<p>Citygirlsmom, maybe you should chill with the sarcasm. </p>
<p>If you really have great scores in everything, I'd recommend Caltech, as long as you've taken hard math classes (BC calc senior year at least I think) and some kind of love of science/math to show in your essays.</p>
<p>From what I see, Caltech places a lot of emphasis on the objective stuff.</p>
<p>fyi we went to an interesting upper tier college information session last week and incidentally across the board, it was the privates that seem to be a little more forgiving for lower gpa's than many of the big publics, there were several privates they recommend i apply to based upon my situation. just thought i would share for what its worth, no matter........its a total crapshoot!</p>
<p>It's a sad day when an in-state resident can't go to ucla with norcal's stats.</p>
<p>Everyone should remember that UC-weighted GPA is the bigger factor than GPA alone. Perhaps norcalguy was nevertheless competitive in the weighted category; I don't know. The other quite important factor for all the U.C.'s is the essay. (No recs, so essay esp. important.) Thirdly, in some cases, a popular college of enrollment (such as engineering at Berkeley, although not the case for this thread) makes admission more than usually hard.</p>
<p>However, the part about the scores is surprising, because even if the weighted GPA was less than the typical competitor, I'm guessing that the SAT II's were probably good, since the SAT I's were, and there's a cumulative range of eligibility, in relation to a weighted GPA. One benefits by having several high scores, which compensate in the formula for whatever the GPA is figured to be.</p>
<p>norcalguy: 'Yes, I'm a CA resident. Yes, I had great GPA (3.98 unweighted from a top public HS). Yes, I had near perfect SAT and SAT II scores (1550, 800, 800, 780). Yes, I had 5's on every AP test I took. No, I did not get into UCLA."</p>
<p>It looks like he's saying he got 800, 800, and 780 on his 3 SATII scores. He also got 5's on his AP's. This probably means he took AP classes. In any case, if he's doing that well on his AP's and SATII's his classwork is decently rigorous.</p>
<p>Also, the fact he got into Berkeley is a sign that there isn't some huge flaw he's leaving out like stealing the principal's car... There is no way to justify this.</p>
<p>I'm sure it was a fluke, guys. Who knows, maybe the application reviewer was having a bad day. What's scary was that this was 4 YEARS AGO. It is even more competitive today.</p>
<p>But my scores were as good as advertised with six 5's on AP tests. </p>
<p>Anyway, I didn't even choose to go to a UC so it's all good. I'm graduating from Cornell this week with a 3.93 GPA and a bachelor's in bio :) I will be applying to med school this summer, the epitome of "crap shoot."</p>
<p>Congrats norcalguy :)
so what made you choose Cornell over UCB?</p>
<p>To the OP: with the exception of the typical crazy ass schools which tend to not care if you're perfect (HYP), most schools with extremely high SAT midranges place a lot of weight on the SAT. I will second Caltech and Duke, as someone mentioned earlier, in addition to Rice and MIT. Obviously some schools just have amazing students all around that score really well on the SAT too, but it's safe to assume your strong test scores will help you at many schools, either way.</p>
<p>I really wanted to live on the East Coast since I grew up on the West Coast. I felt that a change of scenery would do me some good. Also, I wanted to attend a school that was more diverse. I grew up going to an elementary school that was 80% black, middle school that was almost all white, and a HS that was 60% Asian. So I wanted to attend a college where I could actually see all of the races together at the same time ;) Now that I've had a chance to freeze my @$$ off for four years, I want to return to CA for med school.</p>
<p>what did you think of the people, norcalguy? I heard (on my admit tour, actually) that the East Coasters were sort of obnoxious...</p>
<p>I wouldn't necessarily stereotype like that. There are probably more Californians at Cornell than people from any other state (except NY and maybe NJ) so even if that were true, you'd still meet a lot of people from the West Coast. In general, I haven't found people from NY to be particularly obnoxious. Now, premeds, that's another matter...</p>
<p>To the OP I would look into the University of Oklahoma, if your scores are high enough that's all they'll look at.</p>
<p>university of texas offered full rides to NMS finalists this year. I'm assuming that they care a lot about scores too.</p>
<p>if youre looking for smaller places, claremont mckenna college places more emphasis on sats/ecs than gpa</p>
<p>NYU (though maybe not Tisch).</p>
<p>State schools place a very large emphasis on numbers. They generally have way too many applicants to do a more holistic approach.</p>
<p>I have to disagree and say that as a current UVA student, having seen how admissions play out here and through my real life friends, the thing they care most about is GPA (in hard classes). The SAT is more of a if you hit a certain level, you get a check, and that's all that matters for.</p>
<p>I'm interested to see if anyone can come up with a school that someone doesn't shoot down.</p>
<p>Parentof IvyHope: I have been reading your comments in differet threads, primarily on the admission prospect. You may be in for a rude shock, if you consider that strong GPA and good SAT score will give one a confirmed ticket for UCLA. I have many Asian friends, who have excellent "numbers" and still couldn't make it! When I made them read your post, two of them said, "Hope the Adcoms at UCLA take some advice from POIH". They are not caustic, they are simply sad, as their GCs told them the same thing that you believe in:)</p>
<p>The crazy aunt in the basement no one will talk about: affirmative action. If the schools didn't save 10-20% of their slots for "diversity" admits, we would be closer to certainty (sanity) that a person with top stats could be virtually sure of getting into all but, say, a dozen of the topmost schools in the country!</p>
<p>Affirmative action is not that powerful a factor in admissions!!! </p>
<p>And diversity is a hollistic term which applies to more than what affirmative action promotes. Dont confuse the two! </p>
<p>I know TONS of strong students across races who aren't admitted to top schools with strong scores!!!</p>