UC Berkeley Undergrad Out of State Admission?

Question

Hi, I am a high school sophomore interested in my chances of making it into UC Berkeley when I graduate. It is a great school, and most of my family is from the bay area, so I'd like to move out there when I'm done with high school. With a 3.72 GPA, what kind of SAT scores would I need. I founded and lead a contemporary music group at my school, am the president of my grade, and run cross country.

Also, what schools are in the bay area that are good besides Berkeley.

Answer 1

Berkeley's out-of-state admission rate was 12.5% for Fall 2007 (including international students). You can see the profiles of admitted students to Berkeley for Fall 2007 (detailed breakdown of GPA, SAT, ACT, SAT II, and other statistics) at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/educators/counselors/resources/materials/ITU.pdf on page 37.

In general, to prepare for Berkeley, you should complete the a-g requirements (see: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/educators/counselors/adminfo/freshman/advising/admission/subjectr.html for more details), study and do well in your high school courses and standardized tests (SAT and/or ACT, and SAT II), take as many AP courses as you can handle (honors courses are not weighted for out-of-state applicants), participate in educational preparation programs available at your high school (see a list on my blog), and commit to one or two extracurricular activities in which you develop leadership skills (more is not better, quality is better than quantity).

Berkeley will weigh the following components of your application (in the order of importance): 1) your essay (new personal statement prompts will start for the Fall 2008 application cycle: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/apply/how_apply/personal_statement.html#fall08 ) about your background, personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution, aspiration and/or experience that highlight your motivation, dedication, and/or initiative to achieve, 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.

Answer 2

Oof. Dude. As an out-of-state resident, that 3.72 is going to kill you. Of all my peers at Cal, my dorm roommate had the lowest incoming GPA I had heard of. She had a 3.79, but she was from East Oakland.

Generally speaking, you need to average 630 in each section of the SAT. But with a GPA like that, you will need to go higher. Either that, or you're going to need one heck of a sob story.

If I were you, I'd add a whole lot of volunteer work to your extracurriculars. Berkeley likes volunteers. Do some time at a public library, hospital or nursing home. Work with a disadvantaged population and have something profound to say about how the experience influenced you.

And not to be a total downer, but you are just a sophomore. You still have time to boost your GPA. Take lots of honors and AP classes. Do a summer college program after 11th grade. Berkeley does have open summer enrollment http://summer.berkeley.edu you can take classes and stay with your relatives for 8 weeks.

Answer 3

Yikes. That's a pretty low GPA even for an in-state student. Do you know what your UC GPA is? Are you a non-Asian minority?

Otherwise, I'd say you need to aim for a 2200+. Possibly higher.

Define "good". Because up in the Bay Area, you've got Berkeley and Stanford. Next tier down would be UC Davis (altho not exactly Bay Area). Below UC Davis and the pickings get real slim.

Answer 4

Well, you will have to earn an excellent SAT score in the 2100+ range. As high as possible will make you more competitive. Probably it will come down to items like extracurriculars, essays, etc. when it comes to accepting out-of-staters, because they are all going to have really high credentials. So it will be like splitting hairs.