Uc berkeley is my dream

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>UC Berkeley is my dream school. I'm so in love with it, I was instantly drawn to it, everything about it is perfect for me, and I can't see my self anywhere else. However this is really really bad, because I think my chances of admission are fairly low considering how competitive it is. I'm a high school senior and here are my stats.
GPA- Weighted 3.7125
I know this is low for Cal. My sophomore year I got a 3.05 average (I'll explain later) and junior year I averaged a 4.35. I've taken many difficult APs and college courses. I go to a high ranking school in California.
SAT- 1900
EC: Piano for 11 years (won a couple awards), Forensics (speech) for 2 years & on varsity, community service club for 2 years, JSA for 3 years, Fundraising coordinator in JSA region (1 yr), JSA cabinet member in chapter (1 yr), Jewish youth group board for 2 years, attend conventions related to youth group for 4 years, been going to summer camp for 7 years (including a community service program summer before junior year, and a Counselor in Training program summer before senior year), Sunday School TA for 2 years, Sunday School teacher this year, have 300+ hours of community service, volunteer at local homeless shelter every weekend, in choir for 3 years and strings (cello) for 1 year
Special Circumstances: I have ADD, and I was raised/live with my grandparents who are in their mid-late 80s. The reason my sophomore year grades were so low is because that year my grandparents were suffering from many health problems; it was in & out of the hospital all the time, and I was under a lot of stress and suffering from mental health issues. Should I mention this?
Background: White/middle eastern (Would saying i'm middle eastern help me?) and I'm Jewish
The AP classes I took:
Calc AB
Statistics
US History
Government
Language & Composition
Literature
In addition to these colleges classes: Spanish, World history, Biology, Environmental Science</p>

<p>Colleges I am applying to:</p>

<p>IN STATE-
UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, Pitzer College, Occidental College, CSU San Jose, CSU San Francisco, University of San Francisco, Cal Poly Pomona </p>

<p>OUT OF STATE-
NYU
American
Reed College
UOregon
UWashington
UMichigan
Boston University
Brandeis
Bard College
Whitman
Sarah Lawrence</p>

<p>****WHAT ARE MY CHANCES AT ANY OF THESE SCHOOLS?</p>

<p>MAJOR: Political Science</p>

2

<p>You’ve got some options. Your extracurriculars are excellent and gpa is adequate for everywhere except maybe UCLA, Berkley, and Michigan. Your SATs are a little low and if possible I would try to break 2000. In all honesty Berkley looks like a stretch. On the common app, you could put the stress you dealt with in the additional info section, but on the UC app I don’t think there is a good place to. Also, for college apps, Middle Eastern is the same as white so I would just put white. Most of your schools look like easy ins, just work really hard on your essays and try to let them know who you really are! You still could get in anywhere.</p>