<p>GPA:
currently a senior
Unweighted: 3.3
Weighted: 3.7</p>
<p>SAT: 2100
ACT: 32</p>
<p>I currently tutor AP Bio, Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Pre calculus, and French.
I'm in CSF and National Honor Society
I have over 500 hours of volunteer hours</p>
<p>I've taken multiple course at the local community college for college credit:
- Human Biology
- Microbiology
- Medical Terminology
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Macroeconomics (HATED THIS CLASS)</p>
<p>I was born in Laos. I lived there most of my childhood. My family eventually gave up our good life there to come to America. Even though Laos is an Asian country, we have a pretty bad reputation for drug use, gangs, and etc. in America.
I'm a competitive skier and I've won titles.
My mom just passed away a few weeks ago. I used my medical skills to save as much of her as possible. I was able to resuscitate her enough to keep her organs and heart alive for donation.
My house got burglarized 2 years ago. I had saved up thousands of dollars for college from what I had earned through tutoring students. My mom and dad later admitted that they had saved up $10,000 in cash for me to surprise me, but that got stolen during the robbery also. </p>
<p>So I've gone through a lot, but I heard that personal statements don't weigh as much in comparison to your GPA- SAT/ACT scores. </p>
<p>My GPA is sort of low because I spent a lot of time taking care of my mom when she was sick and before she died. </p>
<p>My mom's organs all went to people in the bay area, and I've kept my eye on bay area schools for a while already.
So, what are my chances of getting in to a UC Berkeley and/or Stanford?</p>
<p>are you part of tzuchi? it’s a great organization…</p>
<p>anyways to answer your question and bluntly your numbers are below average esp for stanford. For UCB, your SAT i believe is on par but GPA is still on the low side. The entire weighing of GPA is a bit overrated - they want you to get As whether its AP or regular. A “B” in an AP is not really equal to an A in a regular class, the A looks better because they only weight so many AP courses because not all schools offer that many APs and it would be unfair for those students - or at least that’s the logic at the UC level.</p>
<p>BUT…give your circumstances you’ve described above - if you can describe those qualities well in your essay…i do think you have a chance…not many people went through what you did in life…and regardless of what school you go to…you’re probably more mature than most and it will serve you very well.</p>
<p>Your life story is definitely your hook. Write about that in your essay (don’t do a sob story) and I don’t see how they couldn’t overlook your GPA. Your SAT score is not bad either! If you don’t have enough room to write about your situation in the essay, you could take advantage of the special circumstances attachment in the Common App.</p>
<p>Under the essay section on the Common App, it says “Additional Information: Please attach a separate sheet if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application.”</p>
<p>Essay… Essay bud. Your profile alone doesn’t give you sufficient leverage -and might drag you down. However your life story is impressive and it is certainly impressionable. </p>
<p>Write a fabulous essay. Don’t be wordy, and certainly avoid being whiny. Don’t be overly emotional -though I understand it is still in you- and never focus on the emotional part of the story.</p>
<p>Colleges love to see growth and overcoming of difficulties. They like their applicants to be mature and understanding individuals. So what you need to do is focus on the aftermath, and the recovery of yours from those traumatic events. Don’t let the past grievances blind you! By taking an approach of looking back with resolve -or whatever emotion it be-, you can show yourself as a mature individual. </p>
<p>But don’t take me wrong: I don’t mean that you should be too light on the subject of death or your hardships. It’s just that you should only invest enough in those topics, and then move on with levity to prevent it from being a depressed essay -which will make the admissions officers think you’ve not gotten over it yet. Again, the main focus of the essay should be the life lessons/ new understandings you’ve gained through the traumatic experience, and the consequence -like, how you changed/are changing. </p>
<p>Sorry if my comment here was redundant and loosely structured. But I hope you got my point. You stand a great chance at both schools only if you express yourself in the essay proficiently.</p>
<p>Be sure to show, not tell. You’ve likely heard this too many times now. But this is the key to sounding like a mature individual you should be. You can’t but put your personal emotions through your words if you tell.</p>
<p>If your essay is good enough you have a fantastic chance at getting in both Stanford and Cal. Your situation in unique enough to make up for your grades and test scores.</p>
<p>Your test scores and GPA are not so great for Stanford but if you tell them about your circumstances it’ll take you a long way. Write about all the hardships you’ve gone through and how it will shape you for college. Don’t narrow your choices to only Stanford and Berkeley Cal. Schools like MIT like people like you. But remember they can be very fickle.</p>