Chance Me for UCB and UCLA please!

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

Chance me for Berkeley, UCLA

(Note: I am American citizen, but currently live in the UAE)

UC GPA: 3.98 (sadly with a small downward trend junior year) (Also suffered multiple hospital visits due to chronic illness that also lead to downward trend)
ACT: 35, 36 Superscore
SAT subject scores: 800 for Math, 750 for Physics

Extracurriculars:

  • Researcher at Local University of Solar optimization for a year and a half (paper going under peer-review at UAE EE/CS publisher)
  • Keynote speaker at School Tedx on AI, now one of the key presidents of tech and speaking
  • Founder of a multi private school Hackathon with over 70 kids (one of the largest in the country)
  • Founder and President of School STEM club that has over 60 members and participates in STEM competitions in the country.
  • Intern at a Fortune 500 company redoing their network for a summer
  • App developer with over 10,000 downloads over 2 apps.
  • Captain of Forensics and Academic Games team (one 2nd and third at multiple tournaments)
  • 80 volunteering hour at local organization
  • President of some smaller clubs
  • Hobbies: building Farnsworth fusers, Tesla coils, other unorthodox projects (wrote essay on this)

Hooks/Awards:

  • Top 10 in CS and AI olympiad (ranked 5) in the UAE. Currently undergoing training to participate in a international competition (but wasn’t in time for UC app)
  • Top 100 in Physics olympiad 2 years in a row (88, and 15 respectively) Got really close to participating in the IPHO this year!
  • Won multiple smaller awards for Physics and CS in school.

I think that my ECs and my scores are good, but my gpa is really bad. I am really worried as I did not receive any supplemental questionnaire from UCB/UCLA. Do you think it’s going to sink me?

2

If you addressed your Health issues in one of your personal insight essays, then the schools might have enough information to render an admission decisions with requiring the supplemental (UCLA) or LOR’s (UCB).

Both schools should be considered Reach schools regardless of your qualifications but you have some impressive EC’s and test scores which can make you competitive. It is now in the hands of admissions, so all you can do is wait.

Best of luck.

3

@thezenphysicsit , I just want to see the displacement between your unweighted and fully weighted gpa, if you’re comfortable sharing it (them). If you went to high school in the UAE, then admissions to both would expect lower UC and weighted grades, your illnesses notwithstanding, because there isn’t the AP ascendancy to grades outside of the US.