have taken 9 AP classes, 2 sophomore year, 2 Junior year, and 5 this year.
I have a composite SAT score of 2120.
Math 760 writing 690 and reading 670.
680 Math I SATII
650 Math II SATII (I was sick that day so that probably why it’s low)
I’m taking the Biology and Math II SATIIs this weekend and will probably get around a 700 on both. I am taking the ACT for the first time in February.
I am rank 151 out of 1060 students in my class( that’s most likely because of my nine AP classes[i got all A’s in them except my first AP class sophomore year in which I got a 78])
I have 187 community service hours at Memorial Herman hospital
I have 32 hours at my churches food pantry.
I play soccer but won’t play if admitted.
I applied to biomedical engineering. </p>

<p>What do you guys feel my chances are. I’m feeling nervous about college because I just had my interview with Brown and I’m debating doing more to improve my chances at brown or Columbia or Cornell.</p>

10

<p>Oh and I have lived in Canada, France, and now Texas so I have been exposed to ethnicities essentially my entire life. I know colleges look for diversity and I guess this could help in assessing me.</p>

11

<p>Oh and I played football freshmen year and have done ROTC for 3 years. Also I am very active in soccer outside of school.</p>

12

<p>With Ivy’s you never really know. Your rank might hold you down for the Ivy’s but I’d say High Match for Cornell.</p>

13

<p>Ya thats what I was thinking if anything it’s my ranks. But last semester I got all A’s in 4 APclasses so hopefully my rank goes up! Thanks for the response by the way. I more or less just applied to these schools to see if I’d get in. I really want to go to McGill</p>

14

<p>At least now I know that it is possible to pull straight A’s in over two AP’s.
Do you have any more Extra Curricular?</p>

15

<p>I do ROTC, soccer, and community service; mainly at a hospital ( which I had to interview for) and my church. Besides these nope.</p>

16

<p>Really as long as you apply yourself you can get A’s in APs. I got a 95 both 9 weeks in Calculus, I got a 98 then a 94 in AP Biology, a 96 the a 93 in AP English and a 96 both semesters in AP Macro Eco. It’s really not that bad, the counselors kind of blow it out of proportion and I go to one of the best high schools in Tejas. If I was you and I could go back I’d take as many APs as you feel comfortable with. Don’t doubt yourself because as long as your confident you’ll get an A relatively easy if you do your hw. And I’m white so no fancy Asian automatic here lol Jk. But really do as much as you feel comfortable with</p>

17

<p>Yeah, Cornell would be a high match. The other two are reaches.
Good Luck.</p>