UC Berkeley or Rice?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I’m Chinese, female
I’m going to be senior in high school in Wisconsin, does that hurt my chances of getting into UCB or Rice? I want to study biomedical engineering.
GPA 3.85 unweighted, 4.2-4.3 weighted (estimate, my school doesn’t do it)
Rank: 27 out of 420-ish
ACT 33 with writing
SAT II: math iic 740, biology 690
I’ve taken 6 AP classes from 10th-11th grade
Senior course load:
AP English
AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP Stats
AP Psych
Art metals
Graphic design
& gym</p>

<p>EC: National Honor Society, JV Tennis, Math League, Interact Club(secretary, treasurer), Key Club, Asian Club, piano, guitar
I work as cashier/hostess for a restaurant</p>

2

<p>It won’t hurt your chances for Rice since its private, but it will for UCB. I would consider them both at least slight reaches since the only outstanding thing on your application is a 33 on your ACT. If you could bring those SAT IIs up, you’d look much better. Your EC’s aren’t particularly special (Asian Club is <em>totally</em> going to help for UCB), but they’re what one could consider “enough”. Also, have you won any awards? The UCB application has a whole part where you fill in what awards you’ve received (5 slots for awards, 5 slots for ECs, so pick wisely which ones to put). Rice, my friends have had bad experiences getting in (with your major too), but I think you have better EC’s than him.
Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>I won a lot of awards for piano, 1st place academic tournament in Asian Club, I got some awards from my school, AP Scholar with distinction</p>

<p>I also do some volunteering at a hospital</p>

4

<p>Since Berkeley is really competitive OOS, and your ECs are somewhat weak, I’d say it’s a reach.</p>