<p>I've been roaming around this board for a while (it's REALLY helpful by the way! Everyone posting trying to help other people out = awesome) and I've been reading people's stats...</p>
<p>I got a 1700 on my SAT, played in NO sports and I hate doing community service. What'd the community ever do for me, eh??? lol jk. I was in band for 3 years (marching, pep, and concert). I was an AVID write-off winner for two years (but they only know of one, because I just won again last month). I took English 10 H, AP Eng. Lang (score of 3), AP Spanish Lang (score of 3 w/o the class) and I'm taking AP Eng. Lit and Civics/Economics H, and AP Spanish Lit this year. But also, my high school doesn't offer any other AP classes at all... (we're really small. 500 students total!) My GPA as of right now is 4.17, but I think overall it is 3.56. Now that I'm reading everyone else's stats, I'm starting to get really worried... will Berkeley be too hard? Will I be able to make it? Is there anyone else who has my kind of background...? ahhhhhhh... lol.</p>
<p>I found out last week that someone from my high school got into Cal and has a very low SAT also and almost no EC's. GPA is around 4.0 weighted. She got rejected at UCLA, USC and UCSD. She can't figure it out either. Must have been the essay...</p>
<p>do you think you can handle the load? i wouldnt go if you arent confident in yourself. As for a fluke? i dont know maybe your essays were really good. If you do decide to come make the best out of it I guess,just be prepared to be competing with some of the best and brightest kids in california/country.</p>
<p>i have a genius friend who took all AP classes in high school, got a 4.5 or something...and when she got to cal she said it was incredibly hard and overwhelming</p>
<p>nobody is going to hold your hand</p>
<p>if cal is your dream school, and your ready to work super hard, then go</p>
<p>if your heart really isn't there, don't do it.</p>
<p>Well i dont want to sound mean, but i have a couple of athlete friends who came to Cal solely for athletics and didn't do too well in high school academically nor did they do well on the SAT. They're having trouble pulling good grades and in order to get Bs put in a lot of work. But generally hard work will pay off.</p>
<p>Well, I have no qualms about hard work... I started out my freshman year with a 2.57 GPA and now I'm at 4.17 (like I said). I'm hoping I can make this kind of advancement at Cal. Going into this I knew that Cal would require me to work hard for my grades, and that was one of my reservations for not sending my SIR right away. But I went to Cal day and I absolutely loved everything about the campus. So, like I said, I'm willing to work hard, but that doesn't mean I'm not insanely (yes, insanely) worried about me being able to cut it.</p>
<p>I guess we'll find out, right?</p>
<p>Oh, and as for having connections-- I have NOBODY. My parents are field workers and never even went to elementary school. My sister goes to CSU Fresno and my brother is a Marine.</p>
<p>i really wish i had your spot...lol sorry to say that, i wanted to go to cal so badly, i'd honestly murder for a spot (ok maybe not)..i had supposedly better stats(higher sat etc.) but i got denied TWICE (appeal) haha. well, good luck at cal you'll probably like it-the environment is awesome IMO but you'll just have to work real hard to keep up with the competition</p>
<p>joie0867,
You will be okay, just stay focused and on top of your studying. These people are trying to scare you and SAT's aren't every indication of whether you will be successful or not. You got in to CAL over people with higher SAT's for a reason. </p>
<p>And athletes are no indication on how difficult a school is. They don't get in on their GPA/scores/essays. They miss too much regular class to do well academically (for the most part.)</p>
<p>Who cares? If you want a high gpa than major in a creampuff major. Many B and C students suddenly become A students in college by majoring in easy things like political science and american studies.</p>
<p>i have a friend who got admitted with an even lower sat score (around 1650). she takes an average amount of ap classes and gets good grades (i think she has above a 4.1). she plays sports as well and is probably the member of a few clubs.</p>
<p>i've got another friend who got around an 1850 on the sat and he got in. he's got extracurriculars up the wazoo though.</p>
<p>in conclusion, i have no idea what's happening. all i can say is this: you won't be entirely alone. there will be others like you. they probably don't place that much stock in the sat.. and you probably wrote a pretty good essay.</p>
<p>hey you're not the only one, hard work is easy! :P my sat scores are pretty low, gpa 3.77 6 aps under the belt two cc classes (2*A's) scored 4 on ap chem gpa 2.75 freshman year (note: i didn't take preparatory chem, went straight to AP) UC GPA 4.375</p>
<p>it all depends on your school's api, sometimes past education makes us who we are (in comparison to most of the top middle class students here who went to pretty good schools)</p>
<p>i'm native born filipino (13 yrs in the PH), went through alot of hardships, in ap french, so yeah, you can see how different i am, for u i think its because u took the spanish ap test without even taking the class</p>
<p>my school's graduating seniors is 200 out of 500... how's that ? less than 50% go to college, meaning less than 100 are going to college plus 65-70% are going to community colleges.. (sorry for bashing my school :( ) its the truth</p>
<p>so, there we have it, i don't see why sometimes people feel better because they think they are more successful than most students who are underprivileged just because they had greater opportunities does not necessarily mean they're intellectuals, it's a narrow world</p>
<p>Yay! There is hope for me after all! lol. As for the essay...writing is one of the things i'm pretty good at (don't use my posts as evidence though, lol). I didn't think my essay was particularly great, but we're our own worst crtics right?</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much. I got in with a 1340 SAT, 640 writing, 720 math IIc, 650 Bio, 3.85 (decent EC's, good essay) and I'm not struggling at all. Well, I take that back. If you want to have a high gpa then you probably will have to work a little. I'm satisfied with doing 1-2 hrs of homework per week and getting by with a 3.11. It really depends on how difficult you make it for yourself. If you plan and choose your classes correctly then you should have no problem.</p>