<p>I'm currently a junior in high school [yeah, this is a bit early, I'm just curious about where I stand]. I attend a small, very rigorous private school in MD; the school offers no AP or honors courses, as the difficulty of the curriculum is already considered advanced. From the colleges I've visited, Berkeley is the most appealing. I am definitely interested in studying astronomy or astrophysics, but I want to be able to vary my course load a bit [I'm also interested in music, art, and humanities]. Here's a summary of my academic record / curriculum</p>
<p>I maintain a 3.5 GPA; classes are not weighted by difficulty.</p>
<p>11th grade classes:
Adv. Calculus I
Chemistry
Ecology & Biodiversity
Film Analysis [an english elective course]
U.S. History</p>
<p>SAT- 660 Verbal, 700 math, 590 writing
SATII- 710 Biology-m, 790 Math IIC.
Have yet to take ACT, or Chemistry SAT II. I will probably retake the SAT.
ECs-
Ive taken a photography class for two years [favorite in-school activity], and in 12th grade I will enter the advanced photo class. I really love music and performance art, and am in a two-piece experimentalist music group; we play occasional shows in Baltimore. I enjoy flying; I earned my student pilots license on my 16th birthday [10th grade] and am currently working/flying towards a private pilots license. As far as school sports go, I run cross country for my school [i'm not that great]. I have a huge passion for biking, mainly long-distance bike touring [last summer I biked from seattle to san francisco; this summer I'm biking cross country for 6 weeks]
I am not a head of any club at school. Next year I plan on heading Video club and Astronomy club.</p>
<p>My teachers have described me as diligent, quietly sharp-minded, and very perceptive. What do you think my chances are of getting into Berkeley? Any suggestions on what I should polish up to improve my application would be awesome. </p>
<p>If out of state - sorry but I think your chances are very low due to your GPA, not great ECs, and SAT score</p>
<p>If in-state - your chances are increased a little, but not by much</p>
<p>Sorry if you don’t like what I had to say but I don’t “fluff” my chance thoughts. I tell what I truthfully think. The competition get harder and harder every single year and you need to improve all of the parts listed above.</p>
<p>Go to the parents page and read the thread about B+ students and the UCs. It’s an eye opener. If you are truly interested in UCB and you are in CA you should look at the CCs for your first two years.
Also go to UCB’s website and look at the UC gpa formula. When you look at the stats of UCB admitted students you have to look at the UC gpa formula. They toss out your electives, then there is a specific formula for weighting honors or ap classes.</p>
<p>Sorry I just read your OP again. You are OOS. I would not consider UCB as an option (sorry). Chances of admittance are slim and if you were admitted the OOS tuition is a lot for a CA school when our CA schools are suffering from budget cuts.</p>
<p>ReachForDreams- thanks for the great, honest insight!
I’m applying out of state by the way… ouch</p>
<p>Hopefully I can retake the SAT with a prep class and get higher marks.
As far as GPA- it is 3.5 but I’m somewhere around 90th percentile of my class. Do adcoms factor in class rank significantly?
And ECs- how can I improve this and still enjoy it? haha
I thought biking across America and earning a pilots license at the youngest possible age would stand out somewhat</p>
<p>Yeah I think it is a no for you. About 93% of acceptances come from CA.
Unless you have a big hook I think you should try to work towards some other lower tier schools.</p>
<p>Class rank is more important then GPA so that is good but it is EXTREMELY hard to get in if you are OOS even if you are validictorian.
For ECs - try some community service that you enjoy Your ECs aren’t that bad, actually pretty good but worse since you need lots of community service :)</p>
<p>Sorry again if what I say is harsh. My friend is a senior this year and her whole junior and senior year people who told her things like this were “fluffing” it so she didn’t get into any schools she applied to except for her safety. She regretted it a lot.</p>
<p>That it’s much harder to get in OOS is unsupported. While the admit rate is about 5% lower than in state, Berkeley has announced it’s intention to take more OOS students because it desperately needs the extra money they pay.
It should be noted that UCLA’s admit rate is 5% higher for OOS and the myth that it’s much harder is spread about it too.</p>
<p>Your big issue is that they don’t parse school rigor in the way private colleges do. This often hurts private school kids and kids from tough magnet schools. However, your 3.5 unweighted is probably pretty similar to the 4.1 weighted that they get from CA public school students. Your counselor would need to full explain rigor and speak to rank in the school report.</p>
<p>Berkeley’s average SAT is 2050. You need to bring scores up. If you can do this, I’m not so sure you don’t have a chance.</p>
Your ECs aren’t that bad, actually pretty good but worse since you need lots of community service :)</p>