What are my chances? -> I'm a little annoying :D

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So I've been trying to figure this out for awhile - but haven't gotten a straight answer yet. My counselor didn't know what to tell me when I asked where I should apply (realistically) so I went ahead and applied at where I wanted to go with a very broad range. I applied to UC's (berkley, davis, santa cruz, davis, san diego, santa barbara). I was admitted to all states ia pplied (including San Diego, Pamona, East Bay, etc.) except for Cal Poly SLO which im still waiting for a response from. My privates include UChicago (my #1) and Northwestern. Theres pleanty of long shots in here im sure but heres my stats:</p>

<p>Male
Mexican-American
GPA: 3.4 (Weighted) 3.35(UW)
SAT: 2010
SATII: English = 650
Math = 610? I dont remember haha
ACT: 30</p>

<p>Essays:
I basically explained why my GPA was so low - my biggest downfall. I had a very hard sophomore year, and was on the verge of failing out of highschool. I pulled myself out, though, and am back in all honors courses and am partial IB.<br>
I raised my GPA about 1.5 points since sophomore year. </p>

<p>Recs for Privs:
I know my teachers very well - one of which I had both sophomore and senior years (during my failing period and after) so she gave a lot of backup to my essays.</p>

<p>Extra Currics:
Mexico Mission Trip - 3 years in a row
Vacation Bible School Teacher - 3 years in a row
Homeless Shelter - 3 hours a week once a month
Youth Group/Music Leader - 3 hours/week 20 wks/yr
School Lunch Guitar club - every week junior year
Tennis off season - 5 hours/week 20 wks/yr for 2 yrs
Church Band - 3 hours week 30 wks year (all 4 yrs HS)
Poetry Club - Current / Senior Year once a week for 1 hour
Chamber Choir Performances - Various, small gold rated choir performs at world renowned festivals.
Programming - Self Taught PHP, Apache Webserver, MAYA 3d, Photoshop, HTML, CSS, Graphic Design, ETC. : 15 hours /wk 45 wks/yr</p>

<p>Talents:
I play a lot of instruments. I'm very well trained in Piano, Guitar, Drums, and Vocals. </p>

<p>I'm Excellent with computers. I'm well trained in programming and design and charge $30+ /hour </p>

<p>Awards:
Chosen one of four in a 500 person class to go to a Rotary youth leadership camp (via interview).</p>

<p>Work EXP:
I've been working for companies doing web design/ecommerce/programming jobs for years.</p>

<p>Web Design 6/2002 - 9/2002 5h/wk 16wks/yr</p>

<p>Ecommerce Programming/Site Design/Maintenance 6/2003 - 10/2003 20h/wk 18wks/yr</p>

<p>Programming for Life Insurance Company 7/2005 - Present 10hrs /wk 12wks /yr</p>

<p>As you can see its kinda annoying because I've been a 4.0 student for 2 years but for one year i was a 1-2.0 student :X. I've learned a LOT from it though, explained in my essays. Anyways, I hope you guys have some insight. I know i'm a long shot but im certainly not average :/</p>

2

<p>what major are you applying to for SLO? that makes a HUGE difference.</p>

3

<p>hmmm comp sci I believe. My counselor told me it would help to apply ot UC's Undeclared but I didnt want to get in under false pretences. I know what I want to be - so I applied to all schools as comp sci major.</p>

4

<p>yeah well you can't apply at cal poly SLO undeclared... so ... good job : ) haha. i think you're probably right on the line for SLO, i can't really tell you. your SAT and ACT are great, but your GPA is only so-so, and I don't believe the Cal Poly application includes an essay where you could explain that. you still have a shot though, but I'd say your chances:
UCBerk: reach
UCDavis:slight reach/high match
UCSD: slight reach
UCSC: match
UCSB: slight reach
UChicago: reach</p>

<p>good luck! and remember... i'm not the admissions office, so I could be totally wrong! as long as you have some good essays, i think you have a good shot.</p>

5

<p>i think uchicago and northwestern are reaches</p>

6

<p>neobonzi:</p>

<p>UCB: Super Reach (Computer Science)
UCSD: Reach (Computer Science)
UCSB/UCD: Match
UCSC: Safe Match</p>

7

<p>BTW - if you don't get into the schools you want (Chicago, NU - which is likely), consider transferring. It just will take one semester of good grades and your reach schools become much more realistic.</p>

8

<p>yeah i have a few reaches in there - but I've taken as many measures as I could to ad substance to my app. Either way, I'm fine spending a few semesters at a UC if those are my match at the moment. I somehow don't think my GPA is ranked against others in the same manner because of my really awkward upward trend. I literally went from C's and D's sophomore year with one F to Straight A's Junior through Senior year. I also took summer school and college courses - which should show some effort?</p>

9

<p>your numbers are not that impressive for the general populace, however, being mexican-american, you would have been an easy admit at both nu and uchi had you applied to them early. if you can write decent essays, you will still probably get into uchi, they accept 40% of their applicants and they have a very low yield which means that most of their accepted students choose to go elsewhere (which should tell you something about uchi). i am not sure what you initially meant, but did you say you got into pomona? are they rolling? if you did get into pomona, that is an indication that your urm status could get you into almost anyplace especially uchi and nu. why would you choose those two places? it's cold up there.</p>

10

<p>Im not so sure theres a lot of fact behind your comment. I dont think early applicant minorities have a better chance then later ones - though it is possible and I'm sure that you know more about it than I do, im not that experienced with this.</p>

<p>Cal Poly Pamona is not difficult to get into. In fact, its one of the easiest states, so I dont think that it's safe to say I'd get into most places judging by that.</p>

<p>I applied to chicago because I love the area and the dedicated academic environment. I don't want to go to a school where education is at level with social endeavors, I'd rather be at a place where the social scene is less important than a rigurous and challenging curriculum.</p>

11

<p>Anyone else:? I'd really like to hear some informed opinions.</p>

12

<p>i am not familiar with cal state pamona. i thought you were referring to Pomona, the lac, so i apologize for that. although schools try to downplay it, early decision does enhance ones chances of getting into a desired university or college. being a urm only enhances that. therefore being a urm applying early boosts that even higher. i think you would have gotten into your no 1 choice (why anyone would want to go to uchi is another issue) had you gone early action. your counselor did you a great disservice by not stressing or highlighting the benefits of applying early if you are certain that a particular school is where you really want to go. by now a lot of the schools have filled a significant portion of their class with ed's and may have filled most of the slots allocated to urm's. now the schools can cherry pick the best applicants which, along with skyrocketing applications, makes getting into a lot of the privates very challenging in the rd rounds. I am not sure how the uc's do it. i hear that they have a cutoff based upon grades and sat's and place less importance on ec's. urm status in california publics is also less of a factor than at the rest of the country. although a lot of schools are not actually filling "quotas", they stress that they are looking for a diverse and varied student population. which, in my mind is filling a quota, how else do you explain that most schools have the typical, 8-10% african american, 7% hispanic, 16% asian and so on. with a 2010 on the sats, you are a very strong urm candidate at nu and especially uchi (they accept 40% of their applicants). as long as your essays don't reveal that you are a functional illiterate, you should get into uchi easily and probably nu also. good luck.</p>