Awards
Super Trooper - extracurricular award for Theater,
shows most respect and leadership in the club.
Extracurriculars
4 Year of Theatre - Lead Roles
3 Years of Theatre Council - Shop Manager
Leader of Set Construction Crew, for 4 years I’ve led planning, supervision, and budgets of theatrical sets
4 years of Choir
Leadership roles within choir by being on the council as Set Up Manager
2 Years in a Male Quartet
2 Years in a Vocal Jazz Ensemble
3 Years of Rent a carol singing for extra cash
Volunteering for a women’s shelter numerous times for 2 years
Nations Honor Society Member
Essays/LORs/Other
4 PIQS:
My Work as a Leader of the Set Construction Crew 9/10
My management of my Neurological Nerve Disorder, how I overcame. 9.5/10
My passions for statistics and how I apply it to my everyday life. 8/10
How I started a free yearly haunted house to benefit the community in a fun and free way. 9/10
Schools
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
Cal Poly SLO
Is AP Stats the only AP class you’ve taken? Does you school have limited APs? How many APs do the top students usually take? In other words, how does you rigor compare to others at your school?
Since you didn’t mention rank, I assume you school does not rank. When you submitted the UC, did it indicate that you were top 9% ELC or statewide?
So are these your UC GPAs or the GPAs as calculated by your high school? The UC GPAs are what matter, although sometimes they are essentially the same as your high school GPA. But not always. When in doubt, go with the UC calculation through the link above. That’s what will be used to evaluation your application, not your high school calculated GPA(s).
How many APs does your school offer? Are there restrictions on the number of APs a student can take? Again, you need to get a sense of how you compare to other students at your school in terms of rigor. You will be evaluated based on school context. At some schools, three AP classes might be around the max allowed/available. At other schools, it would be a small number. What is the AP situation at your school?
That may put you on the low end for the most competitive UCs, but they are reaches for everyone, so all you can do is shoot your shot. Your PIQ topics look great - I especially like the haunted house one. How do students from your school generally do with the UCs? Have you looked at historical data on admissions from your school?
Aside from the schools listed, did you apply anywhere else? While I think you have a good shot at a few acceptances, I am concerned that I don’t see a true safety here, just in case the worst happens (UC are indeed unpredictable sometimes). Do you have any safeties on your list?
Overall people tend to do very well from my school when it comes to admissions . Last year about 12 people from my school were accepted to Berkeley and I had a couple friends that went to UC San Diego last year.
These are my only school I applied to as I figured I would shoot for the stars and go to Community College if I get nothing and just transfer in two years.
Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions indicates that the threshold for frosh admission to data science at SJSU in the most recent cycle was 2080, which corresponds to a CSU-recalculated GPA of 2.6.
I meant no admit rate data which is moot since admission is by impaction threshold anyways. I will remove the information and use the Impaction index threshold information. Thank you.
I also have another question, Berkeley asked me for two letter of recommendations. Which were turned in earlier this week. Does them asking me this mean anything?
A small percentage of applicants are invited to submit LOR’s each year.
Here are some of the reasons for the LOR request from UCB . Do not try to ready anything into the request. They just need more information to make an informed admissions decision.
Evidence of focus on an area of special talent which may have limited a student’s time to participate in a broader range of activities.
Evidence of character traits that imply a strong likelihood of making a significant contribution to campus life.
Evidence of significant academic achievement or the potential for academic achievement at the University in spite of extraordinary or compound disadvantage or learning difference, or physical disability or other unusual circumstances.
Evidence of significant improvement in the academic record accompanied by one or both of the following: (1) reasons for the initial poor performance; and (2) sustained and in-depth participation in educational outreach programs, which demonstrate the applicant’s commitment to succeed academically within a challenging environment.
Evidence of relative lack of access to, counseling about, or support to take college preparatory, honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes or required college entrance examinations.
Hard to say. You say you are in the Bay Area - is your school local-ish to UC Berkeley? Last year UCB did something new which they have not explained - they asked A LOT of local applicants for letters of recommendation. The vast majority of applicants from my daughter’s school, for example, were asked for these letters (including my daughter). In the end, it doesn’t seem to have meant anything in terms of admission - there was no clear correlation between the request and acceptance/rejection. The same thing happened another nearby high school. Do you know if others from your school got the request, too? If so, it may just be UCB doing some kind of research. If not, then it may be for one of the reasons Gumbymom provided - are you first generation, by any chance? This year I’ve heard of quite a few first gen students getting the request. At any rate, I wouldn’t read too much into. But you can see it generally as a good thing - it gives them more (hopefully very positive!) information about you. Theoretically, that can only help.
Oh, actually given your PIQ topic about overcoming a neurological disorder, that may have been the trigger, if you can find no other explanation. But, again, I wouldn’t stress about it either way - if strong, these letters should give you a positive addition to your application.
