I told myself I wouldn't do this...(LONG THREAD)

Chance Me / Match Me
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<p>…but here we are - asking all of you to read this makes me feel guilty.</p>

<p>I’ve been reading this board for a while, but never posted. </p>

<p>So, here’s the deal: I want to get into a chemical engineering major at UCLA, Pomona, USC, UCSD, UCI, Cal Poly, UCSB. Everything’s in California - I also applied to ASU as a sort of strong safety. Already got rejected from Stanford (wasn’t expecting anything more). Hopefully you can help me out. If you want to skip straight to the numbers, go to the next post. </p>

<p>I’m hoping that schools will be able to look past my unremarkable academic performance and see that I pulled everything off even with other commitments (pretty much a second life…) - lots of honors in aquatics, along with the newspaper. I’m not going in as a recruited athlete because the only place where I’d be able to play would be a D3 school. I sent an athletic supplement to Pomona, since they’re the only D3 place I’m applying.</p>

<p>Academically:
My SAT scores are pretty decent - National Merit Semifinalist.
My unweighted GPA isn’t outstanding, and I don’t have that many APs or science competitions or research or anything like that, but I spend a lot of time on water polo (captain), swimming, and the newspaper (editor-in-chief). Also, there’s zero grade inflation at my school - we have like a 90% overall AP pass rate, and most of those passes are with 5’s. I believe the total # of kids going to UCB, UCSD, and UCLA from my school last year was around 125. You can’t take AP classes at my school before junior year (maybe one in 10th grade-if you’re lucky).
I have one real blemish - during my freshman year - a C+ in honors Algebra 2/Trig first semester. I had 3, nonweighted honors classes that year. I was adjusting to sports + high school (something i’d never done before). Got a 3.33 both semesters(a different class dropped to a B).
Sophomore year: 3 honors classes (not weighted, but still honors); 3.5 first semester, 4.0 second.
Junior: 4 weighted classes; 3.83 both semesters.
I think I’m on track for a 3.66 for first semester of senior year, a 3.83 if i’m lucky.
Oh, yeah - when I say weighted, I mean by UC standards.</p>

<p>Essays:
I’m a decent writer when I want to be (don’t judge my writing ability off this post - this is a rush job), so hopefully the colleges will like them.
My main one was about how I “beat the system.” (I managed to get one of those “free” ipods that you always see on the web. Yes, it was truly free, just a tricky procedure. Style was pretty melodramatic/humorous/tongue-in-cheek.)
Other was about our water polo experiences, team camaraderie and what I gained. pretty cookie-cutter, but also very emotional - i took it very seriously and truly believed in what I was writing, regardless of how cheesy that may sound. </p>

<p>Letters of Rec: (i’m not allowed to see them according to school policy, so i’m just going off intuition)
Teacher 1 - AP Chem - good (top 5 in class)
Teacher 2 - Hon. Precalc - hopefully good (top 10 - I was “lively,” and probably talked a tad bit more than I should have, but I think she liked it. Everyone else was dead, I had a personality; she never told me to be quiet or anything, and she’s the kind of person who wouldn’t hesitate to tell you to shut up.)
GC - great(she likes me; we both LOVE '80s rock.)</p>

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<p>User Name: poloplayer111
Gender: M
Location: Bay Area, CA
College Class Year: 2012
High School: Public
High School Type: extremely competitive; ranked in top 50 in nation by US News; top 10 in CA.
Will apply for financial aid: Yes
Major: Chemical Engineering</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.64
GPA - Weighted: 4.14
Class Rank: top one-third (ranking is unweighted – this is very significant.)
Class Size: ~500</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
Govt/Econ
Calc BC
Journalism
Physics
Digital Imaging
English</p>

<p>Scores:
Cumulative SAT – 2290
SAT I Math: 770
SAT I Critical Reading: 750
SAT I Writing: 770
SAT II Literature: 770
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 800
SAT II Chemistry: 800
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Statistics: 5</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars:
Water Polo (high school in the fall; club in the winter & summer).
Swimming (spring).
School Newspaper - Junior/Senior Year. One week out of every three is the editorial board’s pre-press cycle, and requires about 15 hours outside of school. (these weeks are killer when combined with sports.)</p>

<p>Leadership positions:
Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper (12).
Captain of the water polo team (12).
Copy Editor for the school newspaper (11).</p>

<p>Athletic Status - list sport and your level:
Water Polo - 4 years, Varsity for 3.
Swimming - 4 years, Varsity for 3.</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work: About 50 hours total at the local hospital one summer - nothing too significant here.</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
National Merit Semifinalist.
Homecoming King.</p>

<p>Water Polo:
Scholar-Athlete since 10th grade.
Honorable mention All-section.
1st team All-League.
Selected to play on the sectional Senior All-Star Team.
Athlete of the Season at my high school.
Recipient of Coach’s Pick Award.
My junior year, we were the first team in our school’s history to win a league championship.
My senior year, we outdid ourselves and became the first from our league to win a postseason sectional playoff game, which put us in the top 30 or so teams in Northern California.</p>

<p>Swimming:
Scholar-athlete since 10th grade.
First team all-league(500 Free).</p>

<p>Colleges of Interest:
Cal Poly Pomona, Status: Applied
Cal Poly San Luis, Status: Applied
Pomona College, Status: Applied
Stanford University, Status: Rejected
University of California - Davis, Status: Applied
University of California - Irvine, Status: Applied
University of California - Los Angeles, Status: Applied
University of California - San Diego, Status: Applied
University of California - Santa Barbara, Status: Applied
University of Southern California, Status: Applied</p>

<p>Desired College Characteristics: California!</p>

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<p>bumping.10</p>

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<p>Your GPA will hurt you a bit, but UC Irvine and Cal Poly Pomona are more or less shoo-ins. (I’ve seen people with worse stats and less ECs get in. If you do a <em>wee</em> bit better than the requirements, you’re practically in there.) If your SAT score makes up for your GPA, then Davis and Santa Barbara will be okay. However, UCLA and San Diego might be reaches, along with Pomona and USC. Good luck with these!</p>

<p>By the way, did you get ELC?</p>

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<p>Arduospallor is wrong. Your SAT is well above the average for UCLA and UCB, and your GPA is right at their average. I’d say your a match.</p>

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<p>Wow arduousparlor are you kidding me? You’re scaring even me from saying that.</p>

<p>For the OP, Pomona and Berkeley might be slight reaches but I’d say for the rest of them, you’re looking pretty good.</p>

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<p>Do you want to play college water polo? If so, have you contacted the WP coach at Pomona, apart from the questionnaire? Sent an athletic resume, e-mailed or called? If he is interested, it could be a good boost. See if you can arrange an overnight with members of the team.</p>

<p>Have you sent an athletic resume or called the UCI and Davis coaches? For those schools, it could be worth your time to make personal contact soon.</p>

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<p>no, no ELC - that’s because of my school, I think - extremely competitive.</p>

<p>to zannerina - how much do you think this could help at pomona - ie how good do I have to be if I want a boost? I only want this to factor into my admission if it would truly help. I doubt that I would be a standout player at the college level, even in D3 play.</p>

<p>I definitely don’t have the size/skill to play at irvine or davis. My coach said he would talk to pomona’s department - do you think I should go ahead and call/email? Pomona had their own athletic supplement, which I sent in. Does that go to their athletic department, or just the admissions office? </p>

<p>also - people seem to agree so far that post #4 might be a tad harsh? I had thought that Santa Barbara would be pretty easy for me to get into. arduouspallor, what’s your reasoning/criteria for the chances you gave me? thanks in advance.</p>

<p>I didn’t apply to Berkeley, though. Thanks for the replies - I am really sorry about the long original post. Keep 'em coming!</p>

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<p>i say u have good chances, gpa could be better though…</p>

<p>and why you got rejected for stanford: because u applied early decision. nowadays SO FRIGGIN MANY people apply for early that people say its harder to get into EA than it is for regular decision…</p>

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<p>The Pomona coach is a great guy and I’m sure would give you an idea of whether you would be an addition to the team. There are some players on the current team with lots of club experience from competitive programs, and some with very little. The athletic supplement goes to the coach, but he doesn’t know how serious each applicant is about Pomona. He will receives lots of supplements from players who are more interested in playing Div. 1 polo. It is always worth showing interest.</p>

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<p>zannerina - thanks, i’ll definitely do that. are you a polo player?</p>

<p>about stanford - it’s water under the bridge, but you think rd would have been better? only one kid got in from my school scea - he was one of our 25 valedictorians, had math/science bowl, intel/siemens. when you see that, no hope for an average joe like me. </p>

<p>about the valedictorians - this isn’t because of grade inflation - everyone is just crazy!</p>

<p>Thanks again guys - keep talking!</p>

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<p>poloplayer111-- Two of my children are longtime polo players, and another child (non-polo player) is currently a sophomore at Pomona. My hs senior will begin his college polo career in the fall elsewhere, but took a great liking to the Pomona coach. </p>

<p>Good luck to you in the RD round!</p>

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<p>SCEA was super competitive. Almost the top 10 of my school all applied. Only the valedictorian/Science Olympiad/Quizbowl captain/academic Decathlon captain got in. I thought Stanford wanted all around candidates… I didn’t have time for it so I applied RD. We’ll see what happens.</p>

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<p>And btw you’re in at the UCs (iffy on LA) and Cal Poly. I’ve seen people with “lesser” stats get in.</p>

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<p>thanks for everything, guys!
guess ill keep my fingers crossed.
mboo, good luck w/ stanford - hopefully you’ll be a cardinal in a few months!</p>