<p>(Note: my dad was dying of cancer in 9th and 10th grade, so hopefully Berkeley sees that and cuts me some slack, 4.3 is what I’m capable of)</p>
<p>Ranked USTA tennis player
Meals on Wheels 2x a week during summer
Coordinator of school clothing drive
President of community service club
Spotlight Poet at school’s workshop</p>
<p>You seem to have the required stats for an in-state applicant. Berkeley looks to be a match-ish school for you, in my humble opinion at least. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that college admissions to the Top Tier schools are now becoming more of a crapshoot then anything really, so even with your match-ish stats, I would advise to have backups.</p>
<p>I know a TON of kids who had way better stats than you got rejected from berkeley this year, but most of them got into UCLA easily. But the year before, at my high school, it was the complete opposite. About 25 kids got into Berkeley and only about 12 got into UCLA. (forgot to mention this is in-state).</p>
<p>I applied this year and didn’t get in until spring semester 2011 (which completely blows my mind - i’m ranked 4th, 4.7 gpa, 2200 SATs, ECs, a job, etc.) while i got in to Ross preferred admission and i got waitlisted at Harvard (lols). This is while the kids that did get in (and a few who got Regent’s scholarships) to Berkeley from my school ALL got rejected from Harvard. And I used the same essay for Berkeley as I did for Harvard. So it really is a gamble, I don’t know how they set it up.</p>
<p>Well if you are top 5-10% of your class and retake your SAT (preferably with a 680+ on writing to pass the writing req., as I see a lot of graduating seniors getting mad and having to take the SAT again, as they 800 the math, but 670 the writing), I would say you have fairly good chances.</p>
<p>At least for me, my school was a feeder to UCs, and most of the top people got into Berkeley and UCLA.</p>
<p>UCs have been very, very strange this year. A buddy of mine got into MIT and Cornell, but did not get into any of his UCs (Santa Barbara and Davis included). </p>
<p>Kind of strange, so I’m hoping its the opposite next year.</p>