:-< I recently took the new sat and got a 14/24 on the essay portion. It was 5/4/5…I am aware it is a pretty bad essay score. However, my overall score is 1560, 800 in Math, 760 in Reading+Writing. My parents thinks the essay score is too low for any good school to want me, like UC Berkeley. Is the essay really that important? It’s too late for me to retake it because I’m a senior…
Ah I forgot to add, my GPA is 3.95 and my Subject test in Math II is 800.
what’s your uc gpa? (uw, w capped, and w uncapped)
essay is not that important
3.95 is unweighted UC GPA, weighted capped UC GPA or fully weighted UC GPA?
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
What else do you have to recommend you? EC’s, awards? Intended major?
Unweighted GPA from school. I’ve yet to calculate UC gpa. If it helps, I’ve always been a straight A student, just a few A-s, so I think its a 4.00 UC GPA.
For EC’S I’m president of Art Club and Junior Classical League, part of the Drama Committee in charge of Drama Club, and President of the Mural Committee, a community service program that lets students receive community service in return for their painting hours.I’m also a mentor at my school’s mentoring program where I act as an academic adviser for new students and am first violin at my school’s orchestra and was part of 3 school plays as a main cast member. I’m a national commended scholar.
need more info…weighted uncapped uc gpa? intended major? course rigor? ec’s? ap scores? sat subject scores? awards?
edit: nvm, i just saw your ec’s. sorry, im jailed, so my answers take a while to post.
All my courses are Honor classes, intended major is Computer Science, no ap scores as my school does not offer ap classes. I can;t seem to figure out the whole business with the UC GPAs. Can someone help me out??
Are you a California resident?
If so, you can look up which courses qualify for the extra honors points in the calculation by typing in HS on this website.
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist/#/list/search/institution
If not, then only DE/IB or AP courses count for the extra honors points.
No unfortunately, I’m not.
I would just like to know if the essay will have a big impact on my application.
Your personal insight essays will have a much bigger impact on your chances than the SAT essay and your Math+ CR are far more important.
With that perfect math score, it should be a breeze
If your UW GPA is 4.0 along with your excellent test score, you stand a good chance at an acceptance. CS is ultra competitive, so no guarantees (definitely not a breeze) but you look like a very qualified applicant. Write some equally outstanding essays.
Also make sure your parents are OK with paying for UCB. If you are not a resident, expect to get little to no financial aid and plan to pay close to full price at $55K/year to attend.
Good Luck.
UCB EECS is one of the most selective majors, so expect admission difficulty to be higher than for the campus overall.
An alternative is to apply to UCB L&S, which is more like the campus overall in admission difficulty (it is the largest division and admits everyone undeclared). However, getting into the L&S CS major requires a 3.3 GPA in the prerequisite courses that take after entering UCB L&S undeclared.
Thank you everyone so much for helping me out!