Chanes for Cornell/UC Berkeley/etc

<p>My stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: 1420
Verbal: 710
Math: 710</p>

<p>SAT II:
Chemistry: Results not in but very likely 750+
Math Level 2: Results not in but likely 700 or a little over
Writing: Results not in, a little less confident on my performance, 650 at least though.</p>

<p>AP's:
AP Physics(B): 5</p>

<p>GPA(weighted):
Junior Year: 4.0 for the year
Sophomore Year: 3.8 for the year
Freshman Year: 3.5 for the year
Went to a Catholic highschool, religion classes were low grade each year which brought down the GPA a bit. </p>

<p>Currently I'm a student of The Clarkson School of Clarkson University. Basically, rather than going through a pointless senior year of highschool I'm something of a combination between still being a senior in highschool and being a freshman college student. The classes I take are the same as regular freshman for my major(chemistry). My GPA for the semester is likely to be somewhere between 3.8-4.0. Actaully, so long as I put in a decent bit of effort it will be a 4.0. Most colleges apparently allow Clarkson School students to apply as incoming freshmen but after being accepted are considered to pretty much be sophomores.</p>

<p>Classes:
Chemistry(taking the more in depth lab for chem major/related science majors)
Physics(enrolled in advanced freshman physics lab)
Calculus
Great Ideas(English/writing + some social science applied to the reading)</p>

<p>EC's:
Historical Society in highschool
Internship at Science Museum
Host for a show on the campus radio station
Film club(makes films)
Astronomy Club
Young Democrats
Member of Clarkson School Council </p>

<p>I can get a good recommendation from my former highschool teachers in any subject but probably particularly strong from my junior year English teacher, physics teacher, and sophomore year chem teacher. I also speak fairly frequently with my chemistry professor here and I think by the end of the semester I could get a good recommendation from him...too late for the Berkeley application but on time for Cornell.</p>

<p>Colleges interested in:
Cornell
UC Berkeley
Case Western Reserve
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>Nice chance to all schools, maybe except Cornell unless you ED.</p>

<p>Berkeley.. really depends on where you live.. if you live in CA, most likely you'll get in...
Berkeley goes really easy on Californians.. if you are out of state... i know people with SAT of 1420 with GPA unweighted 3.92 still and got rejected from Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD</p>

<p>I'm not a Cali resident so unfortunately I'll have to be judged more harshly when being considered for acceptance to Berkeley.</p>

<p>Well, I've gotten back my SAT II scores and they aren't exactly what I'd like. </p>

<p>Chemistry: 800
Math Level 2: 720
Writing: 580</p>

<p>Naturally I'm satisfied with the Chemistry and the Math, but the Writing really is fairly low. </p>

<p>I'm wondering how this will affect my chances at the colleges I intend to apply to? It really bugs me because I'm not a bad writer. As mentioned in my original post, I can get a recommendation from my Junior year English teacher which would indicate that I'm quite a good writer. This, however, does not help me for Berkeley since they neither ask for nor want recommendation letters for the application. Will I be able to make up for the poor writing score with very high quality essays or is that score really going to hurt me?</p>

<p>Sorry to say but your chances at Cornell and UC Berkeley are slim to none. They are definitely reaches for you because of your less than stellar GPA and your lack of extracurricular activities and leaderships positions. It's nice you took the initiative to get out of high school but that just kind of shows that you weren't that involved. I do think you have a pretty good chance at Carnegie Mellon and Case Western, so work just as hard on those apps as you do for your reach schools. Good luck! It never hurts to try!</p>

<p>I agree that Berkeley is pretty unlikely at this point considering I'm out of state. I think I'll probably drop it as a school to apply to since it's an unnecessary expense.</p>

<p>I would disagree that my chances at Cornell are slim to none. I think I'll need to retake that bloody writing test in December and get a significantly better score though. I doubt they'll look down upon leaving my highschool to spend my senior year taking all college courses. I'll be applying to Cornell with a semester of A's in full college courses. I wasn't particularly involved in highschool which was the result of it being religious while I'm far from that along with my school being small and as a result not having very purposeful EC's. Still, my essays and recommendations will be extremely goof.</p>

<p>Does anyone think that I should bother trying to get across my reason for disliking my highschool and thus lack of involvement(that it was very Catholic where as I'm an atheist). On the one hand I feel like that along with the 200+ hours of volunteer work, my personal hobby of Tesla Coiling(high voltage electrical devices), and involvement in activities here would indicate that I'm not just a boring person and would contribute to the community of whatever college I'm at. At the same time I feel like mentioning the issue would come across as me making an excuse. </p>

<p>So anyone else have any opinions on my chances?</p>

<p>A "high quality" essay would look like forgery next to your low writing score. I would just focus on improving writing and retake test, get some help if you can.</p>

<p>Just felt like bumping this up to see if I could get any new opinions. </p>

<p>Also, ignore the GPA's which I mentioned in my original post. I was just using the GPA given by my highschool which I'm not particularly sure how it's calculated. </p>

<p>My Sophomore year scores in main subjects were:
Chemistry: 97
English: 93
Global: 96
Math 3: 95
Spanish 3: 95 </p>

<p>Junior:
AP Physics: 99
English: 94
Sociology: 100
Calculus: 99
US History/Government: 97</p>

<p>So far my standing in classes for my first semester at Clarkson is:
Chemistry: A
Physics: A
Calculus: A
Chemistry Lab: A
Great Ideas: B+</p>

<p>That B+ might become an A if I write a good final paper for that class. The rest are definite.</p>

<p>I decided not to bother retaking the writing.</p>

<p>Cornell you have a good chance..
i know someone got in with 1260 SAT (460v/800M) Math IC (800) IIC (800), Chinese (800)
but he's GPA is unweighted 4.0
note that he completed Calculus 1, 2 AP with (5)
US History AP with (5)
European History AP (4)
Studio Art AP (5)
Physics Honors
Chem AP (4)
Econ/Government APs (5)</p>

<p>only EC he has is... club officer at his senior year...</p>