<p>I'm currently in my senior year, at a decent high school in San Jose, California. I'm in the top 10% of my high school. I have:</p>
<ul>
<li>4.2 weighted GPA, 3.8 unweighted (Low because I earned some B's in my sophomore year due to some carelessness, but I snapped out of it and earned all A's my junior year) </li>
<li>2000 SAT</li>
<li>Planning on achieving a good score in SAT II Math and Physics (assume that I earn 750+ in both)</li>
</ul>
<p>::AP Courses with scores I achieved on exams:
- AP Environmental Science (5)
- AP Calculus AB (5)
- AP Computer Science (4)
- AP Language and Composition (4)
::AP Courses in progress:
- AP Physics
- AP Calculus BC</p>
<p>Some other things that I have done:
-Won a hackathon competition in San Francisco. 100+ participants, and I was on a team with two others. 1st place.
-Ran a small web development business on my own during the summer of 2012
-This last summer, I had a paid summer internship at a cloud computing company (startup) based in san mateo, the co-founders both of which were Berkeley alumni
-I'm a self taught mobile software developer. Currently in the middle of developing a large scale iOS application (by myself) that I plan to put on the market. It's not done but I'm hoping to throw it at the market before Nov 30th so I can include it in my statement, but i'd assume that I don't finish it.
-Started a "Hackers @ ST" club (ST is my high school) with a friend of mine, modeled after the well known "Hackers @ Berkeley" group. I am currently the co-president, and I am teaching 20 students programming and software development.</p>
<p>According to the feedback, my personal statements are very well written. In the "background shaping goals" prompt, I wrote about how my family has sacrificed so much to give me the opportunity to succeed in America, and that I won't take this for granted, emphasizing me strong desire to become successful. In my "personal quality" statement, I covered all of the "things I've done" mentioned above, and centralized them into a thesis having to do with my hunger for knowledge. </p>
<p>Any information would be very appreciated! I understand my stats are not amazing, but will my other components of the application make up for it? Please remember, I am applying for EECS, which as you know is more competitive.</p>
<p>Yeah, it seems so, but I only have a week and half left until my final chance for the SAT reasoning test (need to take subject tests in november), as I’m fairly sure for the UC system, november is the last SAT that you can submit your scores with. I haven’t been studying much as I’ve been devoting my time mostly towards other things.</p>
<p>UC’s and Berkeley are largely based off stats first; EC’s will 100% always come second.</p>
<p>EECS is hyper competitive, 2250+ or its a bust. Its not “Oh hey this kid has pretty good EC’s lets look at him even though he’s below average on our stat pool”, its always “Hey this kid has a 2400, lets check out his EC’s”</p>
<p>That’s fairly unlikely, they must have had eccentric and out of this world EC’s/notable legacy who have donated tons. Your EC’s aren’t eccentric or out of this world. Lots of people have made apps/interned at tech startups (I know i’m in an incredibly similar situation) You might get a leg up depending on whether your parents attended college or not and on the situation that they’re in.</p>
<p>Anyways you’d be an outlier on the stats page and thinking that you can be and are going to be that outlier at a school is a very risky proposition. You’re competing w/ more stat based qualified students and less qualified, but very moving stories. If you think your personal story is so moving that the admissions officers will fall in love you, then so do, but remember you are one of thousands who will think this away, each thinking that they have an upperhand in admissions.</p>
<p>i’d study up for those sat’s though, improvement isn’t extraordinarily hard to come by. One week is pushing it though, you sure you cant take the subject tests now and reasoning later? It is actually that important</p>
<p>Makes sense. I see what you mean. Unfortunately, I spent more time this summer and the past month doing other things (focusing on the internship and other projects) than studying for the SAT. I need to take the subject tests in November because I’m planning on taking the Physics test, when I haven’t actually completed a physics course. Going to need to be doing some self studying. Will UCs accept scores from the December 7th SAT? or is that too late? If so, I can definitely spend a lot of time in october and november studying for that one. </p>
<p>And thanks for the advice! I definitely do appreciate it.</p>
<p>Four years ago my son applied to Berkeley for Mechanical Engineering. He had 4.0 UW, 4.22 GPA and did Math SAT II of 800 and ACT of 31 with Math on the ACT of 35. He was rejected from Berkeley.</p>