Where to go? What to do? Help!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Alright, so I'm at a very confusing point right now in my academic career, and I'm just doubting everything right now. My dream school is Berkeley, but I definetely haven't prepared at all. All this college stress is really getting to me right now, and I'm just doubting where to go, what I should major in, and overall everything. I was thinking about majoring in engineering, but I haven't really explored that field and I hear engineer majors have to study super hard. Since I was thinking about engineering, my primary universities would be in the UC system (Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Davis, and Santa Barbara) but now I feel like my overall status is not good enough for the top 3 UC schools. My parents are nearly forbidding me from going to a community college, and they tell me that maybe I should consider Santa Clara university. Well, anyways here's some of my stats so far:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9 W, 3.6 UW
SAT I: Taking it in October, probably can get as high as a 1900
SAT II: Taking it in November, could get around 1900
ACT: Dunno yet
I took 14 semesters of AP/H classes
A bit of a downtrend my junior year, but not a really drastic downtrend
I'm a senior latino student at a competitive Catholic school
Clubs/Activities/Sports:
Editor on the Newspaper, California Scholarship Federation, Spanish club, Track, X country
Volunteer work:
I'm in a club at my school that does a lot of volunteer stuff, I haven't done a lof of volunteer work, but I could pull in a lot of hours before the UC deadline
Work experience: None yet, but I might get a job, even though I'm already stressed</p>

<p>So yea, I'm just stressed about everything right now, because I waited for the last minute to take all my standardized tests, I have to do college applications/college essay, worry about keeping up my grades/GPA, do volunteer work, and possibly get a job. I'm already considering those top 5 UC school and probably University of Southern California. I would consider private schools, but they're really expensive, but I could also try to get as many scholarships and loans as possible. So if anybody can give me any advice would be great. Oh, and if you've actually read this long message, thanks again.</p>

2

<p>UCs? Engineering? Flopsy, this thread needs your input. :D</p>

<p>Since you haven't take the SAT yet, you might want to apply to some colleges that don't require testing, so you can go ahead and get the ball rolling (hopefully with some early acceptances!). There's quite a few colleges on here in CA.
<a href="http://www.fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>Class rank? That figures into the UC calculations...Also did you weight your GPA according to the UC formula? Do a search on this forum for UC formula..there are lots of posts that explain it.</p>

4

<p>1900 SAT is really, really low for Engineering at Berkeley and LA. I'm not sure anyone was accepted with such a low SAT 1 in Engineering. Go and hit the 2000 threshold. Also, your gonna need 700+ SAT IIs in Math IIC and one of the Sciences, or you have a slim chance, a very slim chance.</p>

5

<p>Occidental College-joint degree with caltech a possiblity.Great merit aid
for qualified students. Really into a diverse po;ulation.</p>

6

<p>sfboy987:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Super Reach (Engineering)
UCSD: Reach (Engineering)
UCD/UCSB: Match</p>

7

<p>My school doesn't do class rank, and frankly I'm glad my school doesn't because class ranks put too much pressure on the student in terms of how "smart they feel." I'm in California, do reacher recommendations really count with UC schools? And yea, even though I only have about 6 weeks until the SAT I, and I'll try my hardest but I'm not the best test taker, but I know it all depends on me.</p>

8

<p>No recs for the UCs, application is online. Go to the website and check out the information on the application process. It is a formula, awarding points for various items..</p>

9

<p>Can someone give me some actual advice, if I wanted to know if I had a chance of getting into Berkeley I would have posted this in "What are my chances?"</p>

10

<p>Even with a 1900, you should get into the UCs below Cal and LA as an engineering major as long as the math is at least high 600s. Those are just fine for getting most entry engineering jobs. USC wouldn't be worth the extra money if you don't qualify for need based aid. If you do qualify for aid, then skip those and go private. Santa Clara would be a much more fun place to go to school and you should get in with a 1900 as a URM.</p>

<p>Engineers do work hard in college. Make sure you want to be one or do something with the degree before you make the committment. Lots of people think engineers make lots of money. While starting salaries out of college are higher than most majors, the advantage quickly ends and few engineers become wealthy. It's a career/study to do only for love, not for money.</p>

11

<p>Its quite difficult ot give advice for the UCs, because as a bureaucratic institution they are very rigid in their application policy and key in on pretty much 4 things: UC GPA, SAT/ACT Scores, SAT II Scores and the Essay (Not as Important for Engineering Applicants).</p>

<p>If you really must attend either Berkeley or LA Engineering, I would advise you to go to a CC like CCSF and then Junior Transfer into Berkeley/LA into Engineering. It is relatively easy to do so and your degree still says B.S. in <insert specialty=""> Engineering from UCB/UCLA.</insert></p>

12

<p>do one thing at a time. You build a foundation before you worry about the roof. </p>

<p>BTW I wonder about your self-described "competitive school" if your counselor didn't have you taking tests earlier, the school didn't have 11th graders work on preliminary essays, didn't get you started on the college search process, etc. As you say, "I haven't prepared at all". It may not be as strong a school as you think.</p>

<p>Anyway, here's my advice. Start by getting a good book on college admissions. I heartily recommend "Admission Matters" which has chapters on everything you need to know; BTW one of the authors is Associate Chancellor at the University of California, Davis. The next step is to have your parents work one of the online financial-aid calculators to see what your family need is (if any), and compare it to what they feel they can contribute. No sense wasting time on schools that are unrealistic money-wise. Finally develop a list of reaches, matches, and safeties that are a fit for you. You haven't listed a single thing you seek in a college other than an engineering program. This is why a good foundation is so important; the book I mentioned devotes a chapter to exploring what "fit" means. You're welcome to approach the process any way you want, of course, but I'd recommend holding off on picking colleges for a few weeks until you've had a chance to read and digest the info about how the process should work, and then go about picking schools. It will be a compressed schedule but still doable since you have 90 days until UC apps are due and longer for many other colleges.</p>

13

<p>To sfboy:</p>

<p>What is your High School? I know all the competitive HS in San Francisco, public and private.</p>

<p>I went to Lowell BTW, so I definitely know SF schools.</p>

14

<p>I go to Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep, and to mikemac: you can't question whether or not a school is "strong" if you don't really know it. And yea there might be a few things that my school, and a lot of schools, might need to fix, but I definetely know other schools where counselors make their students go through the whole "college process" thing and their students still aren't competitive.</p>