@julliet http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1791379-is-this-a-balanced-college-list.html#latest this is another thread with my tentative, but almost final college list.
@PickOne1 yeah my school is pretty competitive… that 30% is just an estimate based on previous years as deciles havent been released yet for my class (although we are the first graduating class in at least five years to have less than 600 kids graduating, around 580, 590 kids make up my class), so it’s bound to be subject to change. To my knowledge, we have 23 kids with 4.0 UW GPAs, and that makes up a good 40% of the top decile (basically top 4% of the class have 4.0s). To be top quarter, usually a person at my school has to have an UW GPA of at least 3.82.
I thought I was a snob, but 98% of Berkeley students are in the top 10%, remaining 2 % are in top 25%
Also a school like Berkeley is huge, likely fairly impersonal, and highly stressful. Is that really a good idea for someone with severe depression in HS ?
I would look at LACs and other small schools below the top 30 or 40 schools. I think they would be smaller, more supportive atmosphere (especially with good fit), and won’t have such a clinical approach to admission as the UCs, especially UCB, UCLA. Also, while UCB is hollistic, they are somewhat limited in the latitude of who they can accept since they are public and always under a lot of scrutiny.
So unless your school really has 30% wunderchildren and send 40 or 50 people a year to UCB or UCLA … well, both schools are much more likely to take your higher ranked peers. All your reach schools are likely to take one of your higher ranked peers.
Finally, while I poo-poo-ed the idea of the CC->UC idea earlier, CA really seems to like this path and if there is a CC near you and you feel supported at home, well, maybe that is a ticket. Same degree in 4 years.
Similarly, depending on your family, maybe staying close to home is better. A weekend at home with family can do wonders if school is stressing you out, and if it’s close it is easy to do without making a big fuss (mom, can I come home and have some of your delicious lasagna, not please send me $500 so I can fly home because I am stresed). Flight time to NYC from CA is so long, you can never fly home for a weekend, you would be enroute the whole time.
I looked at your list, which is very long. I think you have too many reaches and possibles, which means a lot of rejection letters. Our top HS had almost no acceptances from those schools, and when we did it was someone in the top 2%.
Also, small schools and big schools are different. Scripps and HMU are tiny.
In short, yes, definitely apply to both UCLA and Berkeley. Both schools surely accept students with stats lower than yours, so it is worth the shot. As several people have already said, MIT and Caltech are reaches for everybody.
bumping this after a month LOL but should I apply to UMich? Is that out of my reach?