Berkeley admissions are hard in a different way. Berkeley admissionsare all about being the very top student at whatever school you attend, no matter how lousy that school is. They equally value the highest achieving student from a private school in Beverly Hills and the highest achieving student from a public school in the Oakland ghetto and the highest achievingstudent from a Christian school in a tiny farm town outside of Bakersfield - even though the SAT scores might be 500 points different for those three applicants.
It is much harder for a student at my kids’ private high school to get into Berkeley than it is for them to get into Northwestern or Bowdoin. A kid with high test scores but grades that put them in the top 10 to 20 percent of the class has a good chance at those schools, but very little chance at Berkeley.
A good chance at Hamilton? The OP is a candidate. Hamilton puts a lot of weight on essays. If the OP treats it like a low match/safety and rushes the essay, they WILL be denied.
Brown has updated their CDS. They currently report an ACT (composite) middle range of 31-34. Of others from your list I am familiar with, Hamilton reports a range of 31-33 and Berkeley reports 29-34.
Yes, interesting and diverse EC’s are important in a holistic admission process, but every school that’s listed, except UCB and UW, are reaches for most and certainly are reaches with a 32 ACT - Brown, Harvard, Amherst, Pomona have thousands of students with perfect scores and 4+ GPA’s applying every year with many denied admission. Would make sense to add more schools where a 32 ACT is at the 75th percentile as these are “safe” matches, unless one has a hook, such as being a legacy.
I think you have a really solid shot at all of these. Harvard and Brown are obviously a cut above the rest and are no guarantees but that legacy should help you out.
Target:
-Brown
-Pomona (ED II if I don’t get accepted to Brown)
-UW
Safety:
-UCB (Tbh being in state and having your stats, p much means you’re in) (low target, high safety?)
-Amherst
-Northwestern
btw Freerunning is sooo cool. @ap012199 How’d you get into Freerunning? Also, what major? @ap012199 : Also, maybe make a list ranking which order you prefer the colleges, so people can give you more personalized advice (like cutting down safeties, etc)
Weird on the above – makes it look like I used a curse word, which I didn’t. I used a word that sometime describes a mythical creature and describes someone posting something just to be provocative.
@hala.madrid2 luckily, I live pretty close to the Tempest Freerunning gyms (if you’ve heard of them). My brother actually discovered them and brought me to a class and I just really enjoyed it and kept going.
Intended major is either Creative writing or English with a minor in entrepreneurship or economics.
@citivas I don’t really understand what that word’s supposed to be lol.
@Chembiodad average ACT for Pomona, Brown, and Cornell is 32. Average GPA is close to perfect unweighted. Statistically, those schools are matches for me. Realistically, they are reaches, but I’m not going to get denied for having their average stats; I’ll get denied because if another part of my app. I’ve spoke to those schools’ reps about this. As for Harvard, the average ACT is 33, putting me in the 25th percentile. However, I do have legacy there, and my mom works for Harvard as an alumi interviewer. I don’t want to say that my legacy will save me when applying for Harvard, but legacy acceptance rate is 30% and I have some connections to the institution.
Brown median ACT is also now 33. The averages at these schools are heavily skewed by those admittances with hooks - URM, First Generation, Athletes and yes Legacies, although Legacy hooks are carrying less weight than ever before at most schools. Doesn’t mean that non-hooked applicants don’t get in as everyone is more than their test scores, but it’s much harder if you don’t have hooks without being in the top 75%, especially at smaller schools like Pomona.
That said I have twin D17’s with 34 ACT’s, mid-high 700 SAT 2’s, similar GPA and rigor (albeit with more AP’s as more are available at their school), very engaged in sports and other EC’s and are interested in many of the same schools so I am rooting for everyone to achieve their college search goals.