Yet another LA reject...

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>So I got the big no from UCLA, and I, too am beginning to doubt myself.</p>

<p>I got the supplement from Berkeley though.</p>

<p>So here it goes...</p>

<p>Boarding School in Pennsylvania
Asian
Location: CT</p>

<p>Test Scores</p>

<p>SAT: 770 M, 660 CR, 680 W (2110 all 3) (1430 on 2)
SATII scores: 790, 750
ACT: 32</p>

<p>Classes/GPA/Academics</p>

<p>No Ranking</p>

<p>Sophomore Year: GPA (3.06...Long Story, more about this later).</p>

<p>Junior Year: GPA (3.90)</p>

<p>Senior Fall Midterm- (4.34 at Term end)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule
AP Microeconomics-A
AP Macroeconomics-A
AP Statistics-A
AP Chemistry-A
Pre-Calculus Honors-A
English Electives-A-
Taking AP Lang and AP Japanese AP tests in May as well.</p>

<p>Also taking Calc I at UConn this coming summer.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Varsity Hockey All 4 Years (TAKES UP ALL OF MY FALL AND WINTER, no time for other ECs)- Ranked Top 10 Hockey Teams among Independent Prep Schools</p>

<p>USA Hockey 1992 Birth Year Select Festival Camp in Rochester NY and St. Cloud MN- (Ranked as number 5 defenseman in the East coast in 2004,2005,2006).</p>

<p>Invite to tryout for Japanese U-16 National Hockey Team.</p>

<p>International Club- Executive Member and Country Representative- 3 years</p>

<p>BBoying/Breakdancing/Hiphop dance club- Founder/President</p>

<p>Won tons of bboying crew battles/showcase battles/1v1 battles in NYC/Japan</p>

<p>FBLA</p>

<p>Summer Internships at Yachiyo Corporation in Japan
Short Internship at a Investment Firm (Hedge Funds, Public/Private Equity)- 2 weeks
Volunteer work at Church
Volunteer coaching for club hockey teams.
Princeton University Select Hockey Camp 2007
Boston University Select Hockey Camp 2006</p>

<p>Story:
I came to this boarding school in Pennsylvania as a recruit for hockey. Known for having the best hockey program in the state of Pennsylvania, people from all over the world (as close as Pennsylvania and as far as Russia, Czech Republic, Canada...etc) are recruited there regularly. In 2004, I was selected as one of the top six defensemen in the Mid-Atlantic Region (NY,NJ,PA,MD,DE) and was asked to play in many showcases. This continued until 2006 and I moved onto the new school. I had high hopes of being a pro, the first Japanese NHL hockey player. My focus was always on hockey, I had very little interest in academics. I was heavily recruited to many schools/semi-pro junior leagues, and I knew at that time that I would go to college for hockey. Then during my sophomore year, disaster happened. I had a season ending injury, and I required surgery. My grades at the time weren't absolutely atrcoious, however, my surgery required routine check ups back home in Connecticut, I missed tons of school due to the fact that I had to travel home every week and my grades dropped horribly. Not only that, recruiting stopped, I was depressed and was a horrendous mess. I then soon realized that I need to change my focus from athletics to academics. Ever since then, my academics and attitude towards school have improved dramatically. I still play hockey now, but doctors say that my wrist will never heal fully and that I shouldn't play much longer. (Hell, I need extended time to write in-class essays because I get such bad pain in my wrist). Therefore I am NOT interested in playing hockey in university. I'm pretty sure Berkeley doesn't have a team anyways lol</p>

<p>Supplement: Explains everything above...
Got the illness/injury supplement..which fully explains the sophomore year GPA. Do you think they'll discount it?
They also got my fall grades...which is a 4.8 UC GPA...</p>

<p>Essays: Really Strong
Recs: Amazing</p>

<p>Hooks: Not the average asian...(no piano, no asian club)</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>you got rejected from LA?
i thought i was really borderline and i still got in
about the same gpa, but 2290 on SAT
less EC’s than you
=
a lot people from last year got into either LA or Berkeley, but not many to both (from my school)
so Berk might be for you?
good luck tho, sorry i can’t help much</p>

<p>and good job on the bboy awards :stuck_out_tongue: haha
until now, I didn’t realize i could have put that on my app</p>

3

<p>I have a good feeling about your application. No way to tell, but I look at the dramatic upward swing, the high level of success you had in sports which demonstrates ability to achieve, and the fact that they sent a supplemental request which indicates someone thought you were a potential yes and worth the significant extra effort to send through augmented review. No way to tell for sure, but I would say you look like the type of admit we often see under the holistic augmented review. </p>

<p>UCLA decision has zero to do with your chances at Cal, or near zero anyway. The tiny amount of correlation is because if you had extreme stats - 2400 SAT, perfect UC GPA, very ambitious schedule of HS classes, high SAT IIs - then I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t get a yes at every UC campus (including UCLA). However, for the other 999,999 out of a million, the decisions of the two schools are totally unrelated. </p>

<p>Personally I would put it at about 70-75% likelihood you will get an offer of admission on March 25th, but understand that is a mix of the factors above and a bit of intuition.</p>

4

<p>I hope so…
Berkeley is one of my top 3 choices (I don’t have an explicit first choice) so I would be so bummed if I got rejected. I’m seriously losing all confidence now haha.</p>

<p>But thanks alot for your input.</p>

<p>I got another question.</p>

<p>Approximately how many people receive the supplement? I hear that there is a supplement for borderline students, ill students, underprivileged students, and students with special or unique abilities. I was wondering if you needed to be borderline in order to get an ill/underprivileged/etc… supplement or if they send it out to everyone that fits the description regardless of how good or bad of a chance they have.</p>

5

<p>how is not the average asian a hook? well good luck anyways</p>

6

<p>berkeley tends to like the “improvement” stories. like I had a friend who was all over the map in her freshman/soph years (partying, boozing, high, etc.), and then junior and senior years she suddenly got her act together. Her grades boosted a lot, and she became one of the borderline applicants…the ones who get the supplement. She got in.</p>

<p>I have other friends too who overcame hardships and improved their grades and got into berkeley. UCLA doesn’t have that much room to accept in the improvement kids b/c there’s some few extra thousand applicants’ worth to compete with. Berkeley, though, as the flagship and an environment of really hard-working people, does have room. I know some people who didn’t get into any of the other UCs, but got into Cal. I think it’s kind of another reason why berkeley releases decisions last–'cause it gives those who got served by the numerical admissions in all the other UCs and the competitive holistic admissions in LA a chance.</p>

7

<p>@celsius
When’s the last time you heard of a b-boying ice hockey playing japanese kid that is applying to somewhere like berkeley? No offense meant for you, and I’m not trying to gloat, but in every single interview I’ve even partaken in, I have been told that they’ve never met someone like me that is in my position. But thank you for wishing me good luck.</p>

<p>@kemkid</p>

<p>That’s so great to hear :). I really hope that’s the case.</p>

8

<p>What other schools did you apply to?</p>

9

<p>BU, NYU, USC, UCLA, UCB, UWashington, Cornell, Michigan, Claremont Mckenna, Northeastern(safety/64k scholarship).</p>

10

<p>OMG
can’t believe they rejected you…
sorry</p>

<p>On a side note, you’re a BBOY!! I’ve so far never met a bboy/hip-hop dancer in CC. I love bboying, though I’m a noob right now… I’m more of a popper. Seriously, can I hit you up on some Bboy conversation?? Your bboy resume seem impressive</p>

11

<p>don’t you think decisions have also something to do with the major you applied for?</p>

<p>OP, what was your intended major?</p>

12

<p>Still not sure I agree with how you are calculating that UC GPA, but good luck!</p>

13

<p>@maruhan2
yeah sure, you can hit me up, just priv message me, i rep japanese crews, dont know much about the cali scene but I know lots about the nyc/tokyo/osaka/seoul scene.</p>

<p>@rml
I applied to UCLA as an econ major, Berkeley as a pre-business major.</p>

<p>@Shrinkrap
Well…how would you calculate it then? I’m pretty sure the UC’s will give little/no weight to my sophomore GPA due to my circumstances. But thanks!</p>

14

<p>“how would you calculate it then?”</p>

<p>I would do it like they say on their website. The “circumstance” part is a separate issue, intended to go in one of the essays if I recall correctly.</p>

<p>[University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/eligibility.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/eligibility.html)</p>

<p>“1 | UC calculates a student’s GPA based on all UC-required “a-g” courses taken in the 10th and 11th grades. This change made the GPA used to determine eligibility consistent with the GPA campuses use when they are selecting students and with the GPA students are advised to calculate themselves when they estimate their eligibility.”</p>

<p>Here’s a worksheet;
<a href=“http://edweb.sdsu.edu/compact/UC%20GPA%20Calculation.pdf[/url]”>http://edweb.sdsu.edu/compact/UC%20GPA%20Calculation.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>don’t sweat it</p>

<p>Last year, this boy who was denied at UCLA started bawling in the library after he found out he was rejected. Unfortunately he only applied to UCLA and UCB so he thought he wouldn’t be going to college. Luckily he was accepted to CAl so one decision won’t affect the other</p>

16

<p>good luck! i think you have a good chance.</p>

17

<p>i think it stated somewhere on the UCB site that 2000 students each year receive the supplement or some percentage that resulted in around 2000 students</p>

<p>also, about half of those 2000 get in, and that 2000 is including those people who don’t do the supplement, so if you got the supplement, then you should have at least a 50% chance of getting in</p>

<p>did you getsupplemented for LA? I got the LA supplement, and got into LA, so hopefully it’ll be the same for you but for Cal</p>

18

<p>@ shrinkrap
I’m pretty sure that my sophomore year GPA will almost not count or have very little weight. Therefore, I’m not exactly sure how much they’ll weigh it. as for the 4.8 GPA, I was merely stating that IF my senior year stood alone, where I was able to demonstrate my potential that I was not able to before due to my absence from school, it would be that. Thankfully, due to my supplement, Berkeley asked for my senior grades… Therefore, these grades will be factored in.</p>

19

<p>Cal will look at your soph + junior (UC) grades, both weighted and unweighted. In addition, they will consider factors like the improvement and whether to offset the grades, but it is not true that they have little weight or don’t count. Since you reported the 1H senior grades with the supplement they have those too and can plot a continued upward trend in academics.</p>

20

<p>Berkeley has a very different focus from UCLA, so almost an entirely different set of students get admitted. It’s so common for students to either get into Cal or UCLA but not both that the rumor of the two campuses “comparing notes” persisted for years.</p>

<p>Berkeley is general achievement oriented, so you overcoming your injury and your leadership abilities will likely play a bigger role in admission consideration.</p>