ECs:
Swimming, Water Polo, Key Club, HOSA, Science National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Math National Honors Society), Academy of Finance, Best Buddies, DECA, Asian-American Club
Honors:
Swimming Captain Water Polo Captain Key Club Class Director Salutatorian (On Path) National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists Most Improved Swimmer Most Improved Water Polo Player Best All-Around Swimmer (Regionals Qualifier) Offensive Water Polo Player of the Year (Regionals Qualifier) Key Club Eco Action Award Perfect Attendance
If you would like to attend one of the nation’s most selective colleges, then your best chance would be to look into schools that are either test optional or test flexible. With these schools, your salutatorian status, course rigor and ECs definitely could compensate for your softer testing results.
The above noted, your SAT total neatly matches UCB’s 25th percentile, so your scores would not seem to disqualify you for admission in this case.
Your GPA will not “make up” for a low score. Competition is brutal even for the best of candidates, most of whom have a high GPA and stellar test scores. Can you retake the ACT? You’re going to have a really difficult time getting into a competitive college with that score. I recommend studying and retaking if possible. Best of luck!
If you have a few Bs, you are not on track for salutarian at all. The SAT/ACT scores are a problem for top 50. Apparently you are in a program taking CC classes, but you show no AP classes or SAT subject scores. You especially need the latter for top 30 or so. Apparently, you are Asian, which doesn’t help.
Completing a CC degree indicates you are a fairly high level student. It depends on what your grade average and ranking is. It would also help if you could improve the SAT/ACTs and maybe show good subject test scores.Also, not sure if you are a junior or senior.
Unless you are being recruited for a sport, UCB is a High Reach due to low test scores and maybe below average UC GPA. If you are not a CA resident, UCB will cost around $65K/year with little to no financial aid so be prepared to pay full fees.
EC’s do not make up for a less than stellar academic performance.
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages and not major specific:
UCB: 4.23
2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
@Gumbymom: I took Berkeley’s SAT middle range figures (1260-1480) from IPEDS, so they’d be for a year earlier than the figures you posted. I’m surprised the two sets differ by that much, though.
Prestige chasing is a bad idea when shopping for a college. First, rankings are anything but reliable. What kids usually end up with is a list of rejections, or worse, a list of acceptances to schools they can’t afford to go to. Put affordability as your precondition. When I say “affordable,” I mean a school where your parent’s aren’t co-signing a dump truck full of debt over to you. Then shop for colleges that fit your interests and personality. Consider scholarships too. They’re a far better deal.
@merc81: The data I quoted is from the UC Website Freshman profile which they update yearly. The UC’s continue to get more competitive each year. Example. UCLA’s CS majors had an average ACT of 35 and SAT of 1550 for the 2018 admission cycle. Pretty crazy.
If you already have an associate’s, are you applying as a transfer? Not an expert but some of these schools might have restrictions on whether you are allowed to apply as a freshman or not.
There are programs for dual enrollment with CC. You can probably get credit for a lot of it with some colleges. Ivies and such generally won’t give any credit for CC classes in high school, but that probably won’t be a problem.
A 3.8/5 equates to a 3.0 out of 4. Not Top 20 or 25, but might do for the rest. 1260 or 27 is also low for highly competitive colleges. The competition is going to present better. And a different array of ECs.
I dont see why the question is Top 50 and the thread title is Ivy and UCB. Huge difference.
Matching a 25th percentile is no help. That level is probably athletes and hooks other than URM.
Also, usually the DE trumps the associates degree. Lots of kids collect the AA, but the mantle is DE/high school credit. This shouldn’t make him a transfer.