CHANCE ME for UC Berkeley!

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

Hi everyone! I’m an out of state applicant for UC Berkeley. Any insight about admission chances would be helpful as I can’t decide if it’s worth applying or not.

Academics

  • GPA unweighted: 3.94/4.0
  • GPA weighted: 4.723
  • ACT: 34 (36 English, 33 Math, 31 Science, 35 Reading)
  • PSAT: 1370 (680 Math and 690 English)
  • 6 APs on app + 4 senior year APs
  • human geography (5), computer science principles (3), us history (3), statistics (4), chemistry (4), language and composition (4) & 12th: microeconomics, macroeconomics, calc ab, and physics I
  • honors english, math and history classes throughout

Extracurriculars:

  • FBLA (10th and 11th): participated in state leadership conference and qualified for national leadership conference both years
  • started tutoring online during school closure and raised over 4k and counting for charity
    -NAHS: member in good standing
  • NHS: member in good standing and co-chair for fundraiser throughout the year
  • learned, performed, and choreographed dance for traditional indian dance
  • interned at a local architecture firm and learned about the career, business and tested architecture software used; visited job sites and talked with clients
  • OMA volunteering: interacted with seniors suffering from dementia and used art therapy to communicate and assist them
  • attended a week long college architecture and design camp where I learned about the field and used skills to build a model for a client
  • certified in python coding during 11th grade summer
  • food pantry volunteering (9th-11th): stocked donations and interacted with guests at food pantry

Awards:

  • highest honors all 4 years
  • AP scholar with distinction
  • Scholastic Silver Key Award

Other:

  • ethnicity: Asian
  • gender: female
  • not applying for financial aid
  • out of state
  • applying for environmental design

Thank you so much for taking the time to look over my info! Any recommendations or advice is helpful!!

2

UC GPA, unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted?

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

OOS Honors classes are not weighted by the UC’s.

Intended major?

Family is ok with $65K/year for you to attend?

3

Thanks for replying! My high school does fully weighted GPA, no capped weighted. I’m planning on majoring in environmental design and I think I will try to get some sort of scholarships to manage the tuition cost.

4

UC’s offer little merit scholarship aid but they offer good need-based aid for in-state CA applicants. Make sure you run the NPC if money is an issue and if you are OOS, expect to pay close to full price.

https://saservices.berkeley.edu/calculator/

5

Disclaimer: I am an incoming First-Year at Brown who declined his admission to UC Berkeley, but my advice should still apply.

I had similar stats when I applied this year so you are good there. However, Berkeley, and most other similar colleges, utilize your academics (grades/GPA/test scores) to assess your capability to cope with the coursework at their school, after this, it’s up to your extracurricular activities and essays to demonstrate how Berkeley (or any other college) is the right place for you due to specific opportunities the school has and how you decided on your major by taking advantage of the resources in your high school. Also, applying for a less competitive major like Public Health, which I did, instead of Bio/CS makes admission to Berkeley easier, and you can always choose to double major later if you would like. Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design program, but if it is a more niche program, it can be easier if you have extracurricular activities that show a strong interest in the field. At the end of the day however, make sure you are applying for a major that supports the “story” your application is telling, as I applied to Public Health only because I had extracurricular activities and courses (public health education work, courses at the local community college etc.) that clearly showed that I was truly interested in Public Health.

Also, as other posters on this thread have noted, Berkeley offers few scholarship to out of state applicants (primarily regents, which is only for 100-200 students every year,) and financial aid. Plan on being full-pay at Berkeley if you decide to attend, or move to California to establish residency (your parents will likely have to do this, however, as residency for undergraduate students is usually determined by where your parents live.)

Hope this helps! Good luck with admissions!