<p>HS GPA: 2.2
CC GPA: 4.0
SAT/ACT: 2230/33
EC: Volunteer Service at Hospitals, tutor calc, honors society, mentorship program for at risk youth, rubik's cubes (Held a record for a blindfold solve for a week- kinda hoping to appeal to Cal Tech and MIT's nerdy side @_@). not much else, I have to work part time + school. </p>
<p>In highschool I was diagnosed as having major depressive disorder. I pulled a 2.2 because I didn't really care about school, thought my life was over, all that teenage angst jazz. I woke up, went to a community college and so far have a 4.0 and am confident I can end my cc record at or very near a 4.0. </p>
<p>I'm afraid that highschool record is gonna come back and bite me. I know of three people from my school (Santa Monica College) that have gotten into Cal Tech, one of whom also got into MIT. The thing is, none of them are from the US and I think it's incredible what they've done (and so do adcoms). But this thread is about me. I'm also a male URM, super low income. Also, my brother graduated from MIT and I have a sister at Berkeley, if those are factors at all. Do I have a chance? Do SAT scores even matter considering I'm already in college?</p>
<p>These schools are competitive enough that they will consider SAT scores, but they will almost always pay more attention to the quality of your college coursework (which is evidently very good judging by your 4.0) and the difficulty of your college courses.</p>
<p>With CalTech, you’ll need to take their own math and physics entrance exam, and I’ve heard that your performance on it is a very significant factor. Unfortunately, CalTech releases very, very little information about the test. Transferring to MIT is extremely competitive, and if I remember correctly they will also require two SAT Subject Tests even if you didn’t take them in high school; their transfer site also says they expect (but do not require) scores of 700 or higher on each.</p>
<p>I don’t think your high school record will necessarily hurt you much as long as you’re taking advanced courses in college. If anything, it should show that had an incredible turnaround and may impress the admissions committees.</p>
<p>So I’d say you do have a chance and that it’s worth your time applying, but I don’t think you should expect to get in simply because of how competitive these schools are.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely familiar with Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon transfer admissions.</p>