Mild ADD, low grades, high SAT scores, and upward trend

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a white Californian male who's applying to some unrealistic colleges for the hell of it. I have mild ADD, which I mentioned in my essays, and how I overcame it to get decent grades my Junior Year. I also put it a lot more eloquently than that.</p>

<h1>SAT Scores:</h1>

<p>CR: 790
W: 750
M: 700</p>

<p>US History: 780
Math II: 720</p>

<h1>AP Test Scores:</h1>

<p>World History: 5
US History: 5
Composition: 4</p>

<h1>Grades:</h1>

<p>Overall GPA: 3.5 (top 25%)
UC and CSU GPA: 3.75 (about top 15%)
Unweighted Overall GPA: in the 3.3s (not even sure)</p>

<p>Freshman GPA: 2.8 and 3.2
Sophomore GPA: 3.0 and 3.7 (second semester decided to turn it around, as I mentioned in my essays)
Junior GPA: 4.0 and 4.14</p>

<p>Senior Year I'm taking four AP classes, and have something like a 4.4</p>

<h1>My EC's are relatively weak, this is copied and pasted from my USC App:</h1>

<p>Forensics:
Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Duo Interpretation
Impromptu</p>

<p>Key Club</p>

<p>AVID Tutor</p>

<p>"Grandparents and Books" (Read to children at local library)</p>

<p>Babe Ruth Baseball League</p>

<p>Habitat for Humanity</p>

<p>San Joaquin River Camp</p>

<p>Raised money for disadvantaged at PELCO by distributing bottles and cans</p>

<h1>Awards:</h1>

<p>"Block B" award and letter</p>

<p>AP Scholar</p>

<p>High Honor Roll</p>

<p>Regional Novice Debate Finalist
Regional Junior Varsity Debate Finalist
Regional Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate Winner and Finalist</p>

<p>CSF</p>

<p>Buchanan's academic "student of the week"</p>

<p>==========================================================</p>

<p>There you have it, the discrepancy between my SAT and GPA leaves me in a bewildered state, and I'm applying to some unrealistically prestigious colleges in the hopes that maybe one will give me a chance. Chance me please at the following colleges:</p>

<p>UC Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Diego, Davis, Irvine</p>

<p>Cal Poly</p>

<p>Santa Clara University</p>

<p>USC (applying regular not priority decision)</p>

<p>Stanford (I'm a legacy [Father])</p>

<p>Duke (I'm a legacy [Mother])</p>

<p>Claremont McKenna</p>

2

<p>…bump</p>

3

<p>How are you doing in your classes so far this year?</p>

4

<p>I have all A’s and one B+, a 4.42 GPA</p>

5

<p>You know, you’re really hard to chance… if you’ve got ADD, that might actually help you a lot… and being a legacy at Stanford/Duke, I don’t know… if your essays were really good, I’d actually say you have a shot, although you’re by no means a top candidate. Sorry that I can’t help more than just say it’s really up in the air.</p>

6

<p>yeah… i wasn’t sure if putting that I had ADD would help me or hurt me</p>

<p>What about the UC’s? Is UCSB a safe match?</p>

7

<p>Swisstaco, I don’t know too much about the UC’s but your scores are excellent and you have a nice rising trend with your gpa. I think you would have very good chances at a number of these schools. I also think that you will get into UCSB. Also, I am unsure about putting down ADD or not, but I think it would mostly likely help you. Either way I think you will get into some very good schools. Best of luck!</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the input. One thing that makes me nervous about UC’s though, is their percentage of students in the top 10% of the class… every UC that I applied to has more than 95% of the student in the top !0%, at least according to the statistics provided. It baffles me how this statistic could passibly be true, as many of these colleges have relatively mediocre GPA’s.</p>