<p>Yeah sure 
General rule is to be ‘shameless’ and put everything in the best light possible with your verb choice like “selected to” instead of “participated in”, “organised X, Y and Z activities during involvement with Club ABC” instead of “member of Club ABC” - not to sound presumptuous or anything but if you have any friends/relatives who’ve written CVs/resumes for professional (graduate) jobs it’s something like that so they’d be a pretty good resource too, or if the Straits Times still has the Jobs section with resume tips.</p>
<p>I got into berkeley and my sat was 1810 but my weighted gpa was 4.38 and i was 4 out of 584 in my class, i had 118 hours community service, sat II Bio/Mol 630 Math 2 620 Lit 630 Spanish 750, in did a lot of arts in school and was in student government for 4 years while doing a science program my last year at ucsd, i think its more about well-roundedness than specific scores with them.</p>
<p>Angeisse can i have your email then?? maybe we could talk on msn?? :D</p>
<p>hmom, for state universities, aren’t the requirements for out-of-state and internationals higher? Aside from the current econ. crisis.</p>
<p>yes… they are.</p>
<p>I must correct on what hmom5 said.</p>
<p>The competition for UC Berkeley is significantly higher for Internationals.
Approximately 85% of the spots are for Californians and 11% from Out-of-State and only a mere 4% is from international (and this percentage is decreasing because of the economic crisis). Arnold made sure that the state schools are giving more slots to its residence.</p>
<p>My situation is probably closer to yours. I’m Chinese who studies in Singapore (not Singaporean though - don’t want to reveal myself too much) and is accepted by Berkeley for this fall. Approximately 10% of the applicants from my school got in. Several with great SAT scores 2200+ and 40+ IB points unfortunately still didn’t make in.</p>
<p>My strength arguably would be the amount of leadership (honestly a lot) and commitment - my essay also showed myself really well - well the Ivys didn’t like it - but in general I think the West Coast and East Coast have a different perception on good application essays. You must have something they really want about you - since being Chinese isn’t an advantage anyway… - A levels isn’t as convincing as the IBs too when you are talking about differentiating the top notch students.</p>
<p>^ 4% = actual enrollment. Berkeley (or any university, really) has to over-offer or give more offers than spots to people because many will turn it down to go to another university, stay in their home country etc., so unless we also know the <em>international</em> yield and applicant statistics we can’t really say much about the competition (or indeed the quality of international applicants across the board, or their knowledge with regards to ‘gaming’ the US college apps process).</p>
<p>Also many unis judge you against your school cohort (not sure if Cal is one of them) so they may not want to take too many internationals from one school, because the whole point of internationals is to increase “diversity” and they only have a set quota to work with, so for example the only Falkland Islands applicant may well trump the 127th applicant from Raffles JC even if the latter has better absolute stats, so that’s another ‘competition’ factor - I don’t know how many SAJC people apply each year though. </p>
<p>Also Cal seemed to like drama-filled sob stories; both my essays were basically about how I turned from an absolute idiot/pariah into someone exuding divine light that warmed everyone in the vicinity. Oh and get your teachers to predict you top grades.</p>
<p>What hmom did not understand is that the average stats of international applicants to berkeley is higher than the average stats of in-state applicants, that’s why you’ll see international applicants with very strong stats get into other elite private schools (HYPSM, Duke, Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown) but not at berkeley. </p>
<p>I was denied admission to Berkeley during my time. I, however, got into Columbia, UPenn, Duke, Bowdoin College, Harvey Mudd, Rice and a couple of fall back schools.</p>
<p>En1gma: Congrats on your Berkeley admissions. Where else have you been admitted?</p>
<p>OP, I think you are genuinely interested about physics and studying at Berkeley (who wouldn’t?) but I think you should diversify your options and look at other schools which can also satisfy your academic interests. Perhaps you might consider UIUC, Michigan, Georgia Tech etc etc?</p>
<p>Also, please remember to save enough time for SAT 1 and 2, especially the former - i regretted not putting in enough effort for that. As far as I know, Berkeley is very stat-based, so SATs are extremely important, probably more so than for private schools.</p>
<p>All the best!</p>
<p>Agneisse,</p>
<p>When I was denied at Berkeley, I wrote them a letter of appeal. They responded my appeal and re-rejected me. In the letter, I was told that the university cannot accept me because I was not even in the top quarter of all the international students applying to Berkeley. My SAT scores back then were 1470/1600 (we only had 2 parts back then) and My IB was 38 points. The way I understood it, ECs weren’t as important before as they are now. </p>
<p>I would be very surprised or maybe even shocked if Berkeley would admit international applicants with SAT scores below 2000/2400 despite it earlier pronouncement to increase the number of intake for international students.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Watch this: [YouTube</a> - UC Berkeley Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjGI2e4GG9E]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjGI2e4GG9E)</p>
<p>This one too: [YouTube</a> - [UC Berkeley] Moving In…](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkSAY6RAh5I]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkSAY6RAh5I)</p>
<p>Woah. I just made it in the 20s but I guess because my IB scores are in the 40+ so it kind of helped me as an international. One friend of mine from the same school has a predicted close to 45 with SATs in the 23s - but he got denied (He was just an academic student period) So I guess ECs still matters - and I believe thats why I am accepted for this fall I guess - along with my IB Scores.</p>
<p>^ you’re probably right, grand. </p>
<p>if you’ll watch the video clips i’ve provided, you’ll find out that ECs, essays, recs, etc are quite important for getting into Berkeley as it has a “holistic” admission process, inlike some elite state universities that are purely numbers driven. </p>
<p>4 students from the International School Manila with top grades didn’t get into Berkeley this year. (Actually, no one got into Berkeley from ISM this year.) Those same people got into elite private schools instead such as Duke, Brown, UPenn, Columbia and Rice. (although one guy would be attending Harvard this year and another at Yale.)</p>
<p>by the way, grand, where else have you been accepted?</p>
<p>Hmph, I insist they really have different standards on the essays they want between East Coast and West Coast. I was really honest in my essay and I really liked it. But okay, the Ivys didn’t T_________T</p>
Hey I’m Indian…
I dont have many ECA actually alomost none certificates
This is my 12th grade year
I can score SAT 2000+ and board 80-85%
What can be my chances and what upgrade should i do?
Please make your own thread. Don’t necro an old post.
@skieurope could you please close this thread?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closed. As mentioned above, old threads should not be revived. Do not hijack another person’s thread; it’s rude.