Hello!
I want to get into UC Berkely or a college as good as it. I came to the US about 7 months ago and I’m a Junior. Every type of help is appreciated!
First of all~
My GPA is pretty low at the moment, it would only rise upto a 3.2 if I try my hardest in this semester. I can try to get all straight As next semester and rise it upto a 3.6 or so. That would be my Junior year GPA.
Since I just came to the country I don’t have any honors or AP classes, so I am going to take a lot of APs in the senior year.
Also I am going to try and get a perfect SAT score.
Here are my questions~
- Do I have a chance of getting into Berkely with this? I suppose no, but what if I had a stellar SAT score?
- I can try and study for some AP exams, if that would be helpful and compensate for my low GPA, any thoughts or tips?
- Would getting all AP classes in senior year be worth it? We turn in the applications at the end of the year, so do I have a chance to increase my GPA within that time frame?
- I don't understand this Extra Curricular stuff, can someone enlighten me on that? Is it only about sports and social service? Can I add about me being a moderator on a website?
- I was thinking about taking Precalculus in summer school, so that I would end up with Calculus in summer school, is that a good decision? Can I take more than 1 class in summer school?
Here are my current classes btw:
- Algebra 2 Trig
- 2D Animation
- English 11 CP
- World History
- PE
- Chemistry
As you can see, most of my classes are 10th grade, so I was thinking about taking Precalculus in summer school and ending up with Calculus in my Senior year.
@OnePunchMan 1. You would still need to satisfy the (a) thru (g) requirements with a minimum GPA of 3.0/4 (3.4/4 if you are not a CA resident), with no Ds or Fs. See UC Berkeley admission requirements on their website.
- You might be able to get credit for some freshman-level classes, but no it won't make up for the GPA requirement.
- Not exactly sure how UCB factors senior year grades so I'll leave that to someone else. I would assume the min. GPA requirements are effective at the time you apply to UCB.
- ECs include any activity you participate in outside of normal school classes. Could be things like math club, literature club, chess club, sports team, honor societies, decathlon, band/orchestra, you name it. ECs don't have to be limited to school-affiliated clubs.
- I would only recommend this if you ace your Algebra II/Trig class. Pre-calculus introduces some new topics, some of which are useful in calculus (and others which aren't useful until you take higher-level Math), and I don't think it's hard if you have a good algebra/geo background, but if you are struggling in algebra, I wouldn't recommend it.
Btw, it’s spelled “Berkeley.” A close spelling is Berklee, which is the name of a music school in Boston.
- Senior grades are not factored into admission decisions for UCB. They are used to maintain your provisional admission. UC's use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation. What kind of grades did you get in your home country since these will be considered?
Since you only came to the US 7 months ago, you are at a disadvantage with your HS course rigor. Taking AP’s Senior year will help but will still not make up for a lack of them Junior year. As it stands now, your GPA is way too low to have a decent chance at UCB but it will depend upon how you finish out the year and what grades you had as a Sophomore. Just do your best, re-evaluate your chances once you have some tests scores and GPA at the end of Junior year. High test scores can help but will not make up for a low GPA especially since the majority of applicants have outstanding grades. Are you in-state CA? Or out of state?
As stated above in #1, make sure you meet the UC A-G course requirements, without these your application will not be considered.
http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/
Are you US citizen or Green Card holder?
