<p>Yeah I'm aware that my GPA is terrible especially for a GPA-heavy school like UCB. However, do I stand any chance at all for both UCB and UCLA?</p>
<p>Asian male (fml)
East Coast
Income bracket: 250k+
School: Very competitive, grade deflation, sends at least at least a dozen kids to Ivies every year
Rank: School doesn't report
GPA: 3.33 UW
3.8 W
3.7 UC GPA
Upward trend
SAT: 1510/2250
SAT II: 800 MATH II 800 CHEM
AP: 5s on chem, bio, calc ab, music theory, english lang&comp
Senior sched: AP Econ, AP stat, AP calc bc, AP english lit, rest are electives
Course rigor: Most rigorous
ECs:
-Piano 9 years: Played in Carnegie Hall and other well-known halls multiple times, played frequently for local senior centers, did a bunch of recitals per year, tutored some local kids, got some awards (dunno how prestigious)
-Violin 7 years: School orchestra since 4th grade, played in outside ensemble which performed several times a year since 8th grade, also tutored local kids
-Academic league co-captain
-Breakdance: Leader of school's "crew," performed for several school events, performed several times out of school
-100 volunteer hours in Chinese school
-50 volunteer hours in environmental center
-Internship in Credit Suisse hedge fund
-Internship in Rutgers University 2 summers
Essays: My AP English teacher from last year (probably the hardest in the school) said they were amazing. Plus, my AP Lit teacher who's also an English professor in a top Ivy said they were excellent too. Overall, my essays should be the strongest part of the app. </p>
<p>Prompt #1 - Made up a fictional disease, procrastination (P. Rocrastinatii), and talked about how it "infected" me during HS until the competitive nature of my friends and peers motivated me to unlock untapped potential and make it my ultimate goal to succeed in any environment.
Prompt #2 - Creative piece about breakdancing and how it makes me who I am</p>
<p>So... yeah. Am I pretty much screwed because of my GPA? Also, how likely is it that I'll get a supplement/augmented review? I heard that "borderline" applicants might get a supplement to provide 1st semester grades, a teacher rec, and some essays. Is it likely that I'll be offered a supplement and be asked to show my 1st sem grades (which should be all As or maybe a B or 2 if I'm unlucky) since I showed improvement and I emphasized the improvement in my essay? Sorry if these were stupid questions =/</p>
<p>Your sat’s would give you a decently good chance if you lived in California but its probably way harder for you because you’re OOS and Asian but you seem pretty unique didn’t hurt in applying.</p>
<p>b/c all of your other stuff is pretty impressive, the gpa mostly displays the rigor of your school and wont reflect as poor on you as you would think unless you actually go to a crappy high school or have a lot of other kids from your hs apply to the same school with better numbers</p>
<p>Yeah man, I was like you. My GPA was even lower than yours, but I took a bunch of APs and did okay on my SATs (back when it was out of 1600). I used my essays to show why my GPA was low (troubled household, blah blah blah). Use your essays to show why your GPA blows and Cal is cool about giving you the benefit of the doubt. You challenged yourself, and you’re intelligent as evidenced by your scores. I dunno about CoE but you could easily pass as a Spring admit into L&S.</p>
<p>His GPA “blows” because he clearly went to at least a half decent high school, unlike 95% (ok more like 99%) of California public high schools. </p>
<p>You clearly didn’t waste your four years at high school. It’d be a shame and clear indication of yield rate engineering if you weren’t accepted to Berkeley or UCLA.</p>
<p>oos applicants have a higher acceptance rate than in-state applicants (40% vs 23%) but there is no financial aid for oos so the yield tends to be somewhat low.</p>
<p>I get annoyed when people mention that OOS applicants have a higher acceptance rate but they forget to bring up the fact that OOS applicants are more capable and have far higher average stats. Basically, applying to Berkeley OOS is still a lot more competitive than applying from California. There are some really pathetic people that Berkeley lets in from California but not so much from out of state.</p>
<p>Oh and . . . . there is definitely need based aid for out of state applicants. Out of state, including all internationals, are considered for Regents. In fact, there are a lot of oos and international regents.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. My HS is super-competitive, so maybe that will factor in for my low GPA. However, according to UCB and UCLA’s freshman profiles, very few (less than 10%) have gotten in with a GPA as low as mine, so that really worries me. Overall, the UCs extreme focus on only GPA really ****es me off, because I’ve seen people in the decisions threads get in with a 4.0 UW and 1600/2400. </p>
<p>Also, there were a bunch of kids from my school who also applied to UCB, and they’re way better applicants than me. However, pretty much all of them got into their top choices (Princeton, UChicago, etc.) so hopefully I have less competition now. Will applicants from the same HS who are applying to different schools in UCB get compared with each other? For example, will L&S applicants be compared with CoE applicants if they come from the same HS? </p>
<p>Also, how often do “borderline” applicants get augmented review/supplements? Yeah, sorry about all these dumb questions since I’m getting really nervous now >_></p>
<p>That is entirely true. Regents scholars come from all over the world.</p>
<p>I am a Regents scholar and I never stepped a foot inside California before freshman year and I personally know several are foreign nationals. You’re completely and utterly wrong. If you are a regents scholar, don’t you remember all the international kids at the orientation thingy at the chancellor’s house? </p>
<p>Anyways: [UC</a> Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office: Undergraduates » Types of Aid » Scholarships » Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship FAQ](<a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/RCfaq.htm]UC”>http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/RCfaq.htm)
“Do I need to submit an application to be considered for the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship?
No. All students who apply to UC Berkeley are automatically considered for the scholarship. This includes entering from high school students, out-of-state students, transfer students, and international students.”</p>
<p>Don’t call me out on things if you’re wrong and you have no basis for anything you have to say.</p>
<p>@caiacs regents scholarship is merit aid not need based. </p>
<p>And saying that oos applicants are better is purely anecdotal and is not backed up by any facts. Their acceptance rate is much higher because UCB is broke and it wants more people to pay full price. Therefore it would be contradictory to give oos applicants a lot of money in financial aid.</p>
<p>I’m not saying oos applicants are more or less qualified. I’m just saying that those who can pay have a better chance of getting in.</p>
<p>I haven’t posted on this site in a while, but I felt like I might have some personal advice for a student with low high school GPA.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation in high school. I had extremely high SAT and ACT scores, but I had a 3.3 unweighted GPA at a very competitive high school that did not do class rank (only 10 graduating students out of 700 had over a 4.0 weighted), though my rank would not have been extremely high. I didn’t really have the organizational skills or drive to compete for good grades in high school, and I had minimal extracurricular activities outside of swimming for twelve years. However, I was accepted to UC Berkeley as a California resident.</p>
<p>Two points of advice:
1.) Apply as an engineering major. I am in the College of Engineering, and I doubt I would have been accepted to L&S Undeclared. Admissions to the engineering school are done by department (not for the whole college), and seats for several applicants to smaller engineering majors are often reserved for top SAT scores. It is very easy to switch out of engineering if you decide you don’t like it, but you very well might love it!
2.) “Apologetic” essays for sub-par GPAs are hard to do well. The fact of the matter is that a significant fraction of UC Berkeley students arrive and talk all day about how much harder it is than high school. If you are one of the students who will likely find it to be easier than high school, focus on explaining your drive for higher learning that will fulfill you in ways that your high school’s college application-driven GPA grind did not.</p>
<p>Your ECs are superb and top-notch, all you need to do is write an essay that will set you out from the crowd. Colleges focus mainly on the essays for the most part, so you should really set yourself out from the crowd via the essay in order to really go to your dream school. What you should do is write something that is interesting about yourself, write about an experience that really changed your life, write about something that motivates you or inspire you and tell about why you want to go to UC Berkeley. If you write a really outsanding essay, I can guarantee you can get into UC Berkeley with no problem whatsoever. This is just a suggestion of mine, period.</p>