Chances at UC Berkeley, MIT, Cornell

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone, I am a high school junior (Asian Indian, upper middle class) in Northern California. I would like to get into one of the schools listed above due to my deep passion for astrophysics and appreciation for the research in that field that is going on there.

Stats so far are as follows:
Overall UW GPA: 3.77 (3.80 ex. Freshman)
Overall Weighted: 4.33 (4.59 ex. Freshman)
UC C/W GPA: 4.14
Freshman classes: Honors Biology, Honors Geometry, Honors English, Spanish 3 (2 non-academic courses required by school to graduate)
Sophomore classes: H Chemistry, H Alg II/Trig, H English, Spanish 4, World History (1 non-academic course required by school to graduate)
Junior classes: H English, H Precalculus, AP US History, AP Physics 1, AP Biology, AP Statistics
Senior classes: AP Computer Science, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, Gov/Econ (no AP offered at school), ERWC, Digital Imaging
Outside classes: Astronomy 101A, Astronomy 101B, Computer Science 147

AP Exams so far/projected:
AP Chemistry - 5
AP Biology - 5
AP Physics 1 - 5
AP Calc BC - 5
AP US History - 5
AP Statistics - 5
AP CS - 5
AP Physics C Mech - 5

SAT I Scores:
2240 (780 CR, 770 M, 690 W)
2220 (720 CR, 720 M, 780 W)
2330 superscore

PSAT 228

SAT II Scores:
Biology - 800
Chemistry - 800
Math II - 800

ECs:
Quiz Bowl 2012-2016 (projected), among top 5 scorers at regional tournaments
Top 10 freshmen in the country at National Quiz Bowl tournament
Academic Challenge 2012-2016, likely officer in 2015-16
Debate 2012-2014
Junior Statesmen of America 2014-2016 - Assembly Representative, Treasurer, Best Speaker Winter 2015 convention
Volunteering (hospital, library, museum) - 200 hrs (projected)
2nd place in county science fair that feeds to ISEF 2014, 2015
Computer Internship at biotech firm 2014 (developed data analysis tool for laboratory data)
Internship at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab 2015
Astrophysics research 2015

I know that my unweighted GPA is relatively bad but would my test scores and ECs make up for it to any extent? As far as the UC system is concerned, my weighted GPA is capped so the course load I am taking is not represented fully. This in particular is a matter of concern for me.

2

MIT might want more from you, I think you are good enough for cornell and cal

3

“Asian Indian, upper middle class”

MIT: Extremely low chance
Cornell: Okay chance
UCB: Very good chance

4

I don’t really know how much weight Berkeley puts on GPA vs everything else, but I’m going to suggest a backup school for you. Check out UC Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies program. I’ve only just started hearing about it myself, but it’s a school within a larger school with more access to professors/ etc, and one of the subjects in this program is physics. Anyway, just a thought. You do need a few great backup school choices… maybe you have them already.

5

Thanks for the info, I truly do appreciate it.

6

Just keep in mind that Cornell is still an ivy and is just as hard to get into as MIT.

7

@xerix931 question: are you also saying that you attended isef last year and will again attend this year?