Hi guys,
I am currently a junior in high school and I have always wanted to Cal.
I was just wondering what my chances are currently and what I should do this year as a junior so that I can get admission.
-California Resident
-Projected UC GPA: 3.33 (weighted) [nothing I can do to change this because of bad grades in 10th grade D:]
-Total 11 AP’s projected: AP Calculus AB+BC, AP Computer Science, AP Statistics, AP World History, APUSH, AP Psychology, AP English Language, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics C: E&M
-AP’s so far: 5 on AP US History, 2 on AP Calculus AB
-SAT 1980: 590 CR, 690 M, 700 W (8 Essay)
-Rank Unknown but probably really low because I go to a really competitive school
-I will be applying to CS for reach colleges, EECS for safety/colleges I can probably get into
-Asian Male
-Currently won first hackathon I ever went to, will be going to more hackathons sooner (win maybe 3-4 more?)
-Leader of Website, Scouting, and Administrator for Robotics Team
-Outreach in the Appalachian Mountains to help restore the environment as part of community service, as well as helping locally for the poor (60 hours) and children in local museum (100 hours)
-In school’s Math Team and Programming Club Leader
-Knowledgeable in more than 10 programming languages
-Piano for 7 years
-First one in family to go to American college
-Planning to do an internship somewhere?
-No need for Financial Aid, although scholarships will take heavy load off parents
I will be doing a lot more extracurriculars than this relating to computer science. The only low point that I currently have is my GPA, which is really low compared to others. I know that Berkeley really focuses on GPA, but is there any possibility of me getting in. Also, what should I do next year that will really boost my chances to get in.
Also, with these statistics, which universities will I get accepted to?
-USC (Scholarship, although I am well off w/o it)
-UCLA
-UC Davis
-UCSD
-UCB
-UC Irvine
-SJSU
-Cal Poly: SLO
-UIUC
-UT Austin
-Georgia Tech
-Carnegie Mellon
-Cornell
Honestly, with your gpa/sat scores, most of your targeting schools are reaches. You MUST get 4.0 or something close to it this year and bring your SAT score up to 2100+ CR 600+ M 700+. Then, California schools tend to favor ACT scores sometimes. Make sure to try it. If you are applying for Comp. Sci. at Berkeley, it doesn’t look great.
Thanks for the quick reply. I can increase my GPA to a 3.8 after the next two semesters, and probably the SAT up to 2200, and I will take ACT in Feb (34-35 hopefully)? Do you think I have chances then?
Honestly most of those schools will be out of reach for you. You have really good ECs ok test scores (a bit low) but your GPA will destroy you. ECs and test scores can only make up for a GPA so much, and less than a 3.33 UW simply won’t cut it, especially for primary-numiercially based schools like the UCs and CP SLO.
Freshman year and sophmore year were both avg’d at 3.33. I will probably go up to a 3.8 by end of junior year, and a plus about my GPA is that it has had a upwards trend always.
I put so much effort into computer science in my middle school and high school years that I honestly would have no choice, my EC’s are only comp sci related…
ok. then, you have to work ur butt off to get 4.0 on ur junior year then get 5 on all the ap tests you take from now on. 5 for comp sci. no matter what. And I suggest you taking Physics and Math IIC sat subject tests and… try to get nearly as perfect as possible. for your sat, It would be good if you could get 800 on math and 700+ reading.
So your projected stats if everything works out well is
SAT1
M: 750-800, CR: 700+, W:750-800 (2200-2300)
SAT2
IIC: 750-800, Physics: 750-800
GPA
whatever you will get if you get all A’s in the junior year.
and try to explain, in ur essay, about 10th grade gpa and dedication to comp sci.
I took Math IIC and got 660 first try, I will take it again though. I am working my butt off and have all A’s except for 2 subjects. Yay for no social life!
and because I set the goals like that is if you are able to get stats near that, even if ucb still doesn’t work out for you, have a significantly higher chance at others.
btw, Carnegie Mellon comp. sci. looks like far reach even if you achieve everything listed above. IT’s acceptance rate is about 5 percent with plenty of 2400, 4.0 getting rejected. Although scores aren’t everything, unless you have a strong hook or EC, it is VERY hard to get in.
Technically it is always possible to raise up SAT/ACT to whatever, without a drag from the past scores. But your GPA will be dragged down by the legacy. Meaning, that UC WGPA of 3.33 (those past Bs and Cs ?) will tarnish your effort in future. Looks to me for UCB/UCLA/USC it is already too late. But I hope you could prove me wrong.
The average unweighted for ucla/Berkeley is around 3.85-3.9. It seems like best case scenario is you reaching approx 3.5 uw, which would still be below par. The sat score is also a tad weak. Your chances would be greatly improved with a 2200+, but that won’t be easy coming from 1980. It’s still worth a shot, and I hope you make it