help me rate my chances for UCB?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Sorry, another rate my chances topics. Can you tell me if I have a decent chance for UC Berk?</p>

<p>Junior, Asian Male from California
SAT I: 2230 (740 M, 740 CR, 750 W)
Rank: 5% percentile
GPA: about 3.9 UW, 4.7 W</p>

<p>SAT II:
Bio-M: 760
Will take IIC and Literature and expect 750+ on both.</p>

<p>2 years of Journalism, 3 years of Spanish, 4 consecutive years of Math, Science, History, and English, all honors/AP</p>

<p>Top 5 ECs:
1) Photo Editor of School Newspaper
2) Treasurer of Art Club
3) Public Relations Officer of Go Club
4) Concertmaster at local youth orchestra
5) 4 years JV swimming</p>

<p>Top 5 Awards:
1) Member of California's first ranked HS Go Team
2) 2nd place, SF Chronicle's "American Dream" Essay contest
3) "Coaches' Award"-Water Polo
4) Superior Command Performance-CMEA</p>

<p>Community Service (100+ Hours)
1) Prayer Minister at Faith-based Clinic
2) Caravana Mexicana
3) Elementary School Tutor
4) Relay-for-Life Runner</p>

<p>Working as a Receptionist at Local Tutoring Academy to cover costs for Swimming.
Part-time Tutor for HS Sophmores covers cost for HS Prom, Dances, etc.</p>

<p>Will get awesome recs from Precalc and English Teacher.</p>

<p>I'm planning to retake the SATI and get a 800 in the math and writing sections respectively.</p>

<p>Would this app be good enough?</p>

<p>Thanks for your time.</p>

2

<p>Obviously you have a great chance, but no one can guarantee anything for anyone. Your stats are amazing. Relax.</p>

3

<p>You will get in, most likely. Just be sure to write decent essays.</p>

4

<p>It's Berkeley--the unpredictable. People with perfect scores get rejected. Apply to some privates and other UCs just in case.</p>

5

<p>Your stats are superb, but like everyone else said, make sure your essays are really good. Berkeley rejects quite a large number of people with near perfect stats, and most likely those people had a black mark on their rec (for example a very poor essay or low EC's).</p>

<p>BTW, is Cal your 1st choice?</p>

6

<p>Just some questions Adcom might be wondering:</p>

<p>(1) Just four awards/honors? No more?
(2) Treasurer of Art Club? Is art an interest? Can it be seen on your transcript, like, have you taken art class (especially up to Studio Art)?
(3) "Coaches Award" for Water Polo, but are you even on the team?
(4) Is your varsity swim team good? If you're just JV, then you shouldn't put it on your application.</p>

<p>And some other stuff:</p>

<ul>
<li>Berkeley doesn't take teacher recommendations; you can shelve those "Awesome recs,"</li>
<li>Don't need to mention the fact that you tutor so you can pay for social events;</li>
<li>What's Go Club, and is that an honor?</li>
<li>I don't think there's a section for 5 community service activities, or is there? I forget...</li>
</ul>

<p>If you can address these problems, then you have a realistic shot at Berkeley. Best of Luck!</p>

<p>TTG, '09</p>

7

<p>1) I have other awards, like "Most Inspirational" for a local swimming team, but I placed more emphasis on school and other things
2) Art has been one of my passions for as long as I can remember. From the fifth grade, I've always attended art classes outside of school, and several of my friends are planning to get double degree in science/math and then art/music.
3) I've been on the water polo team for Frosh and Junior Year.
4) Varisty Swimming at my HS is extremely competitive and strong. We regularly win the league meets. I traing with Varsity to get faster-but retain JV status. "If it were any other HS we swam for..." has become a regular joke around the team.</p>

<p>Go Club is a recently founded club at our school. Go is an ancient game that originated from China-and is now extremely popular among China, Japan, and Korea. We had intense practice schedules up to the tournament.</p>

<p>Thanks for the helpful advice.
.</p>

8

<p>Bubbles-</p>

<p>Berk is actually my third choice.
1&2) Impossible-reach/ Dream school: Yale, and another Uber-reach school: Stanford
3) Many of my older, asian friends attend Cal. I'd be honored to be accepted to UCB.
4 and onwards: Other Ucs.</p>

9

<p>TTG-Many of my friends advised to cut the award/honors list to 5. I thought if you crammed all the things you've ever received, the Admins would get annoyed and think you were a crazy, score-based robot...0_0</p>

10

<p>Also, DO NOT put your race on your college apps!! A lot of Asians get rejected because they put it on. Stanford, Yale, and HPM dont say they care about race, but after compiling a list, it's very obvious that they will accept an African American or American Indian with much lower stats than an Asian with higher stats. </p>

<p>The UC's are the same. UCLA is notorious for rejecting perfect 1500/4.00 Asians and accepting 1100/3.3 Hispanics who complained about "being discriminated against by the white man".</p>

<p>Luckily, I didnt specify my race and got into all the UC's (I had slightly lower stats than you 4.5 and 1490 Old SAT).</p>

11

<p>BubblesForSale: Though I agree that some universities continue to unfairly apply a higher standard within the Asian applicant pool in an effort to diversify their student body, putting one's race down may not be too detrimental in UC application process.</p>

<p>Firstly, the race of each applicant is blacked out when admission officers read the application. Race can only be inferred by name (ex: Wang, Chang, etc.) or in the free response section--applicants may discuss their race or allude to it briefly.</p>

<p>In my personal case, I did list that I was an ethnic Chinese (which is a even big "no-no"). In my free response section, I discussed my Asian heritage (even daring to suggest that my interests in politics and my Asian heritage bring to the university diversity).</p>

<p>My UC GPA was maxed out and my old SAT I's was 1270 in a one sitting, highest score. </p>

<p>I was admitted into all the my UC's (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, and UCR).</p>

12

<p>I would say that you have an excellent chance because your stats are not cookie cutter and you actually show depth. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Bah! You're in, dude. Asian or not, they don't give a flip. It's STRAIGHT STATS. I'm white and I had absolutely amazing stats for my school when I applied (aside from my SATs, though my ACTs were pretty good) and I got in easy. </p>

<p>For those interested, cuz I KNOW someone is gonna ask -- very brief and general rundown because I can't even remember most of it:</p>

<p>When I applied in Fall 2001... got into all the UCs I applied, except for SD, and I got into USC.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9uw, 4.6w
SAT: 1210, ACT: 31
Community Service: 250+ Hours</p>

<p>Distinguishing Factors:
Took Japanese instead of other offered languages (Spanish, French)
Went and lived in Japan for three months during the Summer of 2000
Took 9 APs (my school offered 11, and one was Calc BC when I was in AB -- this was a huge deal at the time, I was one of the few kids in my school during that period that had ever taken more than 6)</p>

<p>Major ECs:
Junior Statesmen of America (acting Vice President, Assemblyman, Logistics Coordinator), Mock Trial, Anti-Defamation League, Japanese Culture Club (Treasurer), California Scholarship Federation (For 3 1/2 years), Youth for Understanding Foreign Exchange: Regional Interviewer for Japan Placement</p>

<p>Major Awards:
National AP Scholar with Distinction, several Golden State exams with Honors and High Honors, Best Speaker, Fall 2001 Convention (JSA), Honorable Mention (Mock Trial, three years in a row), Japanese Culture Scholarship ($1K, YFU), several best speaker awards at various conventions.</p>

<p>I could go on, but you probably get the idea. Have the stats and the ECs, and you are in like Flint. Doesn't matter who you are.</p>

14

<p>Once again I want to stress that this is NOT the "What are my chances?" forum.....People there might know even more about the admission process than ppl here!</p>