The Official Chances Thread!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
361

<p>UC GPA - ?
Unweighted GPA - 3.88
Weighted GPA - 4.57</p>

<p>California Resident, Out-Of-State, or International
Out of State (Texas)</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning Scores (by section) or ACT scores - 2100 (V710/M750/W640)
SAT II Scores
Math II - 660
Eng. Lit- 640</p>

<p>Which college are you applying to? (Letters and Science, Engineering, Chemistry, etc.)
L&S</p>

<p>List a few of your most important ECs (a laundry list of 20+ items is not needed)
-Student Body President
-head of drug, alcohol, safety, awareness committee (11th grade)
-Academic Decathlon, 3rd place team statewide, 6th place individual (B level)
-7-time all region orchestra selection
-9 years of youth symphony, won "Outstanding Member"
-3 time all area orchestra selection
-1 time all state alternate
-Worked for a camp scholarship as a Quartermaster (laborer) at Orchestra camp (4 years, one as head QM)
-Eagle Scout, member of Order of the Arrow
-Work 10 hours/week at a plastic surgeon's office</p>

<p>Any other significant accomplishments in a specific field
-National Merit Commended
-AP Scholar with Distinction
5's in English Language, Stats
4's in Macroeconomics, US History
3's in Geography, English Lit</p>

<p>Other stuff that might be of use:</p>

362

<p>Jesseee: good GPA and SAT, weak SAT IIs, good ECs, somewhat weak honors/awards, though your involvement in orchestra is good. I'd say slight reach to reach (50-50, or below), though it'll depend more on your essays.</p>

363

<p>chanceees. THANKSS</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA - 3.7
Weighted GPA - 4.94
Class Rank: 33/~550</p>

<p>Out of State (NC)
Female, Asian</p>

<p>SAT I- 2210
SAT II
Math II - 710
Eng. Lit- 710</p>

<p>Which college are you applying to? (Letters and Science, Engineering, Chemistry, etc.)
Letters and Science</p>

<p>List a few of your most important ECs
-International Baccalaureate: CAS, Extended Essay, TOK, etc
-Student Council Exec Secretary
-Varsity Tennis Captain (3 years)
-Varsity Lacrosse (4 years), Academic All American
-Science Olympiad: State Medalist
-Teen Representative of Nature Preserve Decision Committee
-Biology Research at UNC-CH
-Key Club
-NHS
-Lion Dance: big thing for chinese new year</p>

<p>Courseload/Tests/etc:
13 AP/IB Courses</p>

<p>AP exams
5 (calc ab, calc bc), 4 (lang, us , world, enviro), 3 (physics)</p>

<p>IB exams
6 (math sl), 5 (spanish sl)</p>

<p>THANKS SO MUCH</p>

364

<p>cwangg: What is the scale for your W GPA? Also, you'll need to calculate your UC GPA.</p>

<p>Based on that, I'd say slight reach, maybe a low reach (40-50%). The GPA is slightly weak, though your SAT is good, as are your ECs. Do you have any honors/awards?</p>

365

<p>OK, how would you chance this person?</p>

<p>~1860 SAT
3.9 UW GPA. Toughest courseload.
780 Math IIC, 800 Korean, 700 bio
AP scores of 5 on Calc AB, 4 on APUSH, 3 on bio
Taking 4 APs senior year
No notable nation-wide awards or anything. Only one main EC-- showed good commitment over four years but no leadership positions. Membership in a few clubs.
Lots of courses at the community college over 10th-12th grade.
In-state
Asian American female</p>

366

<p>I can’t believe I’m doing this...</p>

<p>ABOUT ME
Out of State (NJ)
Female, White Jew (too bad being Jewish doesn’t help anymore...)
Applying to College of Letters and Sciences, Pre-Dental</p>

<p>THE BORING STATS
Unweighted GPA: 3.68
Weighted GPA: 4.31 (highest is 4.99, next closest is 4.7...our Val is nuts)
UC GPA: 4.28
Class Rank: We only do deciles...Top 10%
SAT I- 700 CR, 750 W, 730 M (2180)
SAT II- 710 MathIIC, 800 Spanish
ACT- 33 (don’t remember the breakdown, nothing below 31)</p>

<p>WHAT I DO WITH MYSELF
-Varsity Field Hockey (2 yrs, Captain, All-Conference/County Honors and some crap school awards)
-Varsity Softball (3 yrs, Captain, All-Conference Honors and some crap school awards)
-Club Softball (4 yrs, went to Nationals twice)
-National Art Honor Society (Secretary in 11, VP in 12)
-CESIUM: Chemists Ending Sexism and Initiating United Movements (Founder, President)
-National Spanish Honor Society
-Volunteer coaching softball for girls with special needs
-Volunteer with NJ Dentist’s Association
-And some other unimportant stuff</p>

<p>MEANINGLESS AWARDS
-National Merit Commended
-AP Scholar w/Honor
-Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar (it’s a Jersey thing)</p>

<p>COURSELOAD
-Every available Honors class since 9th grade
-APs: English Lang (5), Macro (4), Micro (5), US History (3), plus English Lit, AB Calc, Spanish Lang, Chem, and Stat this year</p>

<p>ESSAYS
-One about how my exposure to dentistry as a child made me want to be a dentist...and how I will minor in American Indian Studies so that I can work effectively on an Indian Reservation (I’m such a bad person for doing this)
-One about a girl I coached who inspired me blah blah blah
-Aaaaand an explanation of why I didn’t do so hot in Algebra 2 (quote the teacher when I asked for help: “There are too many people in this class. You should just leave”)</p>

<p>Thank you all so much.</p>

367

<p>kyledavid:</p>

<p>i calculated my UC GPA and it is a 4.05
For the W GPA, APs count as 6, Honors as 5, and regular courses as 4. The valedictorian of our class is going to MIT with a 5.34W 4.0 UW if that helps. </p>

<p>as for honors and awards, nothing that particularly stands out, they are mostly athletic:</p>

<p>US Lacrosse Academic All-American
Varsity Tennis MIP
Coaches Award
Selected to play in CAP 7 Tournament
AP Scholar
NC Science Olympiad Gold/Silver Medalist</p>

368

<p>Kristina: the SAT is a bit weak. We'd need to see the actual ECs/awards. But based on that, I'd say slight reach (50-50), if the essays are excellent, or a reach, if the essays are okay and don't outweigh the weak SAT score.</p>

<p>veggieheadgeek: your GPA is a bit weak (3.68 is somewhat below average for Cal), and you're OOS. Based on that, I'd say it's a reach. However, you do have a shot, as the rest of your app is strong.</p>

369

<p>Heh, I'm tricky. I'm already a Sophomore at Berkeley- I just wanted to see how these chances worked out first-hand. Actually, I got in without taking the requisite SAT II's, I made a typo on my last post- I took Math Level I.</p>

<p>From the people I know here, it seems like the in-state chances are greatly underestimated, and these chances don't really take into account over-involvement- i.e., resume building, which can work negatively in the most competitive admission pools.</p>

370

<p>Told you it was 50-50. =)</p>

<p>You're one of the very, very, very few people who are 1) OOS, and 2) didn't fulfill all the requirements for admission.</p>

<p>
[quote]
the in-state chances are greatly underestimated

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Do you mean that we're underestimating the difficulty of getting into Berkeley for in-state students? And that it can still be a reach even for students with over-involvement? (I'd agree with the latter.)</p>

371

<p>White Female California Resident</p>

<p>UC GPA: 4.200
Unweighted: approx 3.9
top 10%, top 7 to be exact.</p>

<p>ACT: 28 (low, i know)
SAT II: Math 2c 660, Lit 670</p>

<p>AP's: US History-3, Art History-5, Calc AB-n/a, Literature-n/a</p>

<p>Applying to Letters and Science</p>

<p>President of Junior Statesmen of America (1 year pres, 1 vp, total 4 years in club)
President/Founder of Habitat for Humanity at my hs (2 years)
Producing/Directing documentary on Quadriplegic Rugby (3 years--wrote essay about inspiration that came from this experience)
Organize/Direct book drives through Bookends Literacy Campaign (2 years)
Other community service includes building houses with Habitat, tons of hours at a home for the aging, weekend trips to Catalina Island through the Conservatory, and building for New Horizons (workplace for mentally challenged).</p>

<p>I have like 4 film awards (best student film, etc), Renaissance (Like Dean's List or whatever...nothing too special).</p>

<p>I work 16 hours a week and have been tutoring honors math and history classes since 9th grade.</p>

<p>any chance? berkeley is my dream.</p>

372

<p>ginaliann: good GPA, slightly weak scores, good ECs. Do you have any honors/awards? I'd say 50-50 (slight reach). With excellent essays, 60% (high match) or so.</p>

373

<p>I'm OOS from Oregon, and I know my chances aren't great but I was hoping I could get % chance or a more accurate idea of my chances. I'm apply undecided arts&letters</p>

<p>SAT 2060, 720V 690W 650M
ACT 29
SAT II 680Lit 550Math L2
3.98 GPA (1 B)
Toughest courseload
11/434
1 really good essay, 1 pretty good essay cause I had to cut it in half an hour before the app was due :P
ECs: Planned Parenthood Teen Council, about 500 hours
Community Theatre 150 hours
Fellowship of Reconciliation 20 hours
Marion Polk Food Share 20 hours
Varsity Cross Country, Track, and Swimming (Captain and State Qualifier in XC)
National Honors Society
Graduating with Natural Resources Academy endorsement
a couple other small ECs
a few city/school awards, mostly in social studies</p>

374

<p>eringobraugh008: since you're OOS, your chances are a bit lower. Your scores are slightly weak, though your GPA is good. Your ECs are also good. What are you honors/awards? As it stands, I'd say it's a reach (~30%), but if your essays were good enough (read: excellent), I'd say slight reach (~50%).</p>

375

<p>In state: </p>

<p>White, Jewish male in Southern California suburbs
Public HS that sent 3 to stanford last year, ~8 to berkeley ect</p>

<p>GPA: No ranking, but I'd say ~7% (did badly freshman year, excluding freshman year im probably within the top 15/580)</p>

<p>Soph 3.8 UW/4.2W
Junior 3.85UW/4.83W
All years most difficult course load possible. Don't know anybody else in my grade with the same courseload. </p>

<p>SAT:
710M + 680CR + 720W = (2110)</p>

<p>ECs:
-JV Baseball F + S year (tore everything in shoulder and couldn't recover)
-Math Tutor
-Math Honors Society
-ASB Treasurer</p>

<p>-Manage money in stock market for a few individuals
-Summer science program: biomedical research @ UPenn
-Taking Econ pre-college classes @ Upenn this summer
-Research with malaria, parasites, and related pathogens @ UPenn this summer</p>

<p>Work Experience:
-Hedgefund
-Local Orthopedic practice
-Working in lab @ UPenn this summer (in addition to research)</p>

<p>My ECs are focused on what I really like: business/science. </p>

<p>Also, do you think I should retake the SAT to get my verbal up(>1400)?</p>

376

<p>comon now guys!</p>

377

<p>Asian Male in state applying to BIOENGINEERING:</p>

<p>Public HS that sent 2 to Stanford last year, 3 to Ivies, 21 to Berkeley</p>

<p>UC GPA: 4.333
Weighted GPA: 4.750
Unweighted: 4.000</p>

<p>Most Difficult Classes possible were taken. (7 APs by the end of Junior year, 10 by the end of Senior year) </p>

<p>SAT:
800w/780m/760r (2340)</p>

<p>SATII:
800 Math Level 2
780 US History
760 Chemistry</p>

<p>My Extracurriculars are strong, Officer in 4 clubs. I don’t feel like typing everything else out.</p>

<p>I’m confident that if I hadn’t applied to an impacted major (in this case, engineering), I would get into Berkeley. But since I AM applying to engineering... what chances do I have? :)</p>

378

<p>@laipi14159: Regardless of you applying for engineering or not, your stats are extremely strong. No worries.</p>

379

<p>jcll2002: Match</p>

<p>and yeah, retaking your SAT I sounds like a good idea</p>

380

<p>jcll2002: your GPA/SAT are strong, and your ECs are okay. Your summer work is strong. The work experience may help somewhat. I'd say high match (60%). What are your SAT II scores? Do you have any honors/awards? If you were to retake the SAT, you should shoot for 2200+, or else it won't make much of a difference.</p>

<p>laipi14159: your GPA and scores are strong. Do you have any honors/awards? Since you're applying to a very competitive major, I'd say slight reach to high match (50-60%), though I'm leaning more on the accept side.</p>