<p>May be, that is just a reflection of my outlook on life. Just knowing that gives you a bigger insight into my life. Am I just pathetic for doing that? Am I setting myself up for failure? I don’t even know what to think of my life, or this world anymore. The question is: why do I even bother trying in school? Let me ask all of you: What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose? I have asked that question dozens of times throughout my life. I see no life in meaning or purpose. A machine has a defined meaning of existence, and a defined purpose. However, men are not machine. I fear failure. I aim for the galaxy trillions of light years away, even if I did not read that galaxy, I reached a star somewhere. That is how I thought of it as. I try to do the hardest thing there is, I was always attracted to challenges. Even something extreme as a fully autonomous robot. </p>
<p>I rather aim too high and never reach than aim too low and reach. That is just embedded in me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the UC’s have like a point system. So even if your essay is really good, the only UC you have a chance at with those grades is Merced and Riverside.
You are just a number in the application process.</p>
<p>Many smart people like I’m sure you are, aren’t smart enough to realize one things: You have to put effort into things you aren’t fond of if you want to succeed. Imagine if you had tried hard and gotten straight A’s. You would be able to have so many more opportunities.</p>
<p>Why would a college accept you over applicants that worked harder in school, and have higher grades, test scores, and more extracurriculars? Makes no sense. If you couldn’t pull A’s in high school, colleges that are going to be much more rigorous don’t want that.</p>
<p>I was like you at first too. I only did stuff I liked, slacked off on subjects I wasn’t interested in, and didn’t fulfill my potential. But a coach told me once that the smart ones are the people who realize that effort gives them options.</p>
<p>If I were you I would go to a community college for cheap or a CalState, get straight A’s, get your test scores high, and then transfer into a good UC like UCSB. I would honestly bet that you get into 1 of those schools at most, maybe Cal Poly Pomona (idk what stephens is):(</p>
<p>Honestly, instead of being all philisophical about it, just realize that it wouldn’t be fair to reject someone who worked much harder than you.</p>
<p>Yea, my coach once told me: “the difference between an A+ and F is the titude that comes after them.”</p>
<p>I realized that. That was why I was considering whether I even wanted to go to a UC or CSU. To be honest with you, I was very reluctant to even have the Cal Polys on the list. To be honest with you, if I had not gotten into any of those schools like MIT and Stanford, I would have chosen Worcester. Now, I would be more satisfied going to Worcester than the UCs or CSUs. I was looking for the small school that emphasizes STEM. That is why Caltech is on the list. My list grew from Caltech. Look, to have a school less than 15 minutes away from my house and having the school be associated with the dream place to work at, JPL, really has a profound effect on me. Caltech was the only school I really wanted to go to, but of course, I had to add some schools onto the list. Who knows, looking at the school’s website and everything, I knew Caltech would be the perfect school for me. Apparently, as you guys say, I am not good enough for Caltech. I don’t see any reason why I don’t even have that 1% chance of getting into Caltech. We all have chances I believe, even if it is that 1%.</p>
<p>Nobody is telling you not to apply for good schools. We just don’t want you to be rejected to every single one you apply for and end up having nothing. At least apply to some “lower” schools for backup.</p>
<p>yeah man, what’s wrong with backups? It’s undergrad school. UNDERgrad. Study your butt of anywhere and you’ll get far. </p>
<p>Yeah, my friend called up UCSD to ask them how much points he was off by and the lady just gave him a vague answer. Like, “We can’t tell that anymore because we stopped telling students this year” and he went on and asked why but the lady never told him they get rid of the point system. It was implied that they did haha. So… yay holistic! which good & bad.</p>
CalTech
Cal Poly San Luis
Cal Poly Pomona
Florida Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd
Illinois Institute of Technology
MIT
Stevens Institute of Technology
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
UC Los Angeles
UC San Diego
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
<p>Your delusional if you believe you’ll get into caltech, mit, stanford or harvey mudd. I don’t think you can even get into an upper or middle tier UC. Apply to merced or riverside and a bunch of Cal States, someone is bound to accept you. An A in FOOTBALL, are you joking?</p>
<p>No. You have a 0% chance of getting into Caltech. You need to be realistic. If you go into senior year with this mindset, you’re going to waste your time applying to a bunch of schools you have no chance of getting into.</p>
<p>I know you want to go to a prestigious school and think you’ll do well at one, but keep in mind that doing well academically in college is more dependent on one’s discipline (like the ability to do well in classes you may find boring) than intelligence or intellectual curiosity.</p>
<p>Frankly, if you have dream schools, you should visit them and talk to college counselors there. Let them advise you on what they look for, what gets accepted, etc.</p>
<p>I really don’t think talking to a counselor will help any chances of acceptance. Just be realistic… 1850, 28 act and a 3.1? You’ll be lucky if you got into UCSC… Schools really looked into GPA this year and it’s a 4 year long process rather than 1 sitting (SAT,ACT). The average middle tier UC’s (UCD,UCSB, UCI) gpa has gone up to 3.7-4.5+ and SAT scores of 1904-2400.</p>
<p>Have in mind that almost everyone applies to more than 5 schools and use lots of schools as backup. So a kid with 4.5 and 2200 with no intentions of going to the schools you listed will apply and take a spot.</p>
<p>This thread made me laugh a little. Not meaning anything to the OP, just saying. </p>
<p>I honestly wish you luck but please at least take our advice because we want your best interest and apply to some backup schools even if you want to apply to Stanford, Caltech, MIT etc etc. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to tell you not to do something you want to. It’s your money and time, although I would advise using the time for a better purpose. The money you can get back. The precious time you can be working on other apps, you can’t get back. Some good back ups have been mentioned like Merced, Riverside, and maybe pick some small privates with high acceptance rates (you seem to be the type that would thrive at a small private college). </p>
CalTech
Cal Poly San Luis
Cal Poly Pomona
Florida Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd
Illinois Institute of Technology
MIT
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
CalTech
Cal Poly San Luis
Cal Poly Pomona
Florida Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd
Illinois Institute of Technology
MIT
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rochester Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
<p>If your essays are good you should get into a school like IIT, RPI, maybe even Worcester which is quite respectable, although your gpa isnt high, I feel like your interest in the subject is genuine enough for you to write good essays, essays that may lift you to one of the schools I listed above</p>
<p>From your list, given that you have a decent essay, you will probably get into IIT and FIT, think about it your grade trend is going down. If I were you I would just go to a CC then transfer.</p>