Weird App, Chance Me

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Berkeley is one of my top choices. I really don't care about "the relatively high admissions percentage when compared to ivy leagues", as I feel that it has a program that suits me better than any other schools.</p>

<p>I'm a little bit strange, since I'm applying as an 11th grader, and I goto an IB school, so I don't have any IB/AP Test scores to prove my proficiency yet.</p>

<p>Anyways, some stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 4/4 (UW) 4.82/5 (W)</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1/149 (We have quite rigorous classes grading-wise. Only two students haven't had a B yet, and the other student took one less advanced class than I did, sophomore year. There aren't any ties for valedictorian either. That said, we are not a great school by any means. The best universities we sent kids to last year were Babson, Rice, and UT)</p>

<p>SAT: 2200 (800 math, 680 cr, 720 wr-8 essay)</p>

<p>SAT II: Math II:800, Math I:800, Phys (not sure but...):700+ (90% sure it should be)</p>

<p>Awards/Honors: AIME Qualifier 2 time, USAJMO Qualifier 1 time, TMSCA 2 Time State Champion in Mathematics, Number Sense and Calculator</p>

<p>Sports: Varsity Table Tennis, 3rd place state winter games tournament</p>

<p>ECs: Metroplex Math Circle Assistant, Copy Editor for Newspaper, Math/Science/Computer Science Team, Class Pres (9, 10), Key Club Pres (11)</p>

<p>Rigorous courses taken/taking:
SL Physics, SL Math, HL Math, English III IB, History of the Americas IB, French III IB, Chemistry SL, Local University Computer Science and Statistics (received A's in both)</p>

<p>Distinguishing Features:
Only USA(J)MO Qualifier ever in an 80 mile radius
Founder of the website Online</a> Math Circle | The World's First Online Math Circle
Very rural background, 2 hour drive from the nearest big city (Dallas)
Applying Early as school in my area isn't challenging enough</p>

2

<p>The big factor that isn’t visible here is how you meet the a-g requirements. There are minimums for number of courses in each category and as an early applicant, you may not meet them by the end of your junior year. If you are given a spot, it would mean that you skip the 12th grade entirely. Will you graduate from your high school at the end of this year? If not, that could be a deal breaker as well. The a-g requirements and lack of HS degree might disqualify you on technical grounds, although you could certainly be viewed as a nontraditional along with the homeschoolers. </p>

<p>Frankly, what many applicants have done when not challenged by their school is take college courses while still in HS, rather than apply a year early. That would be much stronger application, next year, than yours will be this year. Many of the accepted students have reams of proof points in high AP scores and college course grades. The reader of your application may wonder why you haven’t challenged yourself more given your clear ability to excel in the coursework at your high school. You did well with the two college courses you took - take more. That also will knock off a number of college courses you would have to take while here and it puts you in a very strong position for getting into classes because you will have an advantageous time for registration compared to peers with fewer college credits (and AP credits don’t count very much for registration advantage compared to college level units)</p>

3

<p>I am going to graduate early. I did take two college courses my freshman year, first semester. Though, they were easy ‘A’'s and my high school courses are way more rigorous than courses in my local university. I live in an incredibly rural area, so I cannot help this.</p>

4

<p>okay, if graduating at the end of this year, you are a graduating senior in spite of it being numerically your 11th grade. I didn’t pick that up from the post, sorry. </p>

<p>Assuming you verified the a-g requirements are met, you should have good chances. Helping this is the reality that the UC system values out of state applicants because of the higher fees they will pay versus in state students. Hopefully your planned schedule for this year is academically rigorous - the stronger the better - or you might plan for and sign up for another college course if travel time will permit it just to bolster the app a bit.</p>

5

<p>Looks pretty legit, I would expect you to get in.</p>

6

<p>If you meet all the technical requirements (a-g, graduate from high school), then you have a solid application with good chances of getting in.</p>

7

<p>One of my friends took only college classes in senior year and it’s helped him a lot by giving him very early telebears and by allowing him to skip a lot of pre-reqs. </p>

<p>But if you really want, apply to Cal now. I’m sure you can get in</p>