<p>I go to a very rigorous high school where six people have gotten the Regents Scholarship invitation. I am a very solid applicant overall by any standard but will I be at a disadvantage because I have a weaker application than those six people at my school?</p>
<p>Short answer, yes.</p>
<p>I was afraid so… but will berkeley take into account the rigor of my high school into consideration?</p>
<p>Well API is used in the formula somewhere, but I’ve heard it hardly has any bearing. In fact, I’d actually argue that if you go to a public school in a really bad community and do well there, that it’s more advantageous than doing mediocre at a tough hs. </p>
<p>Example: (take this with a grain of salt because there are other factors involved) Girl I know here at Cal went to an east LA high school, got about a 1750 SAT and 4.3 wgpa (among the top in her class). Girl I knew from my high school (one considered fairly rigorous) had about a 2000SAT and around 4.3 wgpa (probably top 100 in hs), wasn’t accepted to UCSD, UCLA, UCSB, or here. </p>
<p>^The OP was selected as a Regents candidate. He/she has already been accepted to Berkeley and is asking about the Regents Scholar selection process.</p>
<p>Since you have already gotten the invitation… you could still have a chance to impress the professor who would interview you. You could take additional reference letters… if you know the research field of your interviewer, read about his or her work so that you can be prepared.
My daughter had her interview with a great professor at cal [back in 2008] and she ended up changing her major and doing research with the same professor after graduation. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Ooh whoops def read this wrong, sorry!</p>
<p>The OP is pretty vague. If he did get admitted by regents, he should have said “six other people.” From my first read, I believe that he did NOT get regents. </p>
<p>I’m sorry… I meant that I did not receive the invitation. I’m ranked in the top 1% of my high school (12th to be exact)… six people ranked above me have already received the Regents invitation. I accept that I wasn’t as achieving or didn’t have as much leadership position as those six other people but I was wondering if the admissions officers will take into consideration the fact that the top 1 percent at my school has historically been very achieving (the school itself is quite average but the top 1% of students are part of a semi-autonomous magnet program in which students consistently place top 10 in the national science bowl each year) and that just because I wasn’t as good as those six other people doesn’t automatically make me an underachieving applicant. I know Berkeley compares students from the same high school but this is one of those situations where I am very high achieving and hold a solid rank at my school… I’m just not one of those six other people.</p>
<p>^well then what I said earlier stands. </p>
<p>But you sound like you’re a good student, so you shouldn’t be too worried. Not getting regents is not a big deal, obviously it’s a small percentage of students who go here, so you still have a good chance of getting in.</p>
<p>@starfox778 I feel like if you are in the top 1%, especially at a good high school, you have a very good chance at admission. At my son’s high school in Southern California, there were 8 valedictorians (definition is top 2%), and for L&S, all got into Berkeley and 2 of the 8 were invited to interview for the Regents Scholarship. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about being a ‘weaker’ applicant, because you have no idea why they selected you as a regents candidate. I didn’t have as many rigorous extra curriculars and as many APs as the other candidates from my high school, but I still got regents, whereas many of the ‘better’ candidates didn’t. It all comes down to what set you apart to the admissions committee. My interviewer told me that they really loved one of my essays, and that’s what set me apart. We also talked about an automotive class I took at my local community college, and the interviewer thought it was great that I had done that instead of taking another AP or a typical CC class like psych or calculus. While grades, etc. play a huge part in your acceptance to Cal, from what I know, they don’t do much for your chances at getting Regents.</p>