<p>Trying to get some objective opinions about my admissions chances. Mom says I probably won't make it anywhere, my other family members say I'm a sure thing, and my friends aren't really sure.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.97w/3.66uw</p>
<p>Rank: 50 of 659 at Aliso Niguel HS</p>
<p>SAT:
740 Critical Reading
740 Math
750 Writing
2230 Total</p>
<p>SAT II:
800 Math Level 2
750 Physics
770 United States History</p>
<p>ACT:
35 Composite</p>
<p>AP:
4 European/US History
5 Physics B/Calculus AB/English Language
(currently taking Literature, Statistics, Physics C and American Government - B's across the board)</p>
<p>The thing that worries me most is my GPA. I mostly pull B's in AP courses, and the occasional B in a regular class set me back, especially in regard to my unweighted grades.</p>
<p>UCI
UCSD
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Cal Poly SLO
(as mechanical engineering major - probably not final choice though)</p>
<p>I am also a National Merit Semifinalist, and I'm curious about my chances of earning any scholarship money.</p>
<p>God, this whole college admissions thing just needs to be OVER...</p>
<p>You're awesome. Bump up the extra curriculars and you might have it made! BTW, you may even have the profile for Ivy League, if you're interested. D got into Princeton with slightly lower scores, is a NM semi-finalist too. I hang out on the Princeton threads and some of your profile is similiar to some of the Princeton admittees. It's how you market yourself. Go for it - you look good!</p>
<p>church youth group - member of worship band, volunteer - 250</p>
<p>California Scholarship Federation - member - 20</p>
<p>Sax Ensemble - leader - 90</p>
<p>Target - sales floor, Electronics department - 150</p>
<p>American Cancer Society Discovery Shop - volunteer - 5</p>
<p>Fellowship of Christian Athletes - member - 40</p>
<p>That doesn't seem so bad now that I look at it. Maybe "moderate" is a better tag. Anyway, thanks for all the input so far...these are some of the more encouraging answers I've gotten. :D</p>
<p>Assuming you are a California resident ... </p>
<p>UCLA - Reach
UCB- Reach
UCI - Safe Match
UCSD - Match
CP - Match</p>
<p>SATs, SAT IIs, and ACT scores are fantastic! However, if anything holds you back, it's going to be your GPA and your EC's. Your EC's seem a little scattered, and I'm having a hard time seeing what you're passionate about. Do you have any awards?</p>
<p>Is your school super competitive? What's your rank? I get the feeling that you go to a difficult school, since it seems strange that someone with such amazing test scores would have a (comparably) lower GPA. </p>
<p>Even despite your GPA, I think you have a solid chance at getting into your dream school of UCLA, and even a couple of nice privates if you applied to those too. Your testing shows that you are obviously very bright, and assuming you write good essays, schools might be willing to overlook your GPA. </p>
<p>I have a friend with similar stats as yours (sky high testing but a culmulative UW GPA of around 3.6), who got into Stanford. We think it was because of his essays, which were really interesting and allowed his great sense of humor to show through. As UCMomma said, it's allll in the presentation. </p>
<p>If you can knock 'em out with your application, you should be fine. Just write some stellar essays!</p>
<p>Oh, whoops. Duh, sorry, I see you posted your rank up there. Not bad, but not particularly high either. </p>
<p>"the occasional B in a regular class set me back, especially in regard to my unweighted grades"</p>
<p>Oh, how I know the feeling! I get all A's in my APs and honors classes, but in math and chem I pull B's. Hopefully colleges will be kind to us in that regard, but I have no idea how they look at that.</p>
<p>I am a second year at Berkeley and you sound pretty good for getting in here. My GPA was higher, but my SATs were def lower than yours, (I took the old ones and got a 1350) and also had 690 on Math SATII, 710 on US History SATII and 800 on Writing SATII.... My ECs were not stellar, but pretty good... I think the most important thing is the essays-- I didn't write anything personal/moving which is why I probably got rejected from UCLA (my friends who got in thereall wrote heart-wrenching essays). Instead, I wrote empowered essays about how I am an individual, my work ethic etc. Depending on the content of your essays, you will def. either get in to UCLA or Berkeley... maybe not both</p>
<p>UCLA and UCB have different admissions processes. UCB has two readers, a main one and a scondary one, and they are more "holistic." UCLA has three readers, all given different parts of the application, and they give things numeric values. They strive to be more "objective."</p>
<p>My UCGPA is actually a fairly solid figure, since most of the 3.0 grades I got were in freshman year. I believe the actual number came out to 4.11 or 4.12. Not really sure if that's the overwhelming factor in UCLA or Berkeley decisions, but I would guess so. (That's a pretty good improvement on the total average I posted first.)</p>
<p>Rereading my essays was a fun experience (lol) but I think those will hold up as well.</p>