CS/CSE/CompE at UC Berkeley?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

I want to major in either computer science or computer engineering at UC Berkeley, but I don’t know if my Stats/EC’s are worth it for me to apply…

GPA Scale: A in a regular class: 4.0 ; Honors/AP:5.0
Unweighted/ Weighted GPA: 3.65 / 4.41
Class rank: Top 15% in the over 650 kids in my graduating class
ACT: 31 (taking classes and hoping to increase this to a 33)
Senior Course Load: AP Econ/Gov (1st/2nd semester), AP Literature, AP Calc AB, AP Physics, AP Computer Science, and Advanced Marketing
AP Courses: 9 by the end of next year

Extra curricular:
DECA:
Arizona DECA State Officer (Represent 9,000 students)
Served as Chapter Vice President & Public Relations Officer
Won 1st Place in Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan Junior Year (Developed an app plan), 3rd Place in Marketing Communications Sophomore Year
Two Year International Career Development Conference Qualifier
International Media Correspondent

Speech & Debate:
4 Year Speech and Debate member
Served as Speech and Debate Secretary
3 Year Varsity Debater

American Red Cross:
4 Year American Red Cross member
Serve as Red Cross Public Relations Officer

Other:
National Honors Society (2 Years)
Mentoring Program
Key Club
Large amount of community service
Arizona State University’s Business Scholar

WORK:
Corporate Marketing IT Intern for 2 Years
IT Development Specialist for 1 Year
Started my own business by coding my own website and creating an online retail website.

Plan on starting an engineering organization at my school
Ethnicity: Asian/Indian

First Generation American
First Generation College Student

I know my GPA is relatively low as is my class rank. Would it be better for me to apply for regular decision and get my grades up first semester of senior year? Also, is there anything I can do to show my passion for engineering and technology? Do you guys know of any place I can get an online certificate or something in CS or CE? Any help/advice would be appreciated!

2

There is no early admission (EA or ED) at Berkeley, and the regular deadline is before any senior year grades are available.

Realistically, a 3.65 unweighted GPA is very unlikely to get you admitted to EECS, and L&S (where there is a CS major, though it needs a 3.3 college GPA in its prerequisites to declare) is probably still a reach.

Also, if you are not a California resident, there is no financial aid coverage for the $24,000 per year additional non-resident tuition. See the net price calculator.

3

I think you have a good chance of getting into L&S CS. I got into L&S with about the same weighted GPA and my SAT score was around the equivalent of 33 ACT. Your ECs seem really strong, definitely better than mine, especially starting your own business, so I would say you have a solid chance at L&S.

Also as for online CS extracurriculars, this is a good one, though it’s probably too late to make it count for anything. You could look through some past contest problems and do them for fun though. (note: they’re really hard!) www.usaco.org/

4

May as well. I got into L&S with an unweighted 3.3 GPA.