<p>I am an international IB student predict all 6/7's throughout my subjects. I have an art scholarship, I got 4a* and 6A's on my GCSE exams without doing much work (not that that's relevant). I am a good athlete but not top or anything. I want to apply for the engineering majors at Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and 5 other lower ranked UC schools. I did my first SAT practice test without much studying and got 800 in critical reading, 750 in math and 710 in writing. I am going to do SAT subject tests in physics and maths hoping for 750+. And I am an american citizen but not resident if that helps.</p>
<p>What do you think my chances are because I'm really not sure</p>
<p>I’m unfamiliar with the IB grading system. It would be more helpful if you put your grade as a GPA out of 4.0 or out of 100. Your SAT is strong. I would say UCLA and UCB are matches, but they are some of the hardest public schools to be accepted to (they receive about 90k applicants each, more than almost every school) so its never a guarantee. Similarly, you seem like a good candidate for Stanford but you never know. Stanford would for sure want something about you (your essay, ECs, etc) to stand out. </p>
<p>I encourage you to apply outside of California if you want to go to the best college possible. You’re ideal for the 3 schools you mentioned but they are so competitive that there’s no guarantee. Based upon your SATs only, I suggest you look into: UPenn (reach!), UMich, Tufts, Boston College, NYU, Emory, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, UT Austin, and Georgetown. </p>
<p>If you apply to a wider variety of top schools there will be more of a chance that you would get to go to a higher caliber school.</p>
<p>@adf997 US universities prefer AP’s but love to see IB as well and if you can get the diploma then great! I just have a quick question, do you parents live overseas due to their job? I just wanted to clear up your comment about being a citizen and not being a resident, it’s not a big issue I just wanted to know. Now it’s hard to match you based on the fact that you didn’t put any ec’s or service projects. If you are just going off grades then Stanford will almost be impossibly. Stanford gets so many outstanding students who all 4.0 GPAs that the kids they accept have something else to make them outstanding. Even with good ec’s Stanford is difficult as is Berkley (Berkley is one of the most difficult public schools to get into) So I would try to look at some lower level Ivies and public Ivies (ie: Cornell, Vanderbilt, William and Mary, Johns Hopkins, etc…) I wish you all the best!</p>
<p>I am doing the full diploma - my HL subjects are Physics, English and Economics - My SL subjects are Maths, French and Chemistry. Yes my parents moved here for their jobs. My equivalent to service projects is CAS (creativity, action and service) I am participating in many activities a week such as science club, tennis, programming club, community service, going to china for a week and helping the local community by cleaning up the beach and doing other things like that. Hopefully that gives you more perspective on my extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>Stanford - High reach. Your extracurriculars are generic, especially for an IB diploma candidate. You’re going to have to expand your activities and do something really unique if you want a real shot at Stanford.
Berkeley - High match. UCB has a pretty decent acceptance rate and with your predicted scores + SAT scores (if you actually get those scores), you should be fine. You should probably keep in mind that IB Physics HL has no equivalent at UCB. Thus if you choose to go to UCB you will get the 20 credits for getting the IB Diploma, but only be excused from an English and Humanities class.
If you want to do engineering you might also want to look at Georgia Tech, Cornell (already mentioned), Purdue, UIUC, U Mich Ann Arbor, etc. </p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback, do you think my art scholarship would have any influence on them? If so how much would they prefer me to a student without one as it is not that related to my major</p>