I live in a small school in McCall Idaho and am currently in my junior year. I really want to go to UC Berkely in order to study biology. Currently, have a 4.0 GPA (unweighted) and a 4.05 GPA (Weighted). My weighted GPA would be higher, but my schedule hasn’t allowed me to get more AP classes in. I have only taken AP English and Composition. I am hoping to take AP biology, AP government, AP literature, AP Calculus, and or AP Physics next year. My ranking in the school is 3rd of 72.
For extracurriculars, I am obsessed with Hockey and play it over 6 months a year in addition to playing in pep band during the fall.
For my work experience, I ran my own eBay business of buying and selling for 6 months. At the peak of the business, I was grossing around $5,000 a month. That summer I was able to but a $3,000 car along with a brand new phone, and computer. Sadly that business proved no longer profitable once the market got flooded on eBay. Recently I have just been helping out my dad with his emerging business at the Farmer’s Market. In a way, I am a co-owner since I get paid a percentage have run the booth by myself a few times. Finally, I also plan to get a second job for this upcoming summer at a local restaurant. I do need help about what I should include in my applications.
I do live in Idaho so I know that it will be tougher to get in.
I would appreciate any advice about bettering my chances to get in.
First of all I think that you are already doing very well.
Secondly, there are a lot of very good universities, and most of them have strong biology programs. UC Berkeley is one of them, but there are a lot more. I do not think of UC Berkeley as the place to go for hockey. Do they even have a hockey team?
Also, you should know that UC Berkeley is likely to be expensive. The UC’s give very little financial aid to out of state students. In the vast majority of cases they give none meaning that you would be full pay. You can probably find other very good universities that are less expensive, particularly if you are good enough at hockey to get a hockey scholarship elsewhere. If you are strong at hockey then the combination of an unweighted 4.0 plus a strong athletic skill would be an attractive combination for many schools.
Some schools care about geographic diversity, and being from Idaho might actually help you in college admissions.
I think that my main advice to you is: Keep up the good work, find out what you can afford, and keep the price of university in mind as you seriously consider a wide range of universities.
^^That is not necessarily true. Depending on standardized tests scores, you could qualify for merit at lots of good schools. You need to find out now what your parents can afford to pay. You can’t borrow 50K on your own.
But CAN you afford it? Is your dad’s market business his income? Then you look in state unless you have stellar stats. Do you have any test scores? Ask your parents about your budget.
Well, my mom is a chiropractor which is good money and my dad is just switching out of chainsaw carving that he used to do well in. I would only be able to afford a max of 35k a year. So I would have to take loans.
"Every other out of state college is at least 50k so… "
We are not paying that. My daughters had the same unweighted GPA as you (very slightly lower in one case), applied to a total of 12 universities, got into 11, and only one actually would have cost us as much as 50k or more.
I understand that universities in the US have large sticker prices and then give some amount of financial aid which is very hard to predict. As such it can be difficult to know what schools will cost. However, you have a great GPA and some interesting ECs and should be able to find a university that is academically at least close to UC Berkeley for less than full price.
You as a student can only take out $5500 in loans as a Freshman, $6500 as a Sophomore and $7500 as a Junior/Senior. The rest will have to be taken out and co-signed by your parents. Make sure they are willing to do that for you since you will have a gap of around $20K Freshman year.
OK, I don’t see how Berkeley is affordable. Your parents would have to agree to cosign loans, and even then you are looking at $100K in debt which is a terrible idea.
Have you taken the ACT or SAT yet?
Tell us what you like about Berkeley and the good folks here can help you find schools that have many of the same attributes but with a lower price tag or where you could look for merit aid.
I really just want a medium to high ranked university with good research programs. I also want a little bit of a change in scenery from what I am used to.
Since you have a 4.0 unweighted, I assume you will or aready performed well on the SAT/ACT. With the UC’s getting pressured from CA residences to admit less out of state/international applicants, it might be difficult to get into UCB. With your stats and EC activities, you should apply anyway, see what happens and figure out the finances if you are admitted. Worry about the cost and everything later when you have the choices to make.
University of Washington is a great alternative. It is a highly ranked research institution and has big time sports as a member of the PAC 12. The campus is huge and very beautiful. Seattle is a very nice area and growing with the high tech industry. However, the area is wet and gets a lot of rain. S1 goes there and chose UW over several UC’s. Careerwise, it has been a excellent choice for him.
Wait, worry about cost after being accepted? When he’s already said he can afford a max of $35,000 a year? How doe that make sense for UCB, with a gap of $25,000 a year? And Udub is less expensive, but at $50,000 OOS, there’s still a $15,000 gap per year. Not paying attention on the front end makes no sense at all. He needs to find alternatives that he can afford.
Given OP’s excellent stats, he should be able to find very good schools that will cost $35,000 a year or less. Some possibilities that come to mind: Any public in-state university in Idaho; anything in the WUE; or given that Idaho is right on the Canadian border some of the good schools just across the border.
My understanding is that the University of Washington is not WUE, but Washington State is as is Arizona State and Cal Poly Pomona. UBC might be slightly more than $35k per year, but not by much in US dollars and I think that Calgary is less (I had some trouble interpreting their web site). Lethbridge is much less and is well ranked among smaller Canadian schools. Simon Fraser and U.Victoria in western Canada would also be less than $35k per year (at least in US dollars).
“I also want a little bit of a change in scenery”
There is definitely a change in scenery available in my list. Good luck with this.
Perhaps University of Utah? It’s definitely more affordable than many state universities, and students can establish state residency after their first year, so it would be very inexpensive. They have a good honors program he could check into.
With the WUE schools like Cal Poly Pomona, make sure the major is available since many WUE schools do not offer the discount for their popular/impacted majors like Engineering at CPP.
When I mentioned to apply and then look at the costs, if accepted, I was referring to the plethora of scholarships and “free” money available by various sponsors. For example, my company has many clubs (Hispanic, Asian, LBGT, Veterans, Legacy, Employee Association, etc.), plus there are many other external organizations that offer scholarships to qualified students. One just has to look for these scholarships. Even the city I live in has a scholarship fund. If the college costs, with the all the scholarships and other money available, are not feasible, then it would not make sense to attend that college.
Good luck with this.