@cpark252 I got into Materials Science and Engineering under the College of Engineering.
Honestly, I don’t really know what stood out about me. My stats were probably lower than average, especially for engineering, and my app had so many flaws (took SAT 4 times, B’s in STEM classes). My essays were above average because of editing, and I had to get a lot of coaching for the 1490 on SAT. I had some EC’s in the STEM field (science olympiad, math honors society, math tutor) and had a few awards in these things that may have strengthened my app.Then again, my STEM related activities weren’t THAT good, people qualify for Math/Chem/Bio Olympiads, do well on Science Olympiad at State, do Science Fairs, have amazing research opportunities and internships.
And this year was supposed to be more competitive so I don’t know. Only 7 (I think 12 got in) people from our school are going this year (2 engineering, 3 L and S, 2 CNR), with a lot of high stat people getting rejected this year, and we had 20+ people go last year.
I honestly didn’t like and want to apply to Berkeley, but I just did for really no reason and everyone else was applying so why not; it was just another 70$ as I applied to other UCs. The thing is, I never actually toured it, so I thought it would be a competitive, dirty, super liberal area that would be bad for college, and I wanted to go to schools like UCSB and UCSD for the Socal life, close to beaches, and those were probably the best schools I would get into.
Anyways, I visited Cal, loved it, and am going to go, RIP UCSB. UCSB might be more fun, but I guess I have more opportunities at Cal.
Overall, I don’t think I stood out a lot, but rather was like an average-above average applicant, and I got really lucky.
So the idea is you can’t really predict anything (since I thought I was for sure being rejected by UCB and UCLA- actually denied by UCLA).
So sometimes you might get into a school you think you have no chance of, or not get into a school you think you have a high chance of (I didn’t get into Davis).
Admitted?: yes
Major: global health
GPA: 3.93 (W) / 3.67 (UW) - underwhelming, i know
SAT/ACT Score: 1390 new SAT (730 reading and 660 math – i am not a numbers person)
Essays (Good or bad?): i think 2 were alright, two were pretty good imo
Extracurricular Activities: marching band/percussion ensemble (i was on drumline), yearbook (i was the editor in chief), community service clubs, taekwondo second degree (black belt)
Awards: honor roll all 4 years, several in-school awards for academics and percussion. high honors @ graduation
AP classes (and test score): AP euro (4), APUSH (4), AP lang (4), AP lit (4), AP gov (4), AP stats (3), AP enviro (5)
What made you stand out?: did an internship at the Larta Institute – i was the only HS intern they’d ever had, all the others were at least sophomores in college. other than that though, absolutely nothing, i should not have gotten into this school lmao
Other colleges applied: UC (Berkeley, LA, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Davis), CSU (Long Beach & San Diego) University of Minnesota, University of Oregon, CU Boulder
Colleges accepted: UCSD, UCR, UCSC, UCD, CSULB, SDSU, UMN, UO, Boulder
Colleges denied/waitlisted: UCB (denied), UCLA (denied), UCI (denied), UCSB (waitlisted, then denied)
Are you planning to attend? yes, ERC (~: