<p>First of all, does the College of Letters and Sciences look at more at the total SAT score or do they delve into individual sections?</p>
<p>Second, I have a 2240 as my current score. Is it worth it to retake the test in December to feel more secure for Cal or is my score ok as is?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>That’s a solid score for Cal. Is that from one sitting or the highest in each section after taking it more than once?</p>
<p>one sitting</p>
<p>2240 is good enough time to start worrying about the other stuff. :D</p>
<p>i don’t know, 2240 seems a bit low compared to others on this board.</p>
<p>You are in the upper quartile of Cal’s admittance statistics so don’t worry about SAT and work on other things like enjoying your senior year.</p>
<p>Does anyone know whether individual scores are emphasized or whether it is the total that really matters? (again, for l&a, not engineering or anything).</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it, did you get a crappy score for one section?</p>
<p>Yeah, I screwed up in math (690). But I did well enough in the other two sections to get a 2240. I’m concerned my math will pull me down. I was also thinking of retaking it in December to raise my math score. </p>
<p>I’m very ambivalent about what to do…</p>
<p>Don’t bother.</p>
<p>a 2240 is fine, and math has an epic’ly evil curve, they’ll understand and won’t nitpick on it.</p>
<p>Risking actually losing from CR and W would be bad in an effort to increase your M score a bit more.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar boat – 800 CR/750 W/660 M. Should I re-take? I keep thinking about it…</p>
<p>yeah, if i had broken 700 for math, i wouldn’t care at all…but 690…ahhhhh.</p>
<p>I’m really not sure here.</p>
<p>I am re-taking the subjects as well, and if those scores are good enough then I will definitely re-take… if not, I’ll just focus on subjects I think.</p>
<p>Numerous people have already said 2240 is fine. Have some confidence in yourself…</p>
<p>Dude if you get rejected it wouldn’t be because of your SAT. My friend in EECS got in with a 21 something last year.</p>
<p>2240 is already a solid score for Cal. I found out, from my experience, that the UCs don’t care as much about SATs than other colleges. If you are applying to other elite colleges (ivy leagues, stanford, mit, etc…) then I understand your persistence for a higher score. However, if you just want to get into Cal, you shouldn’t devote all your energy into your SAT score. You need to work on other parts of your application or else that may bring you down despite your scores.</p>
<p>All right, I realize it’s hard to give an opinion on this without context. Here is my partial profile:</p>
<hr>
<p>GPA-4.0 unweighted, 4.6 weighted, uncapped UC (not going to give capped since it doesn’t matter for application evaluation). I am ELC.</p>
<p>SAT-2240 (780 CR, 770 W, 690 M)</p>
<p>SAT IIs- Math II:770, Chem:790, US:800</p>
<p>Sophomore-Took the only two weighted classes available to me (1 AP (Euro), 1 honors (Chem)) that would work with my schedule. This may work to hurt me, since other peoples’ schedules allowed them to take a few more.</p>
<p>Junior-All core subjects were weighted (3 AP (Chem, Lang, US), 2 honors (physics, precalc), 2 extra classes (band, robotics))</p>
<p>5s on all the APs taken up to this point and As on everything.</p>
<p>Senior- 5 APs (AP Bio, Calc AB, Music Theory, Comp Gov) English 12 and band.</p>
<p>Community College: Cultural Anthropology over summer (A), English (to make up for an AP I had to drop senior year), grade in progress</p>
<p>As for my ECs:
Oboe and English Horn-First chair in school all 4 years
-In top regional youth orchestra and am co-principal for 3 years
<p>Robotics-Part of FIRST Robotics team at school for 3 years. Part of senior leadership, which basically means I’m co-president with 4 others. Team has placed in several regional and national contests.</p>
<p>NASA-Part of the NASA Online Community, a selective program that allows high schoolers to interact with NASA professionals online and view exclusive online lectures. (2 years)</p>
<p>Other clubs-Founded club to discuss and debate politics and highlight how political dissent is beneficial. This was a conventional school club for 1 year and for the next 2, it has been more private, with in person meetings every once in a while, but MAJOR online involvement. I am co-president and co-web master.
-CSF (kind of a joke)</p>
<p>Varsity Track and Field-Pole Vaulting for 2 years (junior, senior)</p>
<p>Community service:-150 hours volunteering at Bay Area Hospice Foundation thrift store to provide affordable merchandise to the disadvantaged, with proceeds going toward better hospice facilities for the community. (This is over junior and senior year)
~400 hours peer tutoring at school
-Spent summers of 9 and 10 in India (family issues). I was able to do about 60 hours total of showcasing Western classical instruments for the community at a small school.
-Played in BAYOF Hope music festival to raise money for homeless children in the Bay Area (kind of the equivalent a nonathletic charity marathon)</p>
<p>Awards/Honors: -AP Scholar with Honor
-National Merit Commended Scholar
-Academic Letter (major school award)
-Second chair of County Honor Band was an awarded position, with a ceritificate and medal.
-National Band Director’s Association Award
-Certificate of Commendation by CMEA Board of Directors (music thing)
-Most dedicated Award for Symphonic Band at school for 2 years
-Third place at 2008 VEX games for Robotics
-Part of 2nd place team at Silicon Valley Regional FIRST Robotics competitoin
-Certificate of recognition from National Holocaust Association for a writing contest (kind of BS)</p>
<p>Job Experience- Paid internship with small (very new) chemical manufacturing company this summer.</p>
<p>I also have personal hardships (really personal) which I am going to discuss in one of my essays.</p>
<p>Retake is really not necessary. Spend your time on the essays instead and enjoy senior year… you really will have no other time later in your life that is as stressfree as senior year.</p>
<p>After reading your gpa and SAT, everything else was unnecessary.</p>
<p>Just focus a lot on your essay now, show that you have certain qualities that have prepared you for the university. I think you have it bagged as long as you nail your essay.</p>