The Official Chances Thread!

suchprettywords · August 4, 2010, 12:17am

KayHakimi: You have really good stats and honestly, I think being out-of-state works in your favor since Cal needs money. I know a lot of OOSers who got in with much lower stats.

Roboteer: It’s good that your ECs are related to your intended major. You should probably talk about your experience in the engineering firm in one of your essays :)

fair2say: I think you can get in. Your GPA may not be that high but your test scores are really great so colleges will probably assume that your high school is pretty competitive. And plus, you’ve had very productive summers.

bobalob23:Hmm, your GPA isn’t terribly low (I got in with a lower one) but you should retake the SAT. I see that the writing section is dragging you down–just do lots of practice problems. That’s what I did and I improved 100 points in writing. They rotate around the “errors” so by the 10th practice test, you’ll be able to recognize them easily!

Sagert · August 4, 2010, 12:24am

JayHakimi1: 54.1%
roboteer: 69.2%
fair2say: 48.6%
bobalob23: 43.0%

coldplaying · August 4, 2010, 11:51am

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
Ohio Resident
Permanent U.S. resident

GPA: 4.0 out of 4.0 unweighted, 4.54 weighted
Attend all girls private Catholic school- high achieving students attend schools such as Georgetown, Duke, George Washington, and Notre Dame.
Not quite sure of rank… last time I checked I was 2/130 competitive girls. I’ve taken all the honors and AP classes since Freshman year that I can fit into my schedule.
SAT I: 2120 (may seem low to many frequent CCers… but it’s the 97th percentile and pretty much everyone here is an overachiever. Scores 2000+ outside of this site are considered great )
CR: 710 M: 700 WR: 710 (11 on essay)
SATII: got in the high 600s on 3 of them and am retaking them
ACT: 31 (retaking)

AP Scores:
Psych: 5
US History: 5
(limited offerings/schedule would not permit taking more)

Senior Year Schedule:
AP Calc
AP English Lit
AP Bio
AP Spanish IV
Newspaper
2 Theology classes (required)
Gov (No room for AP)

EC:
2 years jv soccer (league champions)
2 years varsity broomball (also league champions)
3 years National Forensics League (speech AND debate) (I’m a league member)
1 year student council (helped plan prom & other large events)
Editor in Chief of school Newspaper- won Best Writer Competition & Best Hard News Story competition at my university in town… a respected but not prestigious school

Awards:
Besides the above, honor roll every semester 1st honors
won 2nd place in a speech competition at my local hospital… out of 60+ applicants I was chosen in the top 6 and won 2nd place and $300 ^^
1st place Spanish Language Test at the same university as above

Recs:
Great rec from teachers, especially my english teacher
boss will write a good one probably

Job experience:
Long-time part time job at an insurance and financial firm doing actual financial work… and occasionally filing :P

Volunteer:
70+ volunteer hours at a local hospital’s Alzheimer’s & Dementia center
80+ hours peer tutoring and middle school tutoring, appointed by my school

My majors: biology or neuroscience, minor in spanish. Planning on going into Optometry, and Berkeley has a great Optometry school.

Possible hooks: Dad from California, pretty much attended all of the UCs (year at LA, SD, Davis…)
I’m not sure the significance of this in the UC system but I’m a legacy… My grandmother got her degrees here and went on to be very successful ^^
In the National Merit Scholar program, will probably get Commended
Writing is my main strength so I’ll most likely be able to kick out a good essay
Large unusual multinational extended family… good fodder for an essay haha

Do I have a shot?

vicissitudes · August 4, 2010, 1:02pm

coldplaying: awesome GPA, solid scores, good ECs, recs not needed, legacy doesn’t matter, I would say 80% chance.

coldplaying · August 4, 2010, 1:54pm

Thanks for chancing me, I appreciate it vicissitudes :)

IndianOptimist · August 6, 2010, 3:22pm

[ *] College: CAS Undeclared Pre-Business Administration
[ *] SAT:800 CR 740 M 800 W - 2340 Single Sitting
[ *] SAT IIs (if sent): Math 2 - 800 Chem - 750 Literature - 750
[ *] ACT:N/A
[ *] UM unweighted GPA: 3.96 (just one B my three years)
[ *] Rank: N/A (non ranking school)
[ *] Other stats: Early Entrance College Program (wiki it) All classes are dual credit/college.
[ *] Subjective (ECs, special circumstances, etc): I’ve got a strong business focus in my extracurriculars. I participated in DECA and FBLA in my high school (creating DECA) - and after attaining presidencies in both my senior year - rather than keep them to show that I have more officer positions - I consolidated them into an overarching business club so that the organizations would run more efficiently. I also created our first Economics Society that managed to place first in the state for the Texas Econ Challenge and qualify for the Nat’l Econ Challenge in NYC. I’ve got quite a few misc. state/regional awards in both DECA/FBLA and one-two national ones. My hobby is mostly paper trading - and I’ve managed to beat the S&P index for the past 3 years (mostly ETFs and not indv. stocks). Apart from that I hold a community service coordinator. position in an Engineering org. that does science demos for elementary students in the community. A few misc awards in science such as state science olympiad/science bowl and some chemistry summer research. Also NMS Semi-Finalist, and probably finalist if that matters at all.
[ *] Essays: Pretty decent I suppose
[ *] Teacher Recs: Weak (since my teachers are professors at my University, and we’re in 200 student lecture halls - I don’t know them that well)
[ *] Counselor Rec: Weak - (Same reason as above)
[ *] Hook (legacy, recruited athlete, etc.): None
[ *] State or Country: Texas
[ *] School Type:Public - Early Entrance College Program
[ *] Ethnicity:South Asian (India) ):
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] major strength/weakness: Standardized testing, Business emphasis. Weaknesses - teacher/counselor recommendation. OOS
[ *] Other Factors/questions: How important are teacher reccomendations for Cal, since it’s a public? Also is it easier for OOS to get in now that California is having budget issues?

NicoliJackson · August 6, 2010, 3:48pm

Note: I’ve already been accepted and I’m going to be a freshman, but I’m not the only one that has had some doubts on my acceptance over other students in my high school. Sorry for taking up space, I just want an opinion. Also, GPA and ECs do not include what I did after the application was submitted.

UC GPA: 4.24
UW GPA: 4.00
W GPA: 4.45

Sr. year schedule:
AP Physics C
AP Calc AB
AP US Gov
AP Macroecon
AP Psych
English (regular)

AP scores:
US History: 5
Env. Sci: 5
US Gov: 4
Calc AB: 5
Phys C Mech: 5
Psych: 5
Macro: 5

California resident

SAT I: 640 CR/750 M/770 W 2160 total
SAT II: 800 Math II, 710 Physics

College of Natural Resources (Env. Sci. major)

ECs: about 30 hours of random volunteer work
tutoring for about 40 hours
(I know my ECs are really, really weak)

Thanks a lot for retroactively chancing me.

NYSP2010 · August 6, 2010, 11:23pm

IndianOptimist: Cal doesn’t look at/ask for teacher recs or counselor recs, so you wouldn’t send them in. So you don’t have to worry about that. Being OOS does make things tougher, however. Despite this, you have good stats and ECs so I think your chances aren’t bad.

NicoliJackson, I’m not really surprised you were accepted. Though your ECs are quite weak, Berkeley is so utterly academic/stats based that your perfect UW GPA and high scores (other than CR of SAT score) made up for it.

mclax8 · August 7, 2010, 1:08am

Can someone chance me so I can see if I should really change my senior year schedule to take fine arts credit so I can be eligible to apply. Thanks

UW 3.8
W 4.3

Out-Of-State

ACT 34

AP Human Geo 5
AP US History 4
AP Physics B 4

Senior year will be taking 4 APs

Engineering Major

Summer Camp Counselor 30 Hrs/Wk for past 3 years
NHS
Future Engineers Club
100+ Hrs Math Peer Tutor
JV Lacrosse
POtential Engineering internship, going to hear back in couple days
Dont know if this counts but when I was in 3rd-6th grade I took enrichment classes at Northwestern…

WongTongTong · August 7, 2010, 1:16am

GPA + scores look great, do you have any subject tests?

EC’s aren’t that spectacular, nothing jumps of the page.

Engineering is tough to get into though, so no one really can predict for a OOS applying to engineering.

Good luck!

lizalee · August 7, 2010, 5:56am

Hey guys, I would really appreciate it if you would chance me! Okay here goes:

Female (In-state), Korean descent
I attend a very competitive high school, comparable to Lynbrook, Monta Vista, and Saratoga if you are familiar with any of these schools. I took rigorous courses throughout high school.

UC GPA: 4.05
SAT I: 2210 (one-sitting)
ACT: 34
SAT II: Have yet to take officially, but have scored 700 or higher consistently in practice tests

AP Test Scores:
Chemistry- 4
Calculus- 4

Junior Year Schedule: (Only AP/ Honors classes)
APUSH
Calculus AB
English 11 H
Chemistry
Physics (Taken over the summer)

Senior Year Schedule: (Only AP/Honors classes)
Environmental Sciences
Statistics
French 5
Literature

ECs:
-Played three varsity sports all four years of high school. Team captain for two of those sports. (Some first team all-league honors)

-200+ hours of community service (counselor at a science camp for disadvantaged girls, various other volunteer work)

-Leadership committee and a member of the Dance Commission

-Summer internship with an advertising company

-Experience sorting and analyzing data for a startup medical company

-Experience living with asian parents :)

I’m looking to apply undeclared. Thanks so much for any help/advice, I’m extremely grateful :)

NYSP2010 · August 9, 2010, 2:44am

lizalee, I think you look good Strong GPA and scores. ECs sound cool. The one about living with asian parents made me laugh. good luck!

turnpikeghost · August 12, 2010, 8:21pm

okay, so i’m actually going to cal this weekend to take a tour, and i would greatly appreciate it if i already know to lower my expectations while i’m there.

Asian Male (for the sake of affirmative action or the lack of)
i don’t know how well known our school is because our city is right between affluent cities/schools, which usually overshadows us (Palos Verdes HS/Mira Costa HS/Redondo Union HS) & apparently Stanford hates our school, it rejected a Harvard acceptee
UC GPA: 4.05-4.1
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.71 (i think)
Class Rank: 47 out of 550-ish

Completed AP’s:
-Chemistry
-United States History

Completed Honor’s:
-Geometry
-Biology
-Algebra 2
-English 2 & 3 (or 10 & 11)
-Pre-Calculus

AP Scores:
-Chemistry, 4
-USAP, 4

Upcoming Senior Year
-Gov/Econ AP
-English AP
-Calculus AB AP
-Physics AP
-Ceramics

Test Scores:
SATI (i am so ashamed of these scores)
-CR, 630
-Math, 590
-Writing, 590
(Taken twice)
SATII
-Chemistry, 630
-United States History, 730
ACT w/Writing
-28 (I’m planning to shoot for a 30)
(Taken once)

Athletics
-3 Years of Volleyball

EC’s
-Commissioner in ASB (third highest rank)
-Spent a summer working for the city in conjunction with my city and ExxonMobil
-Spent a week in the summer at USC learning about Energy Resources
-Kiwanis Club
-Rotary Club (which i’m planning to quit this year)
-Secretary of Chinese Club
-CSF
-6 Ethnic/Special Interest Clubs

I plan on applying to college of letters and sciences.

And also one more question, can i just submit my act scores without sending any SATI scores? I’m so discouraged from that test that i just want to focus on the ACT’s. Will that be frowned upon?

Thanks in advance.

Fatum · August 15, 2010, 1:42am

International (Canada)
SAT I: (will take in October) Only 1 chance! D<(Practice tests are at least 2100)

SAT II:
Math II : 750
Biology E/M : 760

Courses:
Hard courses, will be taking all available AP courses next year (which is only 2)

Last semester GPA: 94% (top 5% for sure, estimate top 10)

Awards: (i don’t think any of these are worth mentioning…why not just regard me as an awardless girl x.x)
Honour rolls
French award
Music theory award
DECA top 20 (provincial only T_T)

ECs:
Co- president of School Ambassadors
President and founder of astronomy club
Secretary of Music Council
Co-pres on business council
Public relations officer for school magazine
Orchestra
School soccer team
Peer-tutoring
Member of some other clubs (unimportant)

Community Involvement

Member of board director of a youth group (non-profit, but unregistered) (doing all sorts of things)
Leader of high-school team/(also part of organizing its annual event) in a government funded youth org.
-A member of the youth advisory group of Toronto’s biggest annual event.
One of the editors of a youth magazine published by the public libraries (choosing the works to be published)
The school board’s youth orchestra

No work experience
One summer is spent on reading books and another is spent visiting family in China…
This summer has been spent on starting my own business without registering it. (it’s not illegal btw XD)

Thank you for reading! Please comment =).

P.S. Will I get any aid?

afc10ns · August 17, 2010, 7:42pm

You will only get aid if your family income qualifies you for it.

coaether · August 17, 2010, 8:11pm

I would greatly appreciate it if you guys would chance me!

Female, in-state, Chinese
My high school is very competitive (last year, 100+ students applied to Berkeley and 40+ got in). For comparison, we’re ranked higher than Torrey Pines HS.

W GPA: 4.2 - 4.3 (We have a system where our grades get raised by one letter grade if we score a 4 or 5 on the AP test, so I’ll probably be around this range after my teachers change my grades.) I have no idea what it is UW.
SAT I: 2200 (should I retake this in October? CR: 780, M: 700, W: 720)
PSAT: 221
SAT II: Math - 690 (I’m definitely retaking this in November. I can never bother to study for this after AP testing is over. ==)
Literature - 750
Chinese -  (I’m taking this in November, but I’ve been speaking/learning Chinese my entire life so I don’t think this will be difficult.)

AP Test Scores:
APEC - 4
Calc AB - 5
Calc BC - 5
APUSH - 4
APAH - 4
AP Physics B - 3
AP Physics C: Mechanics - 3
APELanguage - 5

Sophomore Year Schedule:
APEC
Honors Humanities (English)
AP Calculus AB
Honors Biology
Orchestra
Chinese 5-6

Junior Year Schedule:
Honors American Literature
APUSH
AP Calculus BC
AP English Language
AP Physics B
AP Physics C: Mechanics
Orchestra
Chinese 7-8

Senior Year Schedule:
AP English Literature
AP World History
Psychology 101 at a community college (I’m planning to take the AP Psychology test and self-study a bit too)
Civics / Economics
Orchestra
AP Chinese

ECs:

Orchestra all four years (first chair violist in my junior year)
200+ hours of community service (mostly tutoring, but also various other things)
Founder and editor-in-chief of the school’s literary magazine
President of the creative writing club
President of the Chinese club
VP of the Culture Club
Captain of the Chinese school Yao Gu team (it’s basically a traditional drum dance and we perform at festivals and parades)
Secretary in both Media Review (a club that reviews media) and the Cooking Club
Girl Scout for 6 years, obtained Silver Award, working on Gold Award
English teacher at a Chinese university to undergrad and grad students this summer
Tutor at various places/organizations
NHS, CSF, honor roll

I want to major in English Literature and possibly also major or minor in Psychology or Business. I suppose I’ll have to see how much I like my psychology class.
I’d greatly appreciate any advice or comments. Thank you for your time.

afc10ns · August 17, 2010, 9:31pm

You look in good shape, it never hurts to improve on test scores.

ramoncolleges · August 18, 2010, 7:59am

I would really appreciate it if you guys could chance me as well
If you could please tell me roughly what my chances are of getting into UCLA, UCSD, and UCD are, in addition to UCB, that would be great.
Percentages are cool too but I know that’s difficult to do so you dont have to.
Thanks so much in advance!

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian (Filipino)
Residency: California resident (likely to be ELC)
College Applying to: undecided…probably majoring in MCB or EECS

UC GPA: 4.25
Unweighted GPA: 3.95
Weighted GPA: 4.50
Class rank: 7/270

SAT: 2200
Math: 800
Writing: 730
Reading: 670

ACT: 32
Math: 35
English: 33
Reading:30
Science:30

SAT II
Math IIC: 720
Biology M: 710

AP
Biology: 5
Chemistry: 4
Art History: 4
Chemistry: 3

Senior schedule:
AP English Literature
AP Spanish Language
AP Calculus AB
AP MacroEconomics
AP Physics C
World Religions/Christian Testament

College classes taken:
US History 410 and US History 411 at American River Community College (both As)
Web Design and Moviemaking at CSU Sacramento (both As)

Principal Extracurriculars:
*Vice-President of Mathletes (Regional Champions)
*Vice-President of Pacific-Asian Club (Raised $2800 dollars at a charity event)
*Student-leader in Science Olympiad
*Swim Team
*Robotics (Nationally Ranked)
*NHS
*CSF
*Yearbook Committee
*Liturgy Planning Committee
*Fall and Spring Play Tech Crew Member
*~200 hrs community service
-Served at Parishes serving dinners to homeless
-Volunteered at Sacramento Food Bank packaging groceries for homeless and low-income families

Other:
*AP Scholar award with distinction
*First Honors
*Varsity Letter in Swimming
*Voula Steinberg Mathematics Award
*Nationally Ranked Rubik’s Cuber
*High Point in age group for summer swim team

*assume average rec’s and above average essays

chehk · August 25, 2010, 5:29pm

I am an American citizen, born in the US (Connecticut) and my family still maintains a house there, however, I have lived in Hong Kong for the last 16 years.

Ethnicity: White
GPA: School does not use GPA
Class Rank: School does not rank (graduating class of 19)
School type: Extremely small private (though attached to a semi public French Lycee)

SAT
-Math: 650
-Critical Reading: 680
-Writing: 700
-Essay: 9
Will be retaking in November.

SAT II
French (written): 600 (mess up I am actually almost fluent :S will be retaking in January)
Math II: October
Chemistry: October

Bilingual IB Diploma Candidate:
HL Maths
HL Economics
HL History (of East Asia and Oceania)
SL Chemistry
SL French A2
SL English A1

ECs:
-Division I Club Rugby 10 years
-School Rugby 5 years
-Division I Club Tennis 4 years
-International Rugby Board Referee level 1
-Golf - Club awards (<10 handicap)
-Volunteer at an NGO specialising in local youth outreach ( 3 hours a week for 2 years, >100hrs)
-Modeling (some for Charity fashion shows)
-Member of School Life Council (Highest student government body, made up of students from both English and French sides of the school, teachers and french government officials.) 2 years (if reelected then 3)

Achieved Academia:

International General Certificates of Secondary Education IGCSEs (CIE) (2009)
A*: Maths, Economics, French (2008) and English Language
A: History, Geography, Information Technology and Chemistry
B: English Literature

Yale Summer Session ('10)
ECON 252: B+
ENGL 212: B+

Hoping to Major in Economics and minor in History or another social science/humanity. Apart from my SATs, I am aiming to get higher than 700 in maths and a combined 2100+ overall as well as 750+ on both SAT IIs, what else should I improve?

Nosike · August 25, 2010, 5:50pm

General Information:

Year: Senior this Fall.
Age entering college: 17
Ethnicity: African-Canadian (Born in Nigeria, West Africa)
Location: Canada (I go to the top public school in Western Canada)
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank, I would probably gaurantee top 5%
SAT: Not taken yet (When answering, assume a 2250+ score, I never score lower on practice tests. Will be taking it in October)
SAT II: Math II and Chemistry (Will be taking these in November on the same day, expect a 750+ based on practice)
Family Income: $150000-$200000 (Not something we talk about lol)

Grades

<ul>
<li>Freshman Year Grades: N/A, these are not put on transcripts where I live (Alberta) because high school starts in grade 10.</li>
<li>Sophomore Year: Essentially straight As, marks ranged from high to mid 90s.</li>
<li>Junior Year: First semester I basically had straight As, with one 89% (we do percentage GPAs here) and one 87%. Second semester I fell off a bit, with all my grades in the high 80s; which is why I’m making this thread haha. </li>
<li>Senior Year: Unknown so far, I’m going to work WAY harder than I did in the second half of my junior year and shoot for straight As.
-Cumulative GPA: 3.8 UW (I THINK), well over 4.0 W</li>
</ul>

Honor Level Courses: I’m in the IB Certificate program because I had a teacher in grade 9 for Humanities who decided not to give me a recommendation for Social or English IB despite having high 90s in both her classes. The IB Classes I do take are:

IB French A (IB 10, 20, 30)
Pre-IB Science (Pre-IB 10)
IB Biology SL (No HL offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Physics SL (No HL Offered) (IB 20, 30)
IB Math SL (Couldn’t fit HL into my schedule because I’m taking all 3 sciences) (IB 20, 30, 31)
IB Chemistry HL (IB 20, 25, 35, 30)

I only started taking IB exams this May so I don’t know any of my scores out of 7 yet, I felt good when writing them though so I expect to do well.

Extra-Curriculars

<ul>
<li>Club Basketball for about 5 years (Equivalent of AAU in the USA)</li>
<li>Varsity Football (Sophomore and Junior years, will likely play as a Senior)
Community Basketball (9 years)</li>
<li>Royal Canadian Air Cadets (For 3 years, attained the rank of Flight Corporal, Cadets is a great leadership program)</li>
<li>Patti Falconer Acting/Modelling Agency (Received many scholarships to acting schools outside Alberta, that I was unable to attend because we won’t move. I also received an offer of a lead role in Like Mike 2 the movie; but was unable to participate because my parent’s were not around for me to go to Vancouver for the casting. I was 12 or 13 iirc.)</li>
<li>Debate Club, never won anything significant </li>
</ul>

Awards:

<ul>
<li>Honor Society (All of High School)</li>
<li>Alexander Rutherford Scholarship (National Scholarship for Academic Acheivement, received for all of high school)</li>
<li>Northern Basketball Camp All-Star x3</li>
</ul>

Work/Volunteer Experience:

<ul>
<li>Refereed basketball for 2 years. Paid about $13 per game.</li>
<li>Calgary Women’s Show: Packing gift bags for thousands of attendees</li>
<li>Helped paint a bridge and do a garage sale for a Women’s Shelter in Okotoks</li>
<li>Vacation Bible School Crew Leader at Church for 2 years</li>
<li>Volunteering every Sunday at church for 6 years as a youth leader, teaching younger kids</li>
<li>Tech Management Leader at Church</li>
<li>Miscellaneous other things that I could bring up if I had my resume handy haha.</li>
</ul>

The last thing I want to say is that I’m well respected around the school by teachers, and I’m a good writer so the essay and teacher recommendations shouldn’t be a problem.

In regards to the essay, I’m still debating between writing about how travel (I’ve lived in Scotland, Norway, USA, Canada, Nigeria) has affected my output on life, and writing something race-related. Input on that would be appreciated.

<hr>

When chancing me, take my black URM status into account so it’s more like what would happen with the real admissions officer.

Also I will be applying for pre-med if that is relevant at all

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