What Colleges Can I Get Into? (Really confused)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey, I’ve already applied to most of my colleges and want to know what chance I have of getting in as I am really, really confused as to where I have a good shot of getting into. It would be very much appreciated if some of you could help give me an idea.

SAT I: 2150 (740M, 740R, 670W [690 on previous sitting])
SAT II: 800 Physics, 800 Math II
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.6/5
Rank: na, but somewhere between 10-15% (I go to a highly competitive public magnet, and my grades are frankly the best I could possibly et)
AP: Physics I (4), Calc AB (5)
IB: (I go to an IB school) Physics SL: 6/7
Senior Year Courseload: IB English, IB Chinese, IB Bio II, IB TOK (ib required philosophy course), IB Global Studies (history), IB Math II (pre-calc to calc level), self-studying AP Calc BC
Major Awards: none, NMSQT Commended Scholar, placed 1st team in State in Stocks competition 9th grade

Extracurriculars: I feel like these are really weak
-Cross Country 9-12
-Track 9-12
-Stock Club 9-10 grade (treasurer 10th)
-Golden Gate Marathon 11th grade, placed 1st in my age
-Ami Bera for Congress Campaign Internship- 12 grade, 70 hours
-Arcade Creek Project- wildlife research internship, 11-12th, (group leader in 12th)
Work Experience- none

2

Accidentially submitted without finishing it…

Schools (already applied except for UMich)- all University of California’s (Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Merced, Riverside, LA, Davis, Santa Cruz), Cal poly San Luis Obispo, GeorgiaTech, USC, UMich Ann Arbor, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Purdue

Volunteering: ok, 100ish hours
-Folsom Public Library 3D Printing Lab: 60 hours
-Tech Skills for Seniors: (founder and leader)6 hours
-Folsom Public Library Summer Reading Program Volunteer. 21 hours
-Hats, Gloves & Scarves Drive: City of Sac. Organized and ran local drive, 20 hours
-Library Book Sale Volunteer 14 hours
-Folsom Turkey Trot: 6 hours
-Ronin Shimizu and Satyaprit Das Memorial Trail: 4 hours
-Folsom Public Library Bookstore Volunteering 9 hours

Rec’s: no idea, got 3 teacher and 2 other (1 by coach, 1 by internship organizer), I’d give them a 5/10 if I had to guess
-Counselor Rec was probably pretty good, she knew me a little and knew I’d faced some stuff in life

Essay:
-Commonapp: 8/10, not great at writing but talked about me facing adverse life circumstances in the form of abuse at home (did not go in-depth in this part), a broken family, divorce and became stronger and more resilient and never allowed it to weaken my grades or scores. Worked with my counselor and mom to avoid creating a pity party
-UC essays- 7.5/10
-Common app supplements- 7/10

Other:
-Major- electrical engineering
-Race: Indian
-Income Bracket: around $60k
-Gender: Male
-State: California
-School: public magnet school, actually mid-income area
-applying for financial aid

3

You’ll easily get into at least a couple of the less-selective UCs, like Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, plus Purdue. Consider these your safeties.

Poly SLO, Davis, and San Diego are strong matches, too, presuming your recommendations and essays are actually a bit better than what you think. Carnegie Mellon, USC, and Georgia Tech are high matches, too.

LA and Berkeley are tough for everyone, as are Michigan and Rice. Those are probably your biggest reaches – although your stats are great, you don’t have something significant that makes you – to put it bluntly – stand out from the crowd of other Indian applicants with great stats and a desire to major in a STEM field.

4

Some of the most selective schools will be tough to gain admission, but I predict that overall you will have many acceptances.

5

Marathon is a really cool extracurricular, but I’ve never heard of a Golden Gate marathon?

6

UMich - I’m really not sure here. I might lean towards acceptance, but it’s not a sure shot.
Berkeley - I’ll guess denied because EECS is very selective, and your SAT may drag you down. Possible off of your GPA though
San Diego, Santa Barbara, Merced, Riverside, Davis, Santa Cruz - Accepted at all of these places.
LA - I’ll say accepted, their EECS is somewhat easier to get into than Berkeley’s
Cal poly San Luis Obispo - Accepted
GeorgiaTech - Accepted
USC - Toss up, but I’ll guess denied. Possible acceptance though, around 60/40 split
Carnegie Mellon - Probably denied, Carnegie’s pretty selective
Rice - Denied
Purdue - Accepted

Your grades are really good, but your ECs and SAT’s aren’t going to really boost you… Your ECs are pretty general, without any specific engineering focus, and no work experience isn’t great either. Best of luck regardless.

Chance me back?
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1952697-chance-please-will-chance-back.html#latest

7

Thanks a lot guys. I think I got the gist of it, I’ve felt like my ec’s were average but I love a lot of the UC’s +Calpoly so I think I’m in a good state.

Also, APUSHME, I wrote Golden Gate Marathon, but the full form was the Golden Gate Trail Run and marathon was just one of the events. Its a small race (very hilly/mountainous).