<p>What geekrathletic said & at least you got into college! no big deal.</p>
<p>In all honestly, just enjoy going to Cal…their engineering programs are top-notch and prestige for undergrad is a bit overrated IMO. Just have fun :]</p>
<p>Well now you can enjoy your life in college. I don’t know why you were making your life so miserable during high school.</p>
<p>Academic achievement shouldn’t be the only thing that makes you feel happy.</p>
<p>Maybe your mistake was in thinking you have to set aside passions for academics and ‘worthy’ extracurriculars. People manage to translate passions into activities that are impressive to adcoms and truly gratifying for them.</p>
<p>Wasn’t journalism a passion for you?</p>
<p>berkeley is a great school. don’t feel bad that you didn’t get into any of the ivies! don’t think that all your hard work in high school was a waste. it can only help you achieve more at Cal.</p>
<p>
Yes the SAT is on the lower side, especially for non-URM applicants. How many APs are offered at your school and what was your rank?</p>
<p>
That’s because the University of California school system doesn’t factor race/ethnicity into it’s applications decisions due to Proposition 209. Let’s avoid discussing the faults of AA.</p>
<p>My dumb school just got rid of rankings. I was ~top20(based on UW gpas, $#!@!)
School offers 13 APs.</p>
<p>Just to give ppl an idea, my junior year schedule was:
-APUSH
-AP Calc BC
-AP Spanish
-AP English Lang.
-Hnrs. Physics
-Journalism
-Speech/Debate
-History T.A.</p>
<p>Straight As, except 2nd semester i got my first B in High school from APUSH.</p>
<p>Top 20 out of how many students? If you were outside the top 10%, that would have decreased your chances significantly. If your Guidance Counselor did not mark off your transcript as “most rigorous” due to only taking 6/13 of your school’s offered APs, that would have hurt your chances as well.</p>
<p>If you havn’t gotten the gist of my argument yet, it is that no one should expect any acceptance to a single one of the Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>top 20 out of ~500 students; course schedule was marked “most rigorous”</p>
<p>Get over it. A lot of other kids didn’t get into Ivies either.</p>
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<p>Really? I kinda followed my passions in high school. I did theater because it’s crazy fun and I always loved it, although I’m going into engineering. I actually did only a few things engineering related, math club, and engineering program over the summer, made a small engineering club at school (that I didn’t even put on my applications). Did some other crud, debate is fun, so was M.U.N but it got boring. I like volunteering and hanging with kids so I always did those things. But I’ve also entered some art contests, had fun in a comic book club, partied, etc. Kick boxing hah, that’s fun. I’m also a pool champ at school (not like, anything official, but I play a lot at friends and after movies).</p>
<p>I got into Cornell. Going to Carnegie. </p>
<p>But really, for engineering, the ivies kinda…suck. Berkley is much better for engineering than any ivy school, even Cornell.</p>
<p>actually, I understand the OP.</p>
<p>of course Berkeley is a GREAT school. Really, truly it is.
but working so hard and sacrificing so much to only go to a school where other…less hardworking individuals were accepted to kind of stings…</p>
<p>which is why I’m pretty adamant in not settling for UT, which the top 30 students at my school are going to. In fact, if I do get accepted to only UT, then I’ll probably go off to a prep school (PG) and dunno get recruited or something… but yeah,
it’s kind of bitter to have done so much and yet still be at the same level that others who haven’t put as much effort in are. </p>
<p>but Berkeley is a good school- enjoy it or transfer if need be; however, you don’t need an Ivy to be successful in your life =)</p>
<p>what schools did you apply to? Could you specify? </p>
<p>Also what were your SAT 2 scores and which ones did you take?</p>
<p>What was your SAT breakdown? Did you use score choice?</p>
<p>SAME GOD DARN STORY. i hate my life man. but my opportunity was compromised by my ■■■■■■■■ hs situation. i got rejected from all the ivies and got into OOS UC Berkeley as well but i’m opting for nyu. berkeley’s on a rapid decline.</p>
<p>I’m hoping you didn’t do all this work just to get into an Ivy because that would be ridiculous. You should have done it because you liked it. Also, Berkeley is a really good school.</p>
<p>Also, why would you do things you hate or dislike, at the least? I LOVE WRITING! Seriously… Do what you love in high school. The goal of high school is not to get into some good college. Its about doing what you want to do so that you want to become your own person. Going to college is about finding other people that like what you do and developing your interests. I think you might have missed the mark on this one.</p>
<p>According to the dude who wrote “Colleges That Change Lives,” only about 3% of the total college application pool in the US is admitted into an Ivy each year.</p>
<p>I know many people who considered Cal their dream school. It’s a great place and with your entitled attitude (sorry, maybe you’re not like that in real life but you are DEFINITELY coming off as entitled in this thread), I would just suck it up that you’re going to the #1 public school in the country and move on.</p>
<p>hahahahahahahahah</p>
<p>
Exactly my point. Thanks for understanding :)</p>
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<p>I applied to Harvard, UPenn, Brown, and Cornell.
SAT 2s - Math IIC - 800, Biology - 780, Spanish(reading only) - 760, USH - 700(LOL, i kept this one out; i still got a 5 on the AP though)</p>
<p>SAT I -> CR-650(I KNOW ><, i could never succeed on this), WR - 800, Math - 800</p>
<p>
As much as i’d like to, I don’t think I can agree with you on this one. Nowadays? The goal of high school is not to get into a good college…? Maybe before, high school was a time to pursue personal passions and interests, but now, I’m not so sure. It’s sad, but it’s reality.</p>
<p>People who say college admissions is a crapshoot clearly haven’t read enough books on college admissions lol. It’s not random. </p>
<p>“What you don’t know can keep you out of college” by Don Dunbar. Read that.</p>
<p><a href=“…%20you%20are%20DEFINITELY%20coming%20off%20as%20entitled%20in%20this%20thread”>quote=hi<em>im</em>leila</a>
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<p>Sorry… I’m just really frustrated at having committed a significant portion of my life to work and activities w/out getting into my first choice school. With that kind of disappointment, it’s kinda hard not to come off as “entitled.” *sigh…</p>