***Official Berkeley Class of 2018 Discussions/Decisions***

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
241

<p>Decision: Accepted (and attending)</p>

<p>Stats:
College/Major Applied To: L&S
[<em>] SAT I (by section): 2360 (760 M/800 CR/800 W)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 USH, 780 Bio, 770 Physics, 740 Math 2
[<em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.72, 3.75
[</em>] Rank: Top 5%
[<em>] ACT: N/A
[</em>] APs (including this year’s): 14 total + 8 college classes
[li] Other stats (Awards, etc.): AP Scholar with distinction, national commended scholar</p>[/li]
<p>Subjective:
[<em>] ECs listed on app: Four year s of tennis (Captain and MVP for a year), 4 summers of volunteering with this non profit I worked with teaching kids science, Research internships at UCI and Cal State Fullerton (used in science fairs which got to state), Class Senate, Co founded a club to interact with and fundraise for mentally ill children (like 50-60 hours a year since sophomore)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: None
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): Passionate and extensively edited. Talked about a microbiology class I took and the thrill of discovery and research
[</em>] Hook (TASP, RSI, Research, etc.): I’m about as unhooked as it gets, so…</p>

<p>Location/Person:
[<em>] State or Country: CA
[</em>] Classified in-state? Yup
[<em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): School sends 40 people to UC’s every year, maybe 15 to Cal and LA combined?
[</em>] Ethnicity: Indian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: 200k+
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I wish
[</em>] Strengths: SAT, SAT IIs, College Classes, AP scores, Superman course rigor, essays, extracurriculars (research)
[<em>] Weaknesses: Asian, GPA is low due to a very bad sophomore year (almost straight B’s for one semester and half and half the other). It kept me out of Ivies, but I’m glad Cal took a chance on me
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/wait listed/denied: I’m an extremely strong applicant if you look at everything without my Sophomore year</p>

<p>GO BEARS. SEE YOU ALL THERE. IM SO SCARED ITS GONNA BE REALLY FREAKING HARD BUT ALSO READY FOR THE CHALLENGE. </p>

<p>Accepted: Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Vanderbilt, Boston University
Wait listed: UChicago, Harvard
Rejected: Stanford, MIT, Penn, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Brown, Dartmouth, Pomona College, USC (■■■?), and Duke</p>

<p>I regret sophomore year so much haha, but it’s all good. I love Cal and look forward to owning in college for the next 4 years!</p>

242

<p>[color=green]Decision: Accepted[/color=green]</p>

<p>Objective:

[ul]
[<em>]SAT I (breakdown): Two sittings: Second - 2090 (790 M, 690 W, 610 CR); First - 2000 (750 M, 640 W, 610 CR).
[</em>]ACT (breakdown): Two sittings: Second - 34 (35 E, 34 M, 32 R, 33 S, 9 Essay); First - 30 (31 E, 34 M, 30 R, 26 S, 8 Essay).
[<em>]SAT II: 800 Math Level 2, 780 World History, 760 Math Level 1, 720 Chemistry, 710 US History.
[</em>]Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 105.926 (6th semester GPA, should go up throughout senior year). Unweighted: 99.6/100.0. For weighted GPA, an added 10% to all AP classes and 7% to all honors classes that are not AP. Unweighted GPA uses raw grades.
[<em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 387.
[</em>]AP: Have taken 6, will take 7 more this year. 5 Statistics, 5 US History, 5 Human Geography, 4 Chemistry, 4 English Language, 4 World History. Will take Calculus AB, Physics B, Biology, Environmental Science, English Literature, US Government, and Microeconomics.
[<em>]IB (place score in parentheses): none
[</em>]Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP Physics 1, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, AP English Literature, AP US Government (semester), AP Microeconomics (semester), Band.
[li]Major Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, 4x NM State Science Olympiad Champion, NM Congressional Award for Academic Achievement, Regional Scholar selected by Independent Committee (looks at academics, essays, interview, recommendations), 2x All-State Clarinetist.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Subjective:

[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Science Olympiad: team captain for 4 years, I’ve won 5 titles at State, and have 20 other 1st-3rd placings at Regionals/State combined. I’ve performed exceptionally well in Anatomy & Physiology. Band: 2x All-State Clarinetist, 3x All-District Clarinetist, Drum Major, Clarinet Section Leader, Principal clarinetist in school’s Symphonic Band. National Honor Society: Elected President each of 3 years. Student Council: 10-12. Was Secretary 11th grade. Student Advisory Committee: was nominated by teachers and administrators to be the senior class representative. We plan things/fix issues that can make students’ lives better. Tennis: Junior Varsity freshman year.
[</em>]Job/Work Experience: I was a Youth Soccer Referee my freshman year. I officiated about 5 games a week for a fall and spring season for kids aged 5-12.
[<em>]Volunteer/Community Service: American Red Cross: I founded and currently am President of a Youth Club in our area. We go on disaster calls and do disaster prevention presentations at various community events. The club was founded in January and has grown to 10 students to-date. Nursing Home shadower: I’ve shadowed nurses in a nursing home intermittently since sophomore year. I’ve assisted, bathed, fed, and entertained patients. Physician shadower: I’ve shadowed a local cardiologist junior year. I helped in simple diagnostic activities, interacted with patients in examination rooms, and have shadowed testing at hospitals. National Honor Society: various associated projects. Student Council: various associated projects.
[</em>]Essays: I humbly think they were be great. Usually write good essays; my junior AP English teacher says I’m one of the best writers she’s ever had. I get them proofed by a college prep counselor.
[<em>]Teacher Recommendations: All should have be great. I have always had stellar relationships with my teachers. Most have taught for 20+ years, and they usually comment that I’m one of the best student’s they’ve ever taught. Have had a significant or special story in class with all of them.
[</em>]Counselor Rec: Should have beeen good. He really likes me and has made the comment that I am the most serious kid he’s seen about striving academically. Not sure how he conveyed that in writing, however.
[li]Interview: None.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Other

[ul]
[<em>]State (if domestic applicant): New Mexico
[</em>]School Type: Public, only school in rural town of 40,000 people. ~2400 students. Graduation rate of 50-65%, but top students in the past have been accepted at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and Notre Dame.
[<em>]Ethnicity: Asian Indian
[</em>]Gender: Male
[<em>]Income Bracket: >$150,000
[</em>]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Established and currently lead a community service organization (American Red Cross Youth Club). Good academic record for a student from a rural area in NM, if that counts.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Reflection

[ul]
[<em>]Strengths: ECs, ACT, GPA, courseload
[</em>]Weaknesses: SAT, essays
[<em>]Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Not really sure. I’m probably one of those standard great applicants that just happened to be overshadowed by other stellar applicants.
[</em>]Where else you are applying or have already applied: ill be attending UNM Combined BA/MD Program. Applied to Ivies, Northwestern, Rice, Duke.</p>

<p>[li]General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Glad I applied, but I was accepted to the offer that was best for me. Congrats to everyone accepted![/li][/ul]</p>

243

<p>Friend was accepted with 34 ACT (no SAT), out-of-state KS, stellar essays, one high school B (the rest all As), standard ECs.</p>

244

<p>Decision: Accepted </p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] College/Major Applied To: Letters and Science, Computer Science
[</em>] SAT I (by section): 690 Math (yikes), 730 CR, 740 Writing = 2160
[<em>] SAT IIs: 650 Physics, 700 Math II, 780 Chinese (native speaker), 680 US History, 650 Chem
[</em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.35 W, 3.88 UW
[<em>] Rank: not sure, but probably ~40/600 in a VERY competitive HS
[</em>] ACT: not taken
[<em>] APs (including this year’s): Calc AB (5), Physics B (3), Euro History (4), Chem (3), Art History (5), Calc BC (5), US History (4), Physics C mech (4) e&m (4), Chinese (5), US Gov and politics, Biology, World History
[</em>] IBs (including this year’s: not taken
[<em>] Senior Yr Courseload: US Gov and politics, Biology, World History
[</em>] Other stats (Awards, etc.): National Merit Finalist, AP National Scholar, NHS</p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] ECs listed on app: President of 2 clubs, one academic and one community service, Academic team captain for 4 years,
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Retail service 1 year, tutor 2 years
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): Wrote one essay about passion for one EC (8/10) and another about family hardships and how it affected me (6/10)
[</em>] Hook (TASP, RSI, Research, etc.): Research internship at biomedical lab over the summer, hospital internship for 1 year</p>

<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: CA resident
[</em>] Classified in-state? in state
[<em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): very competitive, asian-majority high school
[</em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[<em>] Gender: Female
[</em>] Income Bracket: Low, 30k
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): lower income
[</em>] Strengths: rigorous course load (lots of APs), EC’s, well rounded, SAT scores
[<em>] Weaknesses: SAT II scores, AP scores
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/wait listed/denied: worked pretty hard in a competitive HS, thought I deserved it, honestly.
[/ul]Other Factors:
General Comments YEY!! feels good to get accepted after a string of rejections/waitlists. although being WL sucks, it doesn’t matter once admitted. </p>

<p>Rejected: MIT, Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, USC (???), Rice
WL: UChicago, Harvery Mudd, Carnegie Mellon (then rejected)
Accepted: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB (honors), Boston University, New York University</p>

245

<p>Really late, but I’ve been lurking CC forever and just decided to make an account. :)>- </p>

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] College Applied To: Letters & Science
[</em>] SAT I: 2120
[<em>] UC GPA: 4.05
[</em>] APs (including this year’s): APUSH, AP World History, AP Psychology, AP Calc. AB, AP Statistics, AP English Lit. & Comp.
[li] Senior Yr Courseload: AP Psychology, AP Calc. AB, AP Statistics, AP English Lit. & Comp., H Physics</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] ECs listed on app: VP of a club, community service award, varsity track, student leader in community service group. Tutored kids in algebra and geometry. Cal Summer Experience program.
[</em>] Essays (subject and responses): First one was about my passion that related to my EC. Second was about my culture and also related to my EC. I’d say both were really, really good. </p>

<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[list]
[<em>] State or Country: CA
[</em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Private, competitive. Sends many seniors to top ranked schools.
[<em>] Ethnicity: Filipino
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
[</em>] Strengths: Definitely my essays.
[<em>] Weaknesses: Average SAT, GPA. Courseload.
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/wait listed/denied: Worked hard in a competitive HS. Major upward trend in grades.
General Comments Go Bears! </p>

246

<p>Decision: Rejected</p>

<p>•SAT I: 2370 (Reading: 800, Math: 770, Writing: 800)
•ACT: 35
•SAT II: Physics: 800, Math Level 2: 800, and Latin: 780
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
•UC GPA: 4.64
•Rank (out of number of students in class): 9/162
•AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Physics B (5), AP English Lang. (5), AP Calculus BC (5), AP Biology (4), AP Chemistry (5), AP Physics C (5), AP Literature (5), & AP Government (4)</p>

<p>•Major Awards: Advanced Student Award (won twice)
•Extracurriculars: International Student mentor and tutor, Leader of Mechanical Engineering design team for NASA ISS E. Coli Program, Lead American Representative of Asian/American Alliance
•Volunteer/Community service: 400+ hours: Leader of teams at two charitable food banks, leader at Vacation bible school at church, organizer at Homeless Walk Charity, Supplies Consultant at Hospital
•Essays: Wrote about my experience in NASA Space Program and Being a “bridge” for International students at my school</p>

<p>•Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
•Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering
•State (if domestic applicant): CA
•School Type: Christian School: Around 600 students combined.
•Ethnicity: Hispanic
•Gender: Male
•Income Bracket: Upper-middle class
•Hooks: First to go to college, Hispanic interested STEM major
•Strengths: High GPA, high test scores, and unique essays
•Weaknesses: Weak ECs and volunteering
•Where else were you accepted or rejected:
-Rejected: UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Riverside
-Accepted: CSU Fullerton, CSU Los Angeles</p>

247

<p>Haha wow I would bet my life this kid is a ■■■■■^^^</p>

248

<p>@kmcprfam The fact that you think my rejections are a laughing matter is both insensitive and immature. If you don’t have anything beneficial to say, don’t even bother posting.</p>

249

<p>Either ■■■■■ or something else we are not being told. Weak ECs wouldn’t mean all those rejections with those stats. Prospective UC students, don’t let this scare you!</p>

250

<p>@collegetime18 5 of them sent me an email that said they had no room for me in their mechanical engineering department because of limited space availability. I was given the option to attend under my alternate majors, but those were humanity majors and because I wanted to go into engineering and the chances of switching into impacted engineering majors are very slim, I chose not to go. A few of my close friends had similar problems, being admitted into UCs by their alternate majors. Also, just because someone has high stats doesn’t automatically guarantee admissions. I know two people who had a perfect ACT score and even UCLA rejected them.</p>

251

<p>I understand Cal and UCLA, maybe SD and D, no one can count on those, but Riverside and SB are suspicious… Maybe something in your essays?</p>

252

<p>@collegetime18 Riverside and Santa Barbara accepted me only for Psychology, as well Davis, Irvine, and San Diego, but not Mechanical Engineering. My English teacher and friend (who got accepted to Cal, UCLA, Irvine and San Diego) were the only two who read my two essays. It could probably have been my essays, but like I said, I honestly do not know. </p>

253

<p>@silas6070‌</p>

<p>Sorry to hear what happened to you.
Wow, I am starting to worry now as my son will also be applying to mechanical engineering.
I heard that someone got accepted by MIT and Caltech and rejected by Berkeley but nothing as dramatic as this.
Where did you decide to go?</p>

254

<p>@StevenToCollege The only two universities that accepted me for engineering were CSU Fullerton and CSU Los Angeles. I will be going to Fullerton and try to transfer. Because of all the AP credits I have, I might be able to do so in just one year, so that I don’t go over the maximum amount of credits that the UCs require for transfer applicants to have. I didn’t go to Irvine, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Riverside or Davis because I wanted to do engineering, and they said that since engineering is an impacted major, the chances of me starting in psychology and switching to mechanical engineering were EXTREMELY low and I didn’t want to risk that at all. I’m happy I decided to apply to CSUs for safety schools, since originally I was only gonna apply to the 7 UCs.</p>

255

<p>Question for 2014 fall freshmen: Are you having trouble getting the classes you need?
I am CS L&S major, and the CS majors in L&S are designated as “Undeclared”.
As per the curriculum suggestion for CS major, I signed up in Phase 1 for:
CS61A and Math 1B. For both these I am on the waiting list.
For R&C requirement I signed up for:
German 5A. I am on the waiting list for this as well. And all the R&C classes have a waiting list.</p>

<p>Will they clear me and get me these classes or will I be wasting a semester?
Please help. Anyone else in a similar situation?</p>