I’m an Asian male from an academically lax military school in a rather low-income neighborhood in the Bay Area, California (Average SAT score is about 900-1000 (1200 is pretty high), not many pass AP exams due to incompetent teachers and/or unmotivated students)I am looking to go to UC Berkeley to study either Applied Math or Statistics, but I do not know whether I am aiming too high or too low. Here is what I can put on my application.
GPA: 4.5 W, 4.0 UW (Class Rank 1 of 100)
Qualified for National Merit Scholarship from PSATs
SAT: 1530 (730 English, 800 Math), 21 essay
SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 Chem
APs: AP Biology (did not take exam), AP Lit (4), AP Lang (4)
Dual Enrollment: Taken Japanese 1A, Calculus I, II, III, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Discrete Math, Intro to Statistics, Physics A-B-C, Chemistry A-B, Biology A-B (Physics is taught in 3 semesters here, Chem in 2, and Biology in 2 as well) (A’s in all of them)
TA: TA’d AP Calculus AB and BC, and Pre-Calculus at school
Extra-curriculars: Was a private tutor for $35/hour, Worked 2 jobs since early high school, both of which were tutoring jobs where I tutor a variety of people from children to high school students from simple additions to calculus, Tutored at the Community College for math (Math Lab paid tutor), 300+ volunteer hours accumulated from working at the library, an Asian Cultural Center, and tutoring places, went abroad to Asia to work and tutor over winter break, held leadership positions at military school such as Platoon Leader, Training and Operations Officer, and Executive Officer (2nd in command of an entire company [4 companies in the school]), helped tutor after school at my school for math, and hosted an SAT prep class
Letters of Recommendation: Various Professors, bosses from my jobs- one of which is a Berkeley alum, school principal and counselors (I helped suggest the idea of a dual enrollment program for upperclassmen at my school, and was the first to test said program and reported my results. The program will be offered to all upperclassmen once my class graduate.)