Admittance into UC BERKELEY?

Question

I am currently a 10th grader living in California. I want to get into UC Berkeley and was wondering what I need to do.

Classes:

Freshman Year

English Honors- A/A
Spanish 1- A/A
Freshman Foods- A/A
Geometry-A/A
Physical Science- A/A

GPA 4.0

Sophomore Year

English Honors- A/?
Spanish 2- C/?
Alg. 2/Trig- B/?
Biology- A/?
World History Honoros- A/?

GPA 3.4 (They wrote 2.833 because I failed Physical Education, but I believe that does not get factored into the GPA UC Berkeley looks at)

Overall GPA so far, 3.562
Class Rank is 121 out of 587

I am sure I can improve my second semester grades for Sophomore year, I just had a bad semester because I was going through some family issues.

Extracurricular activities:
Boxing
Baseball

I took a PSAT and got 1800

I am wondering what I can do to get into UC Berkeley as I really want to go there. I wanted to know things like can I still get in, how many AP's to take, etc.

Answer 1

To prepare for Berkeley and other UC schools, you should complete the a-g requirements (ask your counselor for the approved courses at your high school or check online at http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/ ), study and do well in your high school courses and standard tests (SAT and/or ACT, and SAT II), take as many honors and/or AP courses as you can handle, and commit to one or two extracurricular activities in which you develop leadership skills (more is not better, quality is better than quantity).

UCs (including Berkeley) will weigh the following components of your application (in the order of importance): 1) your essay (Berkeley publishes a guideline on how to write your personal statement at: http://students.berkeley.edu/files/Admissions/Personal_State_07.pdf ) about your academic achievement, talent or extracurricular activities that highlight your motivation, dedication, and/or initiative to achieve, your potential to contribute to the university, and any special circumstances like hardship; 2) your grades and any grade trends (improvements are better than just maintaining a high GPA); 3) your test scores, including SAT and/or ACT, SAT II; and 4) number of AP courses completed compared to the number of AP courses offered at your high school. Other factors are taken into consideration, but to a lesser extent.

Your priority would be to raise your GPA for the second half of your Sophomore year. Remember, your Freshman grades don't count in the GPA calculation for the UC application, only your Sophomore and Junior grades. You can explain the grade drop as part of your personal statement if necessary.

I also recommend you take the PLAN (pre-ACT) to see if you do better than the PSAT (some students do much better on the ACT than the SAT); if so, take the ACT instead of the SAT.

Develop your extracurricular activities so you can demonstrate motivation, leadership, and initiative.

Answer 2

Take as many APs as you can, keeping in mind that you want to protect your GPA as much as possible.

The quick bad news is that you need to recheck what grades Berkeley looks at. They don't count your freshman year grades, so you're at a 3.4 at best right now. When did you take PE? I coulda sworn they take some PE, just limit the amount of credits they'll take. Definitely double check that part and hope they don't take it at all.

Talk to your teachers. A great letter of rec will help. Also, do more extra currics or get really good at boxing or baseball. It'd still be nice to see some kind of volunteering in there. Something where you're helping others. At least a little bit.

Answer 3

Well, you're in luck. The in state admittance rate in UC berkley is 90% and you live there. Lucky you. Keep up your grades and take many AP next year and you will be fine. Also study hard for standardized tests.