<p>My weighted GPA is 4.5 and my SAT score is 2010. But among other ECs I have been training/puppy-raising service dogs since 6th grade...will this give me an advantage?</p>
<p>Cal does consider ECs. Your GPA is good, but your SAT is not high enough to make up for lack of ECs. Without details on how many hours per week you spend on that ECs and your depth of involvement, it’s hard to say if your ECs are lacking.</p>
<p>Here are the rest of my ECs…</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
-Puppy raiser for Canine Companions for Independence: this is my HUGE ec. I’ve trained service dogs since the 6th grade. 50hrs/week, 52weeks/yr
-Piano: since age 6. 52w/yr, 8hrs/week
-Magazine editor: senior yr. 14hrs/week
-Board member of Society of Women Scholars. Community Service rep. grades 10, 11,12. 2hrs/week
-Key club publicity committee head. 5hrs/week. Grades 11 &12
-National Honor Society. grades 11 & 12. 3hrs/week
-Spanish Honor Society. grades 11 & 12. 2hrs/week
-Photography. grades 11 & 12. 3 hrs/week
-Cooking. grades 9,10, 11, 12. 5hrs/week
-Ran a summer piano camp at my local Boys and Girls club</p>
<p>You have a lot of different activities, which can come off negatively (e.g., “fillers”) - in one of your essays, you should elaborate on one activity that you’re very passionate about (puppy training, which is clearly your biggest involvement).</p>
<p>Also, your numbers add up to ~90hrs/week during senior year… which I find a bit hard to believe. I know it’s really hard to divide up the hours since some of it is during the school year only, some may be more during the summer than school year, etc. but the numbers may appear questionable.</p>
<p>extracurricular activities are more important that GPA or SAT score…</p>
<p>extracurricular activities are NOT more important that GPA or SAT score…</p>
<p>They might be more important if you did something legitimately impressive (won Intel STS or got a gold medal at IMO) but if you did stereotypical leadership and club work then it just keeps you in the running. GPA is probably the most important factor, supported by the name of your school, your SAT scores, and which classes you took, all of which build up your academic profile. I know that quality of writing is evaluated, but I don’t know how important it is - your essays seem to be more of a way to explain your personal experiences and accomplishments.</p>
<p>@bsd:</p>
<p>I listened to an online information session a while back. They said pretty much exactly your comment about essays: they exist for you to say the things you can’t just put into a box on a form, not to judge how good your writing style is.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think that ECs only matter for UCs if your GPA/SAT isn’t high enough. Most people just have a bunch of filler ECs anyway.</p>
<p>I think your ECs are great, but the number of hours you claim to spend on them don’t add up. In total, you say that you spend 92 hours/week on ECs. Even if you only sleep 6 or so hours a night, that leaves you virtually 30 hours to go to school and study. That just doesn’t seem realistic. If there was a typo in your post, I apologize, but I think any EC that takes “50 hrs/wk” would raise a red flag.</p>
<p>Yeah, having one EC you spend a lot of time on is way more important for Cal and UCLA than having a bunch of fillers. Write about it in one of your essays.</p>
<p>ECs are more important than GPA and SAT</p>
<p>if you work at the local diner for 3 hrs a week, play JV football, and are part of anime club, you deserve a spot at cal more than the kid who studies 3 hrs a day for their 4.5 GPA, bar none.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with your statement. The university wants to pick students that will be successful in college. When I say successful I don’t just mean academics, but I believe the university considers the prospective academic success of a student above anything else. A student’s GPA and SAT is the best indicator they have of potential college success. Yes, a student can also be accepted if his ECs show that he will be able to contribute to the university in some other meaningful way, despite a lower GPA/SAT. Even so, I don’t think Berkeley admission is competitive enough that they can require most students to have a good GPA/SAT AND good ECs like Stanford can. </p>
<p>I also have to take issue with your use of the word “deserve.” Whether a person “deserves” higher education or not is another argument, but I fail to see how someone that spends time on ECs (especially mediocre ones) deserves a spot at Berkeley more so than someone who chooses to spend time studying and getting a high GPA. Aside from my argument above about prospective academic success, the latter person is only doing what he believes will be most beneficial to his future. You could say that he is not a “well-rounded” person, but what does being well-rounded have to do with his goals of a good career?</p>
<p>P.S. There was a review of the admission process in 2005 that you can read here:
<a href=“http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/16_hout.shtml[/url]”>http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/16_hout.shtml</a></p>
<p>Quote: In his report, Hout wrote, "My statistical results reveal that comprehensive review conformed to most aspects of policy guidelines. Academic considerations predominated. Readers gave applicants’ grades the most weight in assigning read scores. They also considered how difficult the courses were and scores on SATs.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of truth up there. Berkeley is primarily an academic institution and they are looking to accept students. Someone who has less of a passion for academia may enroll in a trade school, join the workforce, start a company, join the peace corps, etc… I don’t think it’s strange that a university values academic strength.</p>
<p>I remember that study in the link above. In fact it explicitly mentions that anime club doesn’t count as a major EC. They’re looking for clubs with an academic or community-oriented focus.</p>
<p>“NOTE: Pop-culture and other social groups or organizations such as the anime club, hip hop club, pep club, chess club, etc. are NOT considered major activities EVEN IF the applicant holds a leadership position. But if the applicant is a founder of such a club it may be considered a major activity.”</p>
<p>Reading through the report, you can see that ECs serve to spice up the incoming class but academics and the pursuit of excellence (academic or not) are the primary focus. If you want to see real competition, check out some of the CVs of Berkeley grad students, especially in the more intense majors.</p>
<p>anon: You also seem to be mixing up “how it works” and “how you think it should be”…</p>
<p>seriously? are you guys idiots or is my sarcasm just that bad?</p>
<p>Your sarcasm really is that bad – I’ve noticed in most of your posts…</p>
<p>One thing I automatically notice when looking at your EC’s is …</p>
<p>"Here are the rest of my ECs…</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
-Puppy raiser for Canine Companions for Independence: this is my HUGE ec. I’ve trained service dogs since the 6th grade. 50hrs/week, 52weeks/yr
-Piano: since age 6. 52w/yr, 8hrs/week
-Magazine editor: senior yr. 14hrs/week
-Board member of Society of Women Scholars. Community Service rep. grades 10, 11,12. 2hrs/week
-Key club publicity committee head. 5hrs/week. Grades 11 &12
-National Honor Society. grades 11 & 12. 3hrs/week
-Spanish Honor Society. grades 11 & 12. 2hrs/week
-Photography. grades 11 & 12. 3 hrs/week
-Cooking. grades 9,10, 11, 12. 5hrs/week
-Ran a summer piano camp at my local Boys and Girls club"</p>
<p>You’re spending many hours on them. The first thing I notice is that the first 3 activities adds up to 72 horus. That’s quite unbelieveable. I proceed to add up the rest and get a whopping total of 92 hours per week on your extra curriculars. If you worked 12 hours per day you would still only have 84 hours per week.</p>
<p>I think addmissions officers could pick up on this.</p>
<p>It is obviously a lie when you say you spend 3 hours a week on NHS… It’s an honorary recognition. Even if you’re the NHS president, you still only spend 1 hour a week on NHS. You should be more cautious when you try to “pad” your resume like that…</p>
<p>Well, our NHS chapter had a tutoring system attached to it (happened to start the same year I joined, how exciting!), although I did make sure to note that on my application why I had all those hours down. But yeah, just writing NHS is kind of questionable.</p>