<p>Hey guys, I am new here and an finishing my second and last year at a California Community College. I would appreciate it if you guys would chance me </p>
<p>Major: Political Science
GPA: 3.54 (Post Academic Renewal)
IGETC will be completed after Spring 2014
Major requirements will be completed by Winter 2013
2 W's
Volunteer as Mentor for incarcerated youth. Homeless feedings.
Work experience- 3 years of one steady job
Member of Phi Theta Kappa
All of this while being a parent.</p>
<p>I struggled during my first few be semesters as I had just cut ties with my past life, and had been released from juvenile hall. Poor GPA. Recently returned to school, and since return managed a 3.9 GPA, but is brought down my past GPA to a 3.54.</p>
<p>My personal statement will reflect the fact that I had a rough upbringing, made poor choices, and learned from them. Also I would not be who I am today without these struggles. It will also touch on the fact that I recently became a father, and over my last 43 credits have pulled out a 3.9.</p>
<p>The only issues I see are my terrible first few semesters to college, and a W I will incur this semester. </p>
<p>With all that said, what do you think my chances are of getting accepted to either of these three colleges</p>
<p>I think UCLA and Berkley are possible, but just with anyone, you just never know exactly what they’re looking for. You’re story is compelling, so write a killer essay, and you may be able to persuade the adcomms. You probably can get into San Diego. Your GPA isn’t super high, but it is competitive, so your upward trend will probably help you enough.</p>
<p>I think you are competitive for SD and a reach for UCLA and UCB. The average admitted transfer GPA for polsci is around 3.8. If you write a good essay that will help.</p>
<p>With your GPA and the improvements you’ve made to your life, I see no reason why you wouldn’t be accepted to all three schools. 3.54 isn’t great, but if you ace all of your classes for the Fall semester and write an excellent personal statement, you should have a pretty good chance of getting in. Just remember, telling them about your past is good, it’s a great story about redemption and determination to improve your life, but you also have to tell them what you learned from you experiences and what your goals are. The essay shouldn’t just be about your trials and tribulations. Good luck.</p>
<p>“The only issues I see are my terrible first few semesters to college, and a W I will incur this semester.” </p>
<p>(Edit) The W will not impact your chances one bit so don’t worry. </p>
<p>UCSD: In
UCLA: 50%
UCB: 50%</p>
<p>Everyone loves a good comeback. Your PS is going to be important so make sure you rock it and make no grammatical errors. </p>
<p>What’s your age? Career aspirations? Race? These could be a factor. (And yes, everyone, I said race because we all know what “holistic” really means. Don’t overdo the appeal to pity tactic though. Touch up on everything you want to mention, but make it brief. Focus more on where you are now, but, incorporate the fact that you wouldn’t be where you are today without your past experiences. You surely don’t have to follow my suggestions but I just figured I’d throw it out there. Keep pumping out those A’s! Good luck and I hope to see you at Cal next fall.</p>
<p>^The review process is made blind for gender, race, and ethnicity. There’s no way of a reviewer knowing your race unless you mention it in your personal statement. In which case you better write a compelling story on how your race plays into you overcoming adversity in some way and doesn’t come off as a blatant attempt to get some easy “diversity” points, which is actually illegal for a public university a la the Grutter v. Bollinger supreme court ruling in 2003.</p>
<p>@dilapidated, there’s no doubt most of what you said is true. If not all of it. I’ve talked to many people on TLS about this and many agree that the “holistic” admissions (specifically Cal) is just a backdoor to the AA ban at the UG level. </p>
<p>I’m curious though, why would they even ask for our race or ethnicity then? It strikes me odd that they would even ask for these in the app if they really don’t take a look. I’d bet they just print out the applications as is and tell the reviewers to “not look or factor it in”. I’ll post a section written by a former person on the adcomm about the Freshman applicants. Although it’s unclear exactly what happens with JC transfers, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was somewhat similar to a certain degree. </p>
<p>"In a second e-mail, I was told I needed more 1s and referrals. A referral is a flag that a students grades and scores do not make the cut but the application merits a special read because of stressors socioeconomic disadvantages that admissions offices can use to increase diversity.</p>
<p>Officially, like all readers, I was to exclude minority background from my consideration. I was simply to notice whether the student came from a non-English-speaking household. I was not told what to do with this information except that it may be a stressor if the personal statement revealed the student was having trouble adjusting to coursework in English. In such a case, I could refer the applicant for a special read.</p>
<p>To better understand stressors, I was trained to look for the helpful personal statement that elevates a candidate. Here I encountered through-the-looking-glass moments: an inspiring account of achievements may be less helpful than a report of the hardships that prevented the student from achieving better grades, test scores and honors.</p>
<p>Should I value consistent excellence or better results at the end of a personal struggle? I applied both, depending on race. An underrepresented minority could be the phoenix, I decided."</p>
<p>"Confessions of an Application Reader: Lifting the Veil on the Holistic Process at the University of California, Berkeley
By RUTH A. STARKMAN
New York Times
August 1, 2013 "</p>
<p>Thanks guys.
I have been working on my personal statement for months. I just can’t pick between the three versions I have. I have been trying to get multiple opinions, but not really sure who to trust. Any recommendations on who I should get to review my personal statement?</p>
<p>@snorlaz I’m 22, Hispanic/White, and plan on going to law school after my bachelors. Want to work on campaign financing reform, and multiple others issues I find value in. Yeah I’m hoping the “holistic” process really takes into consideration my drive, and aspirations. I’m applying to UCR as well, but sometimes I’m nervous I won’t get accepted anywhere.</p>
<p>@UD, Sweet! I’m also 22 and plan on heading to LS. That’s really cool you want to work on campaign financing reform since it certainly needs some haha! </p>
<p>There’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll get into multiple UC’s. And I think you’ll nab at least one out of UCB/UCLA. Dilapidatedmind and Mermaker both post on here quite frequently and they are really knowledgable about this stuff. I believe they’ve both transferred already. Those are two users I’d recommend asking to see if you can message them you PS’s. </p>
<p>Also, in case you aren’t already on TLS (Top-law-schools.com), I figured I’d l tell you about that forum. It’s a great resource and I’m sure many on there would be willing to read your PS’s as well. There are many previous, current and prospective law students that excel at writing on that forum.</p>
<p>@snorlaz. Awesome. Will definitely check out TLS.
Yeah, the personal statement has me in a tight spot. I’ve got a lot that needs to be said, but so few words.</p>
<p>@Snorlaz
They typically include those sections for demographic purposes on the UC application to quantify the general characteristics of their applicant pool and admitted students to see how those groups change over time. They tend to do this over a variety of criteria including geographic, economic, parental education level, etc. </p>
<p>The reality is that the admission of individuals of several ethnic minority groups, specifically african american and hispanics, fell sharply amongst the upper tier UC’s after the passing of Proposition 209 that prevented affirmative action amongst publicly funded institutions. This is despite the fact that there are significantly more eligible high school graduates among these ethnic groups presently than in 1996 when the proposition was passed. If your speculation has some merit, it isn’t reflected in the admission statistics since the legislation was passed at least not among UC’s like Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD.</p>
<p>“geographic, economic, parental education level,” I can honestly say I think every single one of these aforementioned factors is equated in the application process (to some degree obviously.) I mean, honestly, when kids get accepted this Spring, what do you think they’re going to put under the “hooks” category? </p>
<p>Yes, after Prop 209 passed, the % of URM’s dropped significantly. IMO, that doesn’t necessarily mean that holistic admissions isn’t a plausible backdoor to the AA ban. Yes, it isn’t 1994 anymore where UCB could simply admit someone essentially because of the color of their skin. That doesn’t mean this still doesn’t go on on a much smaller scale. Illustrated in the NYT article. “Holistic” = subjective and IMO, I believe that the NYT article portrays what actually happens behind closed doors. Depending on who is actually reading the application over, personal biases will take over.</p>