<p>New York Resident
Major: Computer Science (Hopefully double major B.A.)
Class of 2010
GPA: 3.87/4 (unweighted)
Class Rank: 60/250
SAT: 2100, 690 reading, 750 math, 660 writing
AP classes: AB Calc (5), US (5), Chem (4), English Language(4), Computer Science, Physics, French, Government
Honors: Pretty much everything. Honors track for English since middle school, honors track for social studies since middle school, accelerated math level, doubled up in sciences, honors french</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars:
Plenty of volunteer hours, Boys State, Captain of the math team, Captain of the soccer team, vice president of my class freshman year, president sophomore year, National Merit Commended.</p>
<p>My GPAs not so hot but I pride myself on having a very balanced schedule in between school, work, sports, and social life.</p>
<p>P.S. Im doing Air Force ROTC. Not quite sure if that has any bearing.</p>
<ol>
<li>aiming for computer science which is an oversubscribed program at Berkeley</li>
<li>you’re not in the top 10% of your high school batch and Berkeley is a class rank whore than a SAT whore, so to speak</li>
<li>you’re OOS.</li>
</ol>
<p>You should apply to Cornell, CMU, Mudd, Michigan, Rice and a few really good ones in the NE though. I think you have better chances of getting into those schools than at Berkeley, tbh.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if I will have better luck if I apply under a different major choice. I’m filing Berkeley as a long shot but it’d still be fantastic to go there. I appreciate your honesty.</p>
<p>^ I think you’ll have lesser competition in mathematics, which I think would be the nearest you can get to becoming a comsci as many programmers that I know are math majors. But you still have to work on your class rank though. If you can work that out, your chances of getting admitted will improve considerably.</p>
<p>I may have to talk to my counselor and clarify my class rank because that was a ballpark estimate. I think I’m more around the 25-35 range because my GPA weighted is greatly augmented. Are my SATs good enough though? Maybe I’ll just have to write a kickass app essay.</p>
<p>RML, he’s going for the Computer Science major, located in L&S, not the super-competitive EECS major located in the College of Engineering. As such, the admissions process is significantly easier.</p>
<p>Randy, your weighted GPA and SAT are definitely within Berkeley’s range. You are, however, applying OOS and are therefore at a disadvantage. Don’t let that phase you–if you write good essays, you will get in, especially since you’re going ROTC.</p>
<p>I’m aware that the comsci in L&S is easier to get onto that onto EECS. But I still think it’s a very competitive program, and most likely, is the most competitive program to get onto in L&S. In my opinion, the Comsci program at MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU and Cornell (all top schools for comsci) is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, competitive program to get onto.</p>
<p>when your class size is greater than 249, UC Berkeley not exclusively admits (and only reads applications from) students who are below the 59th ranked student. </p>
<p>To be honest, i’d say you’re possibly better off at a private school near NY than to fly to Cal just for it’s compsci program. (Maybe if you wanted to do EECS or something, then sure) And if you apply to Berkeley, don’t choose compsci. Simple as that. Choose something in L&S and if you get in, sign up for Compsci classes. It’s not like admin cares once you’re in L/S. Nevertheless, I hope you really like Cal to spend the money. lol Not to dissuade you, but if I could go back and choose another college and actually focus on my essays instead of doing them last minute, I would do so in a heartbeat. (which is quite possibly the reason why I’m here now hahaha)</p>