Chance me for top UCs!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am an asian high school senior attending Mark Keppel High School (in California). I'm planning on applying to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Stanford (during regular action). About me:</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>My gpa is 4.31 Weighted (3.81 unweighted) and am ranked 5 out of 605. Had 3.6 (3.6) gpa on my freshmen year, 4.2 (3.8) gpa on my sophomore year, and 4.5 (3.9) gpa on my junior year.</p>

<p>I only took the SAT's twice and received a 2020 (reading 660, math 750, writing 610) on my first try, 1930 (reading 630, math 800, writing 580) on my second try. Will this lower second score lower my chances of acceptence? I was pretty disappointed after receiving these scores =.</p>

<p>I was in the GATE program and took algebra I and gemetry in the 8th grade, recieved A/A on both semesters.</p>

<p>Also, I have no math class in this senior year because the Statistics AP class was dropped since too few people signed up for that class, and Computer Programming AP was dropped because the teacher quit his job right when the school year started. And theres no other math class for me to take, so this absence of a math class isnt entirely my fault... will this affect my admission negatively, or will the colleges understand?</p>

<p>I joined cross country on my freshmen and sophomore year, and had one of the biggest improvements in the team considering that I was a COMPLETE couch potato that had zero exercise prior to joining this sport (I couldnt even run a mile at the very first months of practice to running 20:00s for the 5k meter towards the end - I know its slow, but its a huge improvement). I even ran in the varsity division on the first meet of my sophomore year, but due to overwork I developed joint issues and decided not to run for the rest of my high school year.</p>

<p>Honor/ AP courses:</p>

<p>Algebra 2 H
English 1/2 H
Biology 1/2 H</p>

<p>Trig/Pre-calc H
Chemistry 1/2 H
English 3/4 H
World History H</p>

<p>Physics B AP (5 on AP test)
English Language/compsition AP (3 on AP test)
Calculus BC (5 on AP test) - yes I skipped AB and did well on the BC course... will this affect my admission in any way? Negatively? Positively?</p>

<p>Biology AP (currently taking)
Enligsh Literature AP (currently taking)
Music Theory AP (currently taking)</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>CSF regular member 4 years
Math team 4 years - captain 2 years
Mu Alpha Theta 4 years</p>

<p>Community Service and Work Experience:</p>

<p>About 35 hours volunteer work and 31 hours community service by the end of November (for UC app), 35 hours volunteer work and 45 hours community service by the end of December (for Stanford regular decision app).</p>

<p>Yes I regret being so inactive throughout my high school life =(.</p>

<p>Achievements:</p>

<p>2006
MAO Theta division 1st place for region 1
LACC (local math competition) 13th place
Part of mandelbrot school team, ranked 8th place western division
Part of math day at the beach (big local math competition, I think 200+ contestants?) school team, ranked 3rd in A division</p>

<p>2007
Usamts honorable mention
Pomona math talent search (local math talent search) top invite
Part of Southern California's ARML B, ranked 5th nationally in B division
Amc 10, had score of 120 (top 1% I think?) -> AIME invite
Rocket city Disovery division 16th place
Fall startup 11th place in 10th grade division
Part of mandelbrot team, 7th place western division
Part of math day at the beach (big local math competition, I think 200+ contestants?) team, ranked 4th in A division</p>

<p>2008
LACC (local math competition) 13th place
Usamts silver medal
Pomona math talent search (local math talent search) top invite
Amc 12 (top 5%) -> invited to AIME (didnt qualify for USAMO =( )
Mu Alpha Theta Mu division 1st place for region 1
Mandelbrot individual tied 20th western division
Part of mandelbrot team, ranked 6th place western division
Part of math day at the beach (big local math competition, I think 200+ contestants?) team, ranked 7th in A division</p>

<p>PSAT National Merit Commendation (top 3% I think?)</p>

<p>Final Notes:</p>

<p>During my last two summers, I took in total 4 summer courses in a community college. They were mainly to enrich my knowledge (2 psychology courses, 1 philosophy course, and 1 logic course) and I had lots of fun! Got A's on all of them, but I dont know if this really adds anything to my application or not. Should I mention it at all? I think they are college level classes, and the credits are transferable to UCs.</p>

<p>I devoted a LOT of time in math, both doing practices myself and hosting/helping others with the practices (does this count as volunteer hours?).</p>

<p>Just recently (this year) I became interested in creating my own music pieces electronically; the genre goes under house/trance and the like. I plan on completing a piece by the end of this month and submit it to the prestigious ocremix.org, which is notorious for being very selective with its judging. If they accept my piece, does this add anything to my resume?</p>

<p>Along with creating music, I was planning on finding a site that publishes/posts articles for free so that I can join that site and write my own works. Thoughts on this?</p>

<p>Also, do you guys have any tips I can do to improve my application with the few final weeks that I have? </p>

<p>edit: Oh yeah! And I overcame the death of both grandparents in the same year. How much does this affect my resume?</p>

<p>So to end my post, what are my chances for UCLA, UC Berkely, and (its a long shot, but hey!) Stanford?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Okay, you need to do a couple of things–you need to figure out your UC GPA and you need to realize that the UCs only take the best single sitting score on your SAT (so taking the test multiple times is only helpful if the overall score improves, not if one section improves).</p>

<p>Based upon what you wrote here about your GPA and your SAT scores and ECs, I expect the following results:</p>

<p>Stanford–Reach
UC Berkeley–Match to Slight Reach (closer to Match)
UCLA–Match</p>

<p>All other UCs, match or safe match or safety</p>

<p>You definitely need to explain the lack of a senior math class to have good chances at UC Berkeley and UCLA—if you don’t explain you may get into UCLA, but you would have no chance at UC Berkeley.</p>

<p>Your major accomplishments are all your competitions and your good results in them, plus your upward grade trend in generally tough courses–congratulations.</p>

<p>The reason I only rank you a “reach” at Stanford is the relatively low (for Stanford) SAT results, and the lack of a senior math class. Stanford would have expected you to at least take a community college math course in that case.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>P.S. The UCs don’t care about the SAT scores dropping unles they drop a total of 200 points or more. They will just take the highest score and ignore the other one.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for the quick reply, Calcruzer.</p>

<p>My UC GPA is 4.16 (I’m assuming all AP courses are weighted) if my chemistry honors course is not weighted, or 4.25 if the chem course is weighted. How can I know for sure?</p>

<p>I may improve my subject SATs by taking it again this November (and I took one for October, waiting for the results to come). On December I plan to take the ACT because from what I hear people in my school generally do better on that test than on the SATs. Hopefully I’ll do well =).</p>

<p>“Stanford would have expected you to at least take a community college math course in that case.”</p>

<p>But what if I didn’t know that the math courses would be dropped? The school offered BOTH stats AP and comp programming AP at the end of my junior year for me to sign up, and it was only until I started day 1 of my senior year that I realized both classes were dropped. If I knew, I WOULD take a math course during summer but I had no information. If I explained this in my app for Stanford, would they understand?</p>

<p>By the way, I’m new to this boards. Im assuming “reach” means bad and “match” means good…? =P</p>

<p>“Good luck.” - Thanks! I’ll need it ^ ^</p>

<p>edit: Would you advise me to drop my music production to have more time to study for the SAT and develop my admission essays? They are quite time consuming.</p>

4

<p>Go to the following site to find out if your chemistry class is a UC honors course:</p>

<p>[University</a> of California Doorways Home](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/]University”>http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/)</p>

<p>then put in the name of your high school and you can figure it out. The UC GPA averages for acceptance at UC Berkeley last year were 4.21 and at UCLA it was 4.16</p>

<p>Yes, match is good (acceptance likely) and reach (acceptance doubtful) is bad.</p>

<p>I would include your info on the math course being dropped in a supplementary form to Stanford–they might give you a break based upon what you said here (although your SAT score is still a bit low for them).</p>

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<p>Hypothetically if my test scores drastically increase (say, 34 ACT, 800 math, 720 literature, 750 biology, 800 physics), what do you think my chances will be for Stanford?</p>

6

<p>Well, then your chances would improve considerably–probably to match–especially considering the upward grade trend.</p>

7

<p>xD You just made my day. Just yesterday I was debating with myself whether I should even waste the $75 on the stanford apps, but considering my chance IF my test scores improve I just might apply. Thanks Calcruzer! + reps to you if the forum employed a reputation system.</p>

8

<p>Sorry for the shameless double post, but I have two more questions.</p>

<p>First, would it help at all if I say in my apps that I plan to take a college level math course during the summer of my senior year? I’m debating whether I should spend my summer time taking more classes or doing some internship for fun.</p>

<p>Second, I forgot to mention that I am not in NHS or Crown and Scepter. I’m just in CSF. Will this affect me significantly?</p>

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<p>I would expect that neither of those things would affect your application significantly. </p>

<p>P.S. Thanks for the positive comments.</p>

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<p>Hmm…you should try and get a community college math course second semester. It’ll make up for a lack of it this semester.</p>

11

<p>Is this really true? Taking a math course for the second semester of my senior year only will make up for no math course? Cuz I’ll do it if its true! Will anyone confirm this?</p>

12

<p>Sorry again for the shameless double post. I swear I will never do this again! But an idea just popped out of my head - my school offers an indepedent study program. If they allow me to do independent study on a math class for this year, does that change anything?</p>

13

<p>Bump? I would appreciate it if anyone would confirm my last two posts =).</p>