<p>Right, here's what I have so far (please bear with me):
*<em>GPA:
-Freshman: top 25%, Soph.: top 13%, Jun.: top 12% (Beg. of 2010); was always on 4.0 on a 5.0 scale; as of January 2010 I was 3.65 . However, my final rank may drop because this last semester I have have 3 or 4 B's.
*</em>ACADEMICS:
-in Health Science Academy and have taken Health field related courses with flying colours
-in the IB Programme (AP on steroids) with 7 IB classes
-always have taken pre-AP in Sophomore/freshman year
-Outstanding GPA award 3 years straight
*<em>EXTRACURRICULAR:
-Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA): Officer in Junior year and soon to be Senior year; enrolled since Soph. year
-college persistence/college club. They help ME
-Volunteer club since soph. year. I don't have any volunteer records from that, sadly :(
-Chess club; formed this year, am VP. I like chess but I don't compete. I joined for the fun of it since most of my activities are health-related
-learned piano in summer going into junior year through community college
*</em>AWARDS:
-leadership recognition award Junior year for being an officer of HOSA
-award chosen by teacher for leadership, charisma, academics, etc.
-highest improved ACT score from practice to real (21 to 28)
-Award of Excellence for my Lit. entry for the PTSA Reflections contest
**TEST SCORES:
-ACT (w/o studying): 28; plan on retaking one more time with serious studying
-SAT (w/o studying): 1550-ish; plan on taking one more time with serious studying, but I am relying on ACT more than ACT for admissions
-plan on taking SAT Biology and World History
ANYTHING ELSE:
-Certified Nursing Assistant
-Clinical Rotations for 3 hours every other day for 3 months
-130 hours of volunteer experience in hospital (part of a program where I learn about the hospital)
-got a summer job with a school doing office tasks (duration of about 2 months)
-IMPORTANT: working on a health care fair with my HOSA club. It'll be like a workshop where people across town can see various health care fields, learn something (vital signs, etc.), get blood pressure, checked etc. I am leading this and came up with it. I'm hoping this shows that I'm REALLY passionate about health care, because my primary target audience is middle and elementary schoolers, the unemployed/job-hunting, and disadvantaged youth.
-economically advantaged
-3 weeks ago a teacher, one of my favorite teachers has been charged with/arrested for sexually assaulting a girl in MY class. This has (in all honesty) affected me deeply and sort of traumatized me and my fellow classmates for a couple of days. This is a good admissions essay?</p>
<p>What are my chances of getting into UC Berkley, Davis, LA, Stanford (yeah..) and Univ. of Texas @ Austin? Please be BRUTALLY honest and how can I IMPROVE?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>EDIT: spelled "IMPROVE" wrong, sorry. No jokes about improving in spelling, now. :)</p>
<p>your pretty much rejected from UTexas , Stanford, and UC Berkley if you aren’t in-state/top 10%/have at least a 32+ ACT</p>
<p>Rejected everywhere except Davis. Davis might be a match, but you never know what will happen due to the budjet cuts. My advice: start looking at UCSB, UCSC, OOS (plenty of good schools for students with stats that are similar to yours) or at CSU’s (Cal Poly SLO and SDSU aren’t so bad).</p>
<p>I think SLO might be harder to get into than UCD ( except for the subject tests), but it probably varies by major.</p>
<p>OP, I think you are a rising senior? Have you calculated your UC GPA? That would help a lot. What are your plans for taking subject tests? Have you met all the UC A-G requirements?</p>
<p>“3 weeks ago a teacher, one of my favorite teachers has been charged with/arrested for sexually assaulting a girl in MY class. This has (in all honesty) affected me deeply and sort of traumatized me and my fellow classmates for a couple of days. This is a good admissions essay?”</p>
<p>No, this is a terrible idea for an admission essay. The second (maybe third) worst I have ever heard. As much as you may be horrified (not tramatized) this did not involve you, was not you, he is innocent until proven guilty etc, this was a recent event and, and that’s the main thing you want the admissions committee to know about you? </p>
<p>Your essay should be designed to show some aspect of your interests, your passions, your intellectual curiosity, and anything that shows what makes you tick and how you would be a good addition to the student body.</p>
<p>I agree that you should get onto the UC Pathways website and calculate your UC GPA, That is the only way to look at what GPA and test scores make you admissible and to see if you meet UC requirements. Do you go to private school or public, in CA?</p>
<p>Put together a list of possible reach, match and safety schools. Use gpa and SAT/ACT as a guideline for this criteria. Of course all your EC’s will then come into play.</p>
<p>Also, learn to write more concisely, put spaces to ease the readers eyes. </p>
<p>The IB program gives you an edge, imo. The fair sounds like a cool idea. But keep your grades up. The next semester is critical (so was this one.)</p>
<p>Don’t let your parents expectations blind you, not are not of the caliber to get into any of those schools, wake up!
In terms of improvement, if you do amazingly well on act/sat, I mean like 34+,2250+ you MIGHT have a shot…sorry for being so harsh, but trust me, I’m helping you in the long run. You might as well tell your parents too so they know what to expect. </p>
<p>You might want to go to community college for 2 years and then transfer, you could play it off as trying to save money…</p>
<p>will your parents pay for the school of your choice? If you don’t know, you need to ask how much they will spend each year.</p>
<p>Your chances are not great for UT or UCB.</p>
<p>Are you instate for Calif?</p>
<p>What other schools do you like?</p>
<p>With stats that low, Stanford does look unlikely - but I think you might still try applying. Of HYPSM, Stanford is the school most notorious for seemingly bizarre acceptances - that is, they take students with lower stats who most people wouldn’t at all expect to get in.
Stanford is not easily wooed by perfect GPA or SATs; when I was at the admitted student weekend, we got to have a picnic with our admissions officer, who said that the most important aspect was that the student should have something that “pops.” The example she gave was of my friend, an otherwise academically-oriented girl who raps on the weekends. It wasn’t my friend’s high rank or SATs that got her in; it was that she had something different about her.
Write an absolutely stellar essay and you might have a shot.
But do recognize that it is statistically very unlikely, and have a list of solid safeties. I agree that UT looks unlikely.
Good luck.</p>