<p>For a long time, Berkeley has been my "dream school" and one that I would really like to get into. I just finished up my junior year of high school with grades I am very pleased in while taking the hardest courses offered in the school. My problem.. 10th grade. I did horrible 10th grade (I took an EXTREMELY hard course load and couldn't cope with it well at all =/). </p>
<p>My grades:</p>
<p>10th grade
1st semester - 2.83 UW/3.33 W (UC weighted would be 3.17? since 3 Honors courses and I think they only count 2 10th grade)
2nd semester - 3.43 UW/3.86 W (UC weighted would be 3.57?)</p>
<p>Overall: 3 C's (10th grade, 2 both semesters in what is considered the hardest course at our school =/, 1 C in a pretty hard course but I brought it up to a B 2nd semester, and 5 B's (3 1st semester, 2 2nd semester), and then the rest are A's). </p>
<p>Both years I took extremely hard course loads (probably the hardest/one of the hardest in my whole class of ~600), and in all I ended up taking the hardest courses offered at the school (but obviously could not cope well with it 10th grade).</p>
<p>Overall: 3.57/4.05</p>
<p>UC weighted (so counting only 2 honors classes 10th grade) would be only be around 3.93 or 3.94 =/</p>
<p>SAT score: 2240</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: </p>
<ul>
<li>officer of a small club for 2 years</li>
<li>editor of a magazine for 3 years</li>
<li>did community service like book drives, blood drives, etc to raise money to help others</li>
<li>Varsity cross country/track 2 years (one thing is that I think the times I have run are good enough to run on the team but they aren't high school 'elite' times.. I don't know how much it would help my chances to contact the coach etc)</li>
</ul>
<p>So basically based off of that, the main thing that I really messed up for me was my grades in 10th grade. I was wondering if I had any shot at getting in at this point/what I could do to possibly have a better chance at getting in/things I should really focus on at this point to better my chances (such as essays etc). Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>I think you have a chance. While your GPA is lower than the average, there is a significant upward trend. Plus your SAT score is significantly above Berkeley's average. If I were an admissions officer, I'd be paying close attention to what happened with that grade drop. Most likely I'd focus on teacher and counselor letters of recommendation, although I'd also read whatever explanation you provided.</p>
<p>But really all you can do is put together the best application possible and cross your fingers.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. In terms of letters of recommendation, I can get some very good letters from some teachers (though I thought the UC's don't ask for recommendations?). I'm not particularly sure how to word this in my essay though. Should I state something like I took on a much too hard course load that I couldn't cope with, but it prepared me for my junior year where I worked very hard to keep my grades up?</p>
<p>Not usually, but if you are one of the few that they ask for supplemental information, they include one recommendation along with the questionnaire.</p>
<p>ESSAY!!!!!!! They are so important that I stress it everywhere. You need to spend at least a month writing, proofing by teachers and proofing again. From personal expierence I got into Cal with a 3.83 W, no sports, only 69 hours of community service hourse, two clubs, some awards, but along with two of the best essays I have writing in my life. Teachers that had proofed it back in October still remember. My friend, however had a 4.23/4.0, swimming, water polo and many other sports for 4 years, 2200 SAT and also REJECTED. Why? Spent only two days on her essays and on one it was never proof read by anybody.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yes, I'd be shocked if they didn't ask you for supplemental information.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>why? I'd be shocked if they did. how many applicants are there, 40, 50 thousand?
that's also one of the reasons you don't have to send your transcripts/midyear reports until mid july of the following year.</p>
<p>I will definitely be sure to spend a lot of time on the essays. It's good to see I still have a chance and I guess it'll come down to the essays. Is there anything else besides that though (also, for example would a hard course load 12th grade help? Or be like a tie breaker?). Thanks a lot for the replies so far.</p>
<p>Thanks, I'll definitely start working on the essay over the summer and get it proofread many times (though I'm not exactly sure of a topic for it at this point). I'm guessing the 'big' three they look at are grades, extracurriculars, and SATs (and obviously my problem is the grades), but I understand how important the essay is as well.</p>
<p>I do think you have a chance mainly because 11th grade is more important, and you did seem to get better and better which is what the Adcom likes to see.</p>