A Bit Nervous About Cal Acceptance. Should I Be?

Colleges & Universities University of California - Berkeley
1

I just got rejected by Caltech but also got accepted into UCSD and UCLA (likely letter).

I applied EECS for Cal. Didn’t get a LOR request but also didn’t get a Regents invite.
After Caltech and MIT (results haven’t come out but pretty sure rejection based on MIT result), Cal is my first choice. Should I be worried about getting in?

At first I wasn’t worried based on LOR request, but now that I didn’t get a regents invite (I expected to get one), I feel pretty nervous. What do you guys think?

ACT : 36
SAT II: Math2, Chem, BioM, Physics (all 800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9 STEM APs : Calc BC, the 4 physics APs, Chem, Bio, Stats, APCS (all 5’s)
4 in AP Lang

Major Awards: (only the ones that I had received by Nov. 30)
AMC scores: 215 ish AIME index (very, very very close to USAMO cutoff, which was 220.5, top 350 in country)
-Distinguished honor roll for AMC 12, School winner as well
Multiple USAPhO qualifications and medals (top 150 in country overall)
Physics Bowl: top 10 in country for multiple years in a row
Science Bowl Nationals from a difficult regional
Not sure if this is major but I got NMSF with a perfect score.

Extracurriculars:
Astrophysics Club: President
Math Club, Science Club: Vice President
Science Olympiad Co-Captain
Science Bowl Veteran Member
Lots of volunteering in tutoring kids in science and math

Job/Work Experience:
Interned at lab for two summers. First one paid 2000 dollars. Labs were decently prestigious.
Published two peer reviewed, professional papers based on my research. (physics/chemistry/computing research)

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: EECS
State : Cali
School Type: SoCal public high school, extremely competitive (5-10 people get into MIT each year)
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

2

You definitely deserve to get admitted by UCB.
(I wouldn’t worry at all)

3

You are a super strong candidate: awesome stats and in-state. LOR request is no indication either (some get it because they are borderline; others, it’s Regents or random). BTW, don’t freak that you didn’t get a Regents’ invite - it’s a very small subset of the admitted class (“holistic” application review, so who knows what they were looking for), and Cal has tons of very bright, successful students. The end of March cannot come quickly enough, I’m sure - my D was in your shoes a year ago and it was nerve-wracking. Good luck!!!

4

I still think you are in good shape. Sit tight.

5

Holy sh*t… your stats/extracurriculars are amazing. It’s rejections to candidates like you that make me wonder what it takes to get into schools that are MIT or Caltech- level.

Anyways, good luck with Cal!

6

The Asian demographic hurt you at those other schools, but can’t hurt you at Cal. Go Bears!

7

Yeah I just got rejected by MIT so I guess it is most likely Cal from here?

haha feelsbadman

8

yeah, just got rejected from MIT too, i know that feel.

Honestly, your stats are looking at the same level as mine, if not better. Not sure why you didn’t get the regents invite, but trust in the big college system to push you through!

9

I think they say something about being in the top 6%. Since they go through so many applications, they use an automated system. Therefore after I looked at your stats, I would say that you are in the 6%. DO NOT get nervous or worry. You have the statistics to get accepted into Cal.