Do I have a chance at UCLA/Berkeley with weak course rigor/good test scores? (Will chance back!)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I don’t know how competitive I am for such great schools, especially considering the impressive qualifications of the applicant pools each year. I would be interested in studying advertising but I haven’t decided on a major yet. I’d really appreciate some insight on where I stand, so here are my stats:

10th grade:
Pre Calc: A/A
H. Biology: A/A
H. English: A/A
Film: A/A
AP Euro: A/A
Italian 2: A/A
Varsity Tennis (Spring): A

Note: I realize my 10th grade courses are rather mediocre, and unfortunately I don’t get UC credit for any of the honors classes. However, my school only allows a maximum of 2 APs for sophomores (and none for freshman), so besides skipping AP Bio, I tried to push myself.

11th grade:
AP Statistics: A
APES: A
AP Lang: A
APUSH: A
Italian 3: A
Advanced Drama: A

Senior Schedule:
AP Calc AB/BC
AP Lit
AP Psych
AP Gov
Journalism
Italian 4

HS UW/W GPA: 3.94/4.1
UC UW/W GPA (uncapped) : 4.00/4.35
Class Ranking: 35/750
School Type: Public, very competitive (sends ~30 students to Cal/UCLA each year and 4-5 to Ivies)
SAT single sitting: 2240 (730 Math, 800 CR, 710 Writing/9 Essay)
SAT superscore (2 tries): 2330 (730 math, 800 CR, 800 Writing/9 Essay)
Note: I’m planning on trying once more in January and I think I can pull my single sitting up to 2300 since the UCs don’t superscore.
AP scores: Euro (5)
Subject Tests: None, but planning on taking Lit, US history, and possibly math 2.
Residence: California
Income Bracket: >$200,000
Hooks: None

Extracurriculars:
-Secretary of Zionist Club
-Holocaust Museum Youth Advisory Board
-Co-Founder of club that refurbishes and distributes sports equipment to underprivileged schools
-Several writing awards (nothing national/statewide unfortunately)
-Los Angeles Student Film Festival PSA Winner (out of 30 applicants)
-Los Angeles Student Film Festival Overall Best Picture (out of 200+ applicants)
-International animation award for a piece on domestic abuse
-Over a dozen other nominations (including nationals)
-Internship at ESPN
-Tutor
-Varsity Tennis ranked #1 in League (individually ranked, but not high enough to be recruited)
-Debate
-Tennis coach

I am applying to UCLA, Berkeley, USC, Northwestern, Cornell (for the lols), NYU and some safeties (UC Merced/Riverside). Do I have a shot at any of those schools? Thanks!

2

matches:
UCLA
Berkeley

low reach:
USC

reach:
northwestern
cornell

3

assiming you get all A’s in the second half of junior year and 2 relevant subject tests of 750+ scores:

UCLA/UCB/USC - high match
NW/Cornell - low/reach

4

You will never know unless you try. Go for it!

5

I think you’re in at UCLA, USC, and NYU, but Berkeley could go either way, and Cornell/Northwestern are reaches. Which kind of jibes with your estimate that 35 students in your class may get into Berkeley/UCLA or Ivies.

6

@bigbuddy @uclaparent9 @goldenbear2020 I really appreciate all of you responding. Do you have any suggestions on how to make Northwestern/Cornell less of a reach? Or any suggestions on how to increase my chances at UCLA/Berkeley/USC besides keeping up my grades second semester? Thanks!

7

Anybody else?

8

You’ve got a really good chance for all schools (that ESPN internship tho)! Prob get into UCB and UCLA. Never know until you try!

Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1847372-final-chance-thread-ivies-stanford-ucb.html

9

@ayyyyyyy Chanced you back. Hope we both get into our top choices :slight_smile:

10

Bump

11

Bump

12

UCLA: High Match
UCB: High Match
USC; Low Reach
NYU: Match/High match
Cornell: Reach (but it’s a reach for everyone)
Northwestern: Reach (but its a reach for everyone)

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1851091-chance-me-please.html#latest

13

If you keep those 2nd semester grades up, you should end up with a 4.4+ GPA and be in good shape for Berkeley.

I think your class rank is too low for Cornell, since your high school tends to send only 4-5 to Ivies per year. If I were you, I would apply ED to Northwestern.

14

@hssenior27 Thanks, chanced back.
@goldenbear2020 I agree my class rank is on the lower end. If it’s worth anything, I used to be around 160 and I feel like I can continue rising. That would be amazing to get into northwestern, is there anything you think I should do to strengthen my chances besides applying ED?

P.S. I don’t know if Berkeley cares about legacy but I’ve got a parent alum.

15

Legacy is not considered by the UC’s.

16

I agree with applying ED to Northwestern.
You underestimate your course rigor - you have all the right “markers” (AP Lang, AP Calc, APUSH, Foreign Language up to level 4) and your test scores will help, too. You have very interesting EC’s and good grades overall.
Most of the schools you listed are reaches due to acceptance rates, but other than that, you’re a match for UCs and UCI and lower are all safeties. You could open a “Follow my story” thread in “HIndsight and lessons learned”, those are always good for current students and I think your trajectory would be interesting.

17

@MYOS1634 Thanks for your advice. For course rigor, the main thing I’m worried about is my science classes. I will probably replace journalism with honors physics but that still won’t change the fact that I won’t have any core science APs and all my of my foreign language classes were regular (not honors or AP). I didn’t know there was a “Hindsight and lessons learned” section. I’ll check that out.

18

I think you’ll be okay as long as you diversify (include colleges where few of your classmates apply although they’re top50/top100) but a chronicle will be helpful, too.
Hindsight and lessons learned is a GREAT section since instead of just “chances”, you start with a student looking at colleges and end with the student getting in and choosing between possibilities.

19

I think you have high chances!! but remember that legacy isn’t considered in the UCs

20

@ccjaxon Thanks! Bummer that legacy won’t help me out, but I hope I can make it just based on my own merits.