One Final Chance Please

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
1

<p>UC GPA: 3.96
SAT I: 2100 (640CR, 720W, 740M); 2100 (600CR, 720W, 780M) - retaking
SAT II: Math IIC - 800, Physics - 630 (retaking), Biology - (taking)
APs: World Hist. 3, Calc BC 5 (AB Subscore 5), Phys Mech. 3, Phys E&M 3, Eng. Lang. 3
Class Rank: Top 10%</p>

<p>California (in-state)
Male/Asian (ouch?)
Major: Biomedical Engineering</p>

<p>ECs:
Puzzle Club - Pres. & Founder (11th-12th)
Math Club - (9th-12th)
Marching Band - (9th-12th)
Business Club - (10th)
Local Chinese School Student Council Communication's Committee Chairman - 10th-11th
Trumpet - (4th-12th)
Piano - (1st-9th) MMTA Finalist/Honors Concerts - Finished program
Drawing - (6th-8th) Minnesota State-fair 1st place
Web Design - Both for Profit and Non-profit (9th-12th) - ie. my school's teachers, PTSA, band/orchestra/choir/colorguard, the Perinatal council, a local Chinese school, a local recycling program</p>

<p>Volunteer:
Web Design (mentioned above)
Thrift Store - 10th-11th Summer
City Museum - 9th-10th Summer & a little during 9th school year</p>

<p>Work Experience:
State Fair Boat Show - Just a day giving directions, explaining the show
Internship - 11th-12th Summer; R&D Material Testing work (Bio/Chem/Mech./Materials Engineering related); Testing fibers to help cure a sinus disease</p>

<p>Course Load (courses with a "/" are one semester of each course):
9th -
H Global/Health
Eng
Bio
Span 1
Marching Band/Symphonic Band
H Geometry
PE</p>

<p>Summer -
H Alg. II</p>

<p>10th -
Span 2
Phys
Marching Band/Wind Symphony
H Eng
Chem
H Pre Calc
AP World Hist.</p>

<p>Summer:
H US Hist.</p>

<p>11th -
AP Phys Mech./AP Phys E&M
Marching Band/Wind Symphony
AP Calc BC
AP Eng Lang
CS
Span 3</p>

<p>12th -
AP Bio
Marching Band/Wind Ensemble II (tryout band)
AP Gov./AP Macro Econ
AP Eng Lit.
AP Stat
AP CS</p>

<p>Solid Essays. Decent Recs.
Almost increasing GPA trend (just messed up with one B in AP Phys 2nd semes)
Reason for poor start (not sure if I'll mention this in my essay), but moved from Minnesota to CA at beginning of 9th grade... had to make new friends, get used to the place while balancing school work at the same time</p>

<p>From these first few weeks, Senior year grades are looking solid.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I'd say you're a pretty good match in terms of getting into ucsd but your sats and gpa are a bit low for bioengineering.</p>

3

<p>Bioengineering doesn't really depend on stats. Everyone who applies to bioengineering usually already has good stats. It comes down to how dedicated you are, which shows in your personal statement.</p>

<p>Trust me on this.</p>

4

<p>Dude my goliaths will eat up your hydralisks</p>

5

<p>Seriously half the people that apply to bioengineering end up applying to prebioengineering pre med, which isn't impacted as a major. What that would suggest is that the people that apply to the actual bioengineering/biotechnology majors are actually committed to doing bioE as a career and not a step to premed. That cuts down the competition dramatically so I would say match.</p>

6

<p>Actually...Bioengineering at ucsd has a lot to do with stats. In fact, there's a cutoff that has to do with GPA/SAT scores. If you don't surpass the cutoff, you're immediately not accepted into that major and are given the backup major. It's what happened to me. The avg gpa to get accepted as a bioengineer is about 4.3 to 4.4. So right off the bat, you wont get bioengineering as your major at ucsd. thats for sure.</p>

7

<p>I will be applying to BioE and not preBioE or preMed.</p>

<p>@ marstars, Are you sure it's 4.3/4.4 UC GPA? Because that's insane - isn't that max UC GPA only like a 4.5?</p>

<p>Other chances please?</p>

8

<p>I seriously doubt that as well. UCSD bioengineering is good, really good, but a person can reasonably get into UCBerkeley's bioengineering with a 4.1/2150 (heck I know 2 people that did), and if you're talking about a bar to get IN to the school, I think Cal has a higher one than 'SD.</p>

9

<p>^ Not Bioengineering. Only Johns Hopkins is tougher to get into it for Bioe.</p>

<p>It's not 4.3. If there was a cut off, it would probably be 3.8.</p>

10

<p>Hopkins and Duke. I was referring to getting into the school proper, and, if I need to refute my argument, my friend that got into biomedical engineering at Hopkins had similar stats as the OP (much higher GPA, much lower SATs). My point; UCSD bioengineering doesn't require a 4.4 to get in. OP definitely has a competitive app. </p>

<p>To reiterate my point earlier, in my experience, a lot of people apply to bioengineering as a route for pre-med, since engineering has more job security appeal than biology. Since pre-med tends to be a very popular choice for applicants, schools like LA and Berkeley tend to have bioengineering as their hardest major to get admitted to (heck, it WAS the hardest this year for Berkeley at least, and likely LA too, even though LA's bioE isn't that great). This isn't the case for UCSD, which offers 3 or so bioengineering major, with the perfect one for the pre-meds; Pre-Bioengineering: Pre-med. That cuts the competition to pretty much the people that WANT to do bioengineering for a living, and really enjoy the concept, making it comparatively easier. For JHU and Duke, the policy that seems to follow with LA and Berkeley occurs again; both Johns Hopkins (rumored to admit a certain % of undergrads into their prestigious medical school) and Duke (one of nation's highest % of medical school admits) are well known for pumping undergrads into medical school, and thus that appeal is what makes it competitive.</p>

11

<p>Peppers explained it pretty well. Also to add something, if you want to go to medical school, the Bioengineering degree does not cover all of the pre-requisites. That is another reason they made a separate major.</p>

12

<p>i wasn't aware ucsd had a biomed engineering major</p>

13

<p>Bioengineering at UCSD is the same as Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins and Duke.</p>

14

<p>Actually, I am telling the truth. I applied for the Bioengineering major and wasn't accepted for it - I ended up getting my backup. But since I did apply for the major, I went to the BioE seminars and they gave us information/packets, and on one of the packets, it said avg gpa for BioE acceptance was 4.3-4.4 (and they emphasized that there is a high-level cutoff).
Trust me, I had a 4.3, and I didnt get accepted as a bioengineer. Even I was quite shocked at why I didnt get the major. After going to the seminars, I found out. You have a shot at getting into UCSD, but you have no shot at getting into the bioengineering major(s).</p>

15

<p>edit: I won't even bother. Just apply.</p>

16

<p>So now, based on the testimony of one individual that was rejected from UCSD bioengineering, we can safely conclude that UCSD's bioengineering program is more selective than that of Johns Hopkins and Duke. OP must have a better shot at Harvard at this rate...</p>

17

<p>You might want to do your research. UCSD's bioengineering program is better than John Hopkins...
One simple reason. Only UCSD and U of North Carolina offer ABET acredited Bioengineering degrees. All other schools don't. That's right. Even Berkeley. So UCSD's BioE degrees are much more "desired" by the industry. I'm not making this up... If I'm really sounding that stupid, go ahead and email the BioE department. Try asking ppl who have BioE degrees from UCSD and other schools and compare their job outlooks.
UCSD is so selective because it has one of the top two programs in the country... and that's why there are so many job recruiters for BioE majors at UCSD. Last year, there were more job OFFERS than graduating seniors for BioE at UCSD.</p>

<p>Seriously, did you even apply for this major? Did you even attend its seminars or talked with its faculty?</p>

18

<p>a random question, but, does anyone know if getting regents implies acceptance into impacted majors such as bioE? anyone know the cutoffs for getting regents?</p>

19

<p>^The cut off should change year to year, but Regents usually is a good indication of getting into most majors.</p>

<p>^^You're right about Berkeley and LA not getting accredited (LA has yet to graduate one class of bioengineers so go figure), but so dead wrong on UCSD and UNC beinc the only schools that are accredited. I count at least 40+ when I search ABET.org, including JHU. I'm not saying that UCSD isn't remarkably good at BioE, but it's simply not that hard to get into. As I mentioned before, UCSD weeds out the pre-meds with their other major, and those tend to be the more competitive applicants. What remains should be people truly passionate about the subject, who face much less stiffer competition.</p>

20

<p>The problem with UCSD's Bioengineering Department is that the focus is on the graduate level. The money, the effort, all graduate based. Sure some of it trickles down to undergraduate, but for the most part you don't matter. If you get to work with the graduates on their research, you certainly use the potential of the department. But for the most part you're kind of left out. This happens at all the UC schools. Just look at how they treat the chemistry undergraduates at Berkeley. </p>

<p>This isn't a problem with private institutions, where they have a lot more money to throw around. That, in my opinion, is the only difference between JHU and UCSD. Both have top faculties and programs, but different amounts of money.</p>