Chances at Berkeley

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m a junior in high school. I’m really into programming, but didn’t really realize I needed weighted classes until the end of sophomore year. I am not the best student, but I do well in programming-related activities.

I really want to attend Berkeley, but open to suggestions of other schools.

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian
Location: California

Major: Computer Science

GPA (assuming 1 B this year):
Unweighted Cumulative: 3.84
Weighted Cumulative: 4.05
UC GPA: 4.20
Rank: School doesn’t do ranks. But probably top 10%

SAT: 2230 composite(740R, 750M, 740W)
Taking it again in a week
I’ve done well (35/36) on ACT practice tests, so I will try that if I don’t do well enough next week

PSAT was 1440, might be semifinalist for NMS

APs: Computer Science, Statistics, Physics

Next Year’s Schedule
-AP Calculus AB
-AP Government
-AP Economics
-Digital Photo [need a fine art to graduate]
-AP Bio
-Senior Novel
-AP Physics 2

Extracurriculars:
120 hours of community service
Organized regional programming events for past 2 years
Track and Field for 4 years
I’ll probably be captain of hurdles team this year
3rd in JV League sophomore year [not that good]
Won prizes at a few hackathons
President of 2 Clubs for 3 years [including Computer Science club]
SWE Internship at Startup
A professor at Berkeley agreed to let me have a research position at his lab this summer
Gold Rank in USACO, probably made Platinum this weekend. I’ll try to make the Summer Training Camp
Planning to get another SWE internship this summer
I’ve completed several MIT OCW Courses, not sure if that matters

2

I think you have a pretty good shot. Match/High Match.

Edit: You might want to reenter your PSAT score… doesnt seem to make sense.

3

I believe you’re well within the bounds of acceptance at UCB. Your SAT scores and GPA are acceptable and a passion for computer science is quite obvious. Write some killer essays on passion and continue to do well in your classes and on AP tests and you are on your way there.

I think you could look further if you wanted into schools like Carnegie Mellon or even MIT and still have a shot (though they are reaches). UCLA also has a great computer science program if you wanted to stay in California as well.

4

@iamjack They changed the scoring this year. It’s out of 1520.

5

Your stats all look pretty good, so I’d say you have a pretty good chance. But keep in mind that schools like Berkeley are incredibly competitive, so you never really know what may happen. Definitely take the research position this summer, and if you are able to complete an independent research project, you should definitely apply for some competitions (like Siemens or Intel). Besides that, just make sure your essays are well-written, and you should be good to go. Good luck! :slight_smile:

6

As crazy as this may seem, I just got into UCB with a UC GPA of 4.1, an SAT of 1380/2400. However, the valedictorian at my school didn’t get in and she has a GPA of 4.2 and an sat of 1800