my chances at getting into berkeley, mit, or stanford

<p>i am a second year community college student planning on applying to all three of these schools in the fall (alongside various backups of course) and would like to know what everyone thinks of my chances given my situation, major, stats, and level of determination.</p>

<p>my primary goal is EECS at berkeley, but i definitely would want to attend stanford or mit to pursue a degree in technology (my goal at the moment is to become a systems engineer). in fact, whereever i go to finish my undergrad, i will indefinitely apply to stanford and mit for my postgrad education.
i will be staying a third year at my community college in order to finish all the classes i need in order to be eligible for admission into berkely.</p>

<p>my current GPA is 3.588, and by the time i apply to various schools in the fall it should be around 3.7 - 3.72 (counting on the fact that i dont get any b's).</p>

<p>as far as my extra curriculars,
i play piano, guitar, have done an internship at a startup IT company during summer 2008 and plan on taking another internship,
am an avid skateboarder, like to paint and draw(had an art exhibition when i was 7 or 8),
love to compose music and have taken an additional interest in mathematics. i have also been working as a tour guide at a national historical landmark for almost 3 years so i have fairly decent public speaking skills.
also i am bilingual but i dont know if that counts for much in terms of my chances at admission </p>

<p>i am very determined,
and would very much appreciate any feedback, advice, or otherwise general words of wisdom</p>

<p>Your internship shows motivation and experience in the field, so I would say that you’re almost certainly in at MIT (if your grades are as you project they’ll be) and have an excellent shot at Stanford and Berkeley.</p>

<p>They’re all reaches. Don’t listen to Bedouin those schools are really really hard to transfer into.</p>

<p>Let’s see:
Berkeley admitted 3400 of 13.3K transfer applicants (~25% and most of those would have to be from CA Community colleges)
Stanford admitted 25 of 1.3K transfer applicants (~2%)
MIT admitted 16 of 288 transfer applicants (~7%)</p>

<p>If your CC is in Cal then you have a shot at Berkeley. Otherwise start looking at other schools.</p>

<p>Double post</p>

<p>you may need 3.8 at comm. coll to be considered for these schools. if u are not even from cali cc, u should just
save ur money.</p>

<p>All 3 are major reaches (Cal is just a regular reach if you are California community college transfer).</p>

<p>You need to pick 2 or 3 <em>matches</em> and a solid safety to add to that list. Are you in California? If you are Californian, Davis, UCSD and maybe Cal Poly are examples of matches for you. SFSU and/or your local CSU a safety.</p>

<p>Quite a few LACs would be matches for you.</p>

<p>Add the safety and matches - and good luck with your reaches!</p>

<p>thanks guys i appreciate the feedback,
and yes i am in a california community college.
i already got into my local csu (sjsu) for computer engineering, but plan on
not going and instead staying at my cc
for a third year just to get a shot at my reaches.
and yes i think a few safeties is definetely a good idea.</p>

<p>but also i was wondering what are some good extra curriculars to pick while i have time?
something tells me skateboarding and art my not be the best chance booster when it comes to engineering…</p>

<p>If you are passionate about it, you’d be surprised. Do you compete in contests? Show your art at a local place? Teach kids how to skateboard on weekends? </p>

<p>Having those as hobbies shows you have dimension - and if you can capture it in your ECs or essays (if prompts fit it) - it can be a plus. Stanford apps have TONS of places for you to share/shine this info. You have 3 - 6 to 9 months to ramp the hobbies up if needed before Stanford apps are due. Try to get ahold of last year’s questions to get an idea of what they ask for.</p>

<p>ok thank you annikasorrensen
hearing this really does help a lot,
because i already love to do a lot but am not sure whether
it is worth compromising my study time to pick up more interests.
well i suppose anything is possible if passion
comes into play.
and i do need get out there more as far as skateboarding and art
since with my more-than-hectic school schedule i feel that i have little
time on my hands.
and to validate further what you are saying,
from what i hear being multidimensional and well rounded
is indeed valued above many other attributes by schools like stanford and mit</p>

<p>Actually, I think maybe your chance to get into stanford is probably higher than Berkeley. i’ve heard that berkeley is super picky about everything. Stanford may look more into your activities.
It’s just my opinion thou, it’s really hard to tell the truth…</p>

<p>ah i see that makes sense from what ive gathered.
especially the part about berkeley being crazy picky…
either way il apply and see what happens
and now im also thinking carnegie mellon, having recently heard of luis von ahn</p>