On the Right track?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>ya...i'm gonna be a junior in the fall, just wanted to know if i'm on the right track. I live in California, and i'll probably be ELC</p>

<p>freshman grades</p>

<p>Adv. Alg 2 - B+/A
Health - doesn't matter
PE- doesn't matter
Comp Tec - A/A (doesn't matter though)
Adv. English - A/A
Japanese 1 - A/A
Biology - A/A</p>

<p>Sophomore grades</p>

<p>Japanese 2 - A/A
Honors English 2 - B/B+ (...)
AP Stats - A/A
AP World History - A/A
Leadership - doesn't matter
Chemistry - A/A
Math Analysis (Pre-calc/trig) - A/A</p>

<p>Junior classes</p>

<p>AP Physics C
AP Calc Ab (school only offers AB, will probably self study for BC test)
AP English Language
AP US History
Japanese 3
Couple of programming courses at comm. college</p>

<p>Senior classes (rough prediction)</p>

<p>AP English Lit
AP US Gov
Japanese 4
some AP science (maybe Bio)
Art -pre req to graduate
Linear Algebra/differential equations @ comm. college</p>

<p>Tests</p>

<p>AP Stats - 4/5 (predicted)
AP world history - 4/5 (predicted)</p>

<p>SAT II - Math lvl 2 (700+ expected, took on june 3rd)
Chemistry (700+ expected, took on june 3rd)</p>

<p>EC's</p>

<p>national level fencer</p>

<p>finalist at ISEF (in 10th grade; i have 2 more years to compete in it)</p>

<p>Been doing cutting edge research since 8th grade (by myself, no lab/mentor or anything) and have won several awards at science fairs</p>

<p><em>Have done a couple of years of research in wireless sensor networks-UC berkeley pioneered in this field, and this is going to be huge in the future (my ISEF project involved wireless sensor networks)</em></p>

<p>developed a way to enhance camera security in schools using cutting edge technology (working on patent/implementing at school)</p>

<p>regional finalist at JSHS competition</p>

<p>black belt in tae kwon do</p>

<p>been writing in local newspaper for 6/7 years</p>

<p>going to do research at UC Santa Barbara this summer (neuroscience or engineering probably)</p>

<p>planning on interning at intel next summer (or RSI if i get in)</p>

<p>Sophomore class president</p>

<p>Youth Commisioner for my county (we are part of the county government; we work with the mayor etc)</p>

<p>Boy Scout (working towards eagle)</p>

<hr>

<p>i know i can't really get chances yet, as i don't have enough information, but am i headed on the right track? is there anything else i should do/do differently?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>I have no idea what your chances are, but if you're cool, you will come to Berkeley, no matter what happens.</p>

3

<p>tough to tell chances without junior grades. I can give you the most important piece of advice: stand out. that is how berkeley lets you in: by being different from the crowd. They turn down many straight-A students because they are all similar. If you are unique, and can express it well in your essays, that will easily cover up low grades, test scores, ecc, whatever. Take it from me, I am a living example.</p>

<p>good luck</p>

4

<p>hmmm well i think my EC's are different from most people...and i have a wide variety, not just math/science. When you write an essay, it's for UC in general right? not necessarilly UCB? correct me if i'm wrong please</p>

5

<p>very impressive profile u got there coolphreak. UC berk should be ur SAFETY if you keep your grades up. :)</p>

6

<p>btw...i heard you need about 100 hrs of community service for UC's? is this true? and do UC's accept the ACT instead of the SAT?</p>

7

<p>UCB accepts SAT or ACT. I dnt know if community service is a requirement, but you should definitely have it (i had about 175 hours). And yes, you apply to the UC, not just berkeley in general.</p>

8

<p>Community service is not a requirement. It is listed on the application, though, so having some is good. Your stats look good, but you still have to hit a good score on the SAT. It sounds like you're into EE, particularly signal processing, so if you're going to apply into EECS, do yourself a favor and score a 5 on AP Calculus BC and AP Computer Science AB. Just study them yourself and give it a go (AP CS should be fine if you take a data structures & algorithms course at a community college). Those will place you out of 3 classes.</p>

<p>Scoring a 4 or 5 on AP English Lit will be good for you as well, as it will place you out of R1B. Score a 5 on AP Physics C Mechanics and you'll be out of Physics 7A. Get a 4 or 5 on AP Bio (or whatever AP science you take senior year) for some extra math/science units at Berkeley, which will help with one of the requirements (30 units math/science required).</p>

<p>Once you get here (and you will if you keep this up and don't bomb the SAT), look into the 120 series in EE. That'll get you started toward sensor networks if that's really where you want to go (there are a couple of people at Berkeley working on just that).</p>

9

<p>Community Service is definitely not needed. Living example of that, i had ZERO hours, attended NO clubs, NO leadership, but still got in. My UC-capped GPA was under 4.0 and I'm Asian-American, though my SAT & SAT II's owned.</p>

<p>It's all about the essays. Crazy Essays FTW!!!</p>

10

<p>i had 0 hours and no leadership too</p>

11

<p>do u by any chance have an essay of yours that i can see? just for learning experiences</p>