Chances at all UCs, Stanford, USC

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

<p>OK, thanks to anyone who reads this and taking the time to think about it.
Going for Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, Davis, Irvine, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Merced, Stanford, USC</p>

<p>UC GPA: 4.33
Rank 33/660
ELC (Top 4% of something): Guaranteed Admission to UCI. Merced says they will accept all ELC’s who apply there.
SATI: 1460 (790V/660M)
SATII: US 790. MathIIC: 700, Writing: 700
AP Scores: Euro:4, US:5,Chem:4, Bio:5</p>

<p>Schedule
Taken most of available honors and APs, except for Calc and Spanish cuz of scheduling conflicts. No honors or AP math except for stats; started in Algebra I in 9th grade
-Current: AP Physics, AP Gov, Spanish 4, AP Stats, AP Econ, AP English Lit.
-Grade Problems: C/B- in trig, B- 2nd semester in Spanish 3-Honors, B+ in ChemAP. All others are A or A-</p>

<p>Clubs
-Band four years. Librarian-organized and repaired music library
-California Scholarship Federation: four years
-National Honor Society: 2 years
-California Scholarship Program (3.5GPA, top 15% on 2 of 3 subjects on state standarized tests): 3 years</p>

<p>Community Service: 239 hours, featuring…
-8 hours as a poll worker in 2004 election
-128 hours over 2 years at IMMEX, creating web sites to help teach grade school science
-18 hours over 2 years helping to put on school jazz festival
-10 hours helping to put together science kits to teach grade school science</p>

<p>Community College Classes in:
-2 Credits: Performance Technique for Band
-2 Credits: Performance Technique for Band
-4 Credits: Algebra 2
-4 Credits: Trig</p>

<p>Honors
-Century Club-100: 100-199 CS hours in my junior year
-National Merit Commended Scholar (below PSAT semifinalist)
-Principal’s Honor Roll (3.5 GPA)
-Top 25 (4.0 GPA for 2 consecutive semesters)</p>

<p>Thanks for replying. Again, thanks for taking the time to read it!</p>

2

<p>Stanford - Reach
Berkeley, UCLA, USC - Match
UCSD, UCSB, Davis, Irvine, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Merced - Safety</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>I agree with above post, Stanford definitely slim chance. I would have to say a reach to Cal. In at UCLA, USC, Santa Barbara, and San Diego etc. The problem you will have at Berkeley is 1) Really weak EC's, no stand out positions, ie Pres. of a Club, or outside organizations, no exceptional community involvement. Berkeley really likes to see kids doing something in their community, not just the usual school stuff (NHS, CSF, etc) Also you GPA is weak for Cal. This years freshman class is the strongest ever. My DD is going their and had a 4.5 UC GPA, with outstanding SAT scores and really strong EC's ( internship at the District Attorney's office, Captain Mock Trial Team for 4 years, President of the French Club, Member of the City Youth Board , ad nauseum) good Luck and I think you will enjoy whichever school you end up attending.</p>

4

<p>Dang. First person to say reach at cal. o well, thats why i asked for opinions. Thanks anyways.</p>

5

<p>I was a 4.35 (rank 42/518) with a 1390, 800/800/780 SAT IIs. Cal is a coin toss for you. USC is in.. STANFURD is like pretty hard. I gotta say I know the top ranked students in our school with 1600s and 4.6 - 4.8 GPAs get rejected. They had all the extracurriculars in the world and got rejected. BTW, I'm assuming ur from CA. I live 10 min away from Stanfurd and so yes so they hate us. The only people who hella get in are those Palo Alto students cuz their parents are all faculty. Otherwise, they frown at us CAers, especially those competetive high schools right next to them =/.</p>

<p>GO bears.</p>

6

<p>I'm starting to get that sinking feeling...o well, i never really wanted stanford much. it's just to see if i could get in, not really wanna go there. BUT, i really want Cal to be open.</p>

7

<p>bleepz, bear in mind that 45% of those admitted every year to stanford are from CA...</p>

8

<p>Goomba: if you are a URM, or are first from family to go to college, chances at Berkeley increase dramtically. Agree with above, the Junior University on the Farm is a real stretch since it is harder to be from Cal in their app pool.</p>

9

<p>I think cal, ucla and even ucsd are all a coin toss as the applicant pool is just huge these days. That said, my S was accepted at CAL with 3.9x weighted gpa and 13xx SATs. He is just a well-rounded, interesting guy and thankfully, the adcoms saw that too.</p>

10

<p>It seems like people fail to realize the preferential treatment that the UC system has for California residents. With stats like those, the chance of him getting into Cal is very high. In addition to that, he is an ELC student. </p>

<p>I, for example, got into Cal with stats not nearly as glamorous as his. SAT? 1310. GPA? 3.8. I did participate in clubs and sports, but it was nothing great. My personal statement was, in my opinion, nothing fantastic, either. I basically pulled it out the day I turned my application in. And no, no one edited it or even looked at it, for that matter.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if you've noticed, but from what I've seen, Cal accepts approximately the same number of people every year from each school.</p>

11

<p>ELC = Nearly guaranteed admission</p>

<p>Berkeley gets far too many applications to actually devote any real time to reading them. Test scores and raw grades are the vast bulk of the decision. EC's play a good factor, but not as much as you may think. Essays? As long as it's decent, it'll fly. My admissions counselor, who's in good contact with the admissions there, was told that the people read the first and last sentence of your essay, and major the first sentence of each paragraph if you are lucky. When you have that many apps to go through, I'm not surprised at all.</p>

12

<p>A cautionary note: lots of ELC admittees applying to Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD are redirected to other campuses. Really.</p>

<p>My take is that you can forget about Stanford...I've seen two years of Profiles of those who were rejected. Berkeley and UCLA are coin flips weighted in your favor but neither is a slam dunk and it's entirely possible you'll get into one and not the other...there's no rhyme or reason to it. I think you're in at USC, probably in at UCSD but no guarantee, and all the others are a breeze.</p>

13

<p>one other mitigating factor about which you have no control is the # of kids from your hs who are accepted to either LA or B and who matriculate there. UCLA just recently jumped on the selectivity/yield band wagon and is starting to look at schools where they accept a lot of kids from a HS who then go to Berkeley instead. Voila, their acceptances to that school dropped the following year. </p>

<p>Ellwood is absolutely correct....ELC only guarantees you admission somewhere, which could be Merced, Riverside or Santa Cruz, unless you are from OC and your school has a tie-in with UCI.</p>

14

<p>You should just apply to Stanford anyway so that our selectivity increases when we reject you and we take your 50 bucks and use it to buy the entire adcom a round of Domino's Pizza. <em>evil cackle</em> </p>

<p>Nah seriously there is a kid in my dorm who has lower stats than you but got in because of his incredible personal accomplishments. (He wrote AWESOME essays and started up a program in his home territory of Guam where he holds an annual national food drive to help starving people in the neighboring Philippines). As long as you have some outstanding extracirricular accomplishments you can get in. Also, work your butt off on those essays.</p>

15

<p>if you're applying letters and sciences for berkeley you'll have a much better chance because L&S weights the verbal score twice as much as the math. good luck in any case</p>

16

<p>I'm applying to both Stanford and Berkeley. As an out-a-stater the cost is bout the same, I think (which is waaaay too much). Question is, I heard about getting CA residency in the 2nd year so I can pay in-state tuition at Berkeley. How do I go about it? I read some stuff on the Berkeley site but am still unclear. I'm still dependent on my parents for $$. Do I just need to get a CA drivers license, register to vote, use a cA address (have lots of relatives in CA), etc? Really want to go, but money is an issue, and I don't think I'll get need-based scholarship. Thx.</p>

17

<p>its really hard to become a CA resident 2nd year. Basically you have to have you and your parents move to CA for at least 1 full year before the semester begins, and have proof of this, such as changing to CA drivers licenses with 10 days of moving, as well as changing car tags to CA. IT's very very difficualt to do, but it is possible.</p>

18

<p>Thanks Steve.
I thought so.Oh well.</p>

19

<p>Concho - It is nearly impossible to claim California residency in your second year, if you are an undergrad under 23, and a parent is still alive but living in another state....</p>

<p>As a grad student, however, it is quite simple to become a CA resident for the 2nd year (as long as one is not a foreign student).</p>

20

<p>Thank you 'mom' for the info.</p>