Applying to college

[Ice-cold Claws]

A question about the UC apps.

For the a-g courses, is criterion (f) really necessary? Where I live (and I believe in an assload of other countries as well), visual arts and performing isn't commonly offered in school. Anyone facing/faced the same problem?

Also imo a 3.4 minimum GPA sounds brutal, if the GPA-to-percentage conversion is to be believed. Hot damn an 80% is hard to scrape by (or is it just me?), much less 90%, just for a minimally acceptable grade.

 

[Myzozoa]

if you're referring to the a-g requirements, f is certainly also a 'requirement'. 3.4 gpa is not that difficult to get, though it is slightly easier to get in college than high school (since you choose the classes), it depends on what you study. You don't want to enter the UC as a frosh anyway, waste of money, go to CC and transfer.

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

if you're referring to the a-g requirements, f is certainly also a 'requirement'. 3.4 gpa is not that difficult to get, though it is slightly easier to get in college than high school (since you choose the classes), it depends on what you study. You don't want to enter the UC as a frosh anyway, waste of money, go to CC and transfer.

Well, the GPA thing could just be my own incompetence, although I'd like to think I'm doing sort of okay.
If I go by the GPA-% conversion, my GPA is a measly 2.5 right now. At the same time I'm also in the top 5% of my class. Maybe my whole class just sucks? Who knows?

I've had friends who transferred schools and came under the GPA scoring system, and their grades seemed to have significantly improved afterwards. I have several reasons to believe the GPA scoring system is relatively lenient.

Not sure about going to CCs though. I'm coming all the way from Singapore after all, it seems nicer to just settle down directly in a huge comfortable campus. I may be having the wrong idea though, feel free to give pointers.

 

[deinosaur]

I finished all my applications, but the schools I applied to don't reply until late March or early April. My strategy was to apply to a lot of reach schools and at least one that I knew I could get into.

I've got the straight A's all through high school (valed yo), and my test scores are okay (SAT: 2250 ACT: 34).

I have applied to Duke University in Durham, NC, Vanderbilt University (home of Stellar) in Nashville, TN, University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, Columbia University in New York, NY, as well as my guaranteed Clemson University in Clemson, SC.

I've only heard back from Clemson, and I got into the honors college with a pretty good scholarship. Hoping for the best in the coming months.

Good luck to everyone else as well!

 

[Al_Alchemist]

if you're referring to the a-g requirements, f is certainly also a 'requirement'. 3.4 gpa is not that difficult to get, though it is slightly easier to get in college than high school (since you choose the classes), it depends on what you study. You don't want to enter the UC as a frosh anyway, waste of money, go to CC and transfer.

What kind of cutthroat high school/major did you choose if college is easier lol?

Well, the GPA thing could just be my own incompetence, although I'd like to think I'm doing sort of okay.
If I go by the GPA-% conversion, my GPA is a measly 2.5 right now. At the same time I'm also in the top 5% of my class. Maybe my whole class just sucks? Who knows?

I've had friends who transferred schools and came under the GPA scoring system, and their grades seemed to have significantly improved afterwards. I have several reasons to believe the GPA scoring system is relatively lenient.

Not sure about going to CCs though. I'm coming all the way from Singapore after all, it seems nicer to just settle down directly in a huge comfortable campus. I may be having the wrong idea though, feel free to give pointers.

The thing about the CC to transfer route, something I'm doing right now, is that your decision of going straight to a university vs. CC to transfer should be heavily dependent upon whether you want to do research/take advantage of things a research university has over a CC. If you're pretty sure you want to get into research, UC as a frosh is a better route, since graduate school is heavily dependent on the amount/quality of research you do and more often than not, you'll lose at least 2+ possible years of research. So yeah you'll probably save money going to a CC, but going to a UC earlier could make your applications to grad school look better, so it's a tradeoff. Although some CC's actually do have very limited research opportunities on their campuses, like mine is researching water bears or something. Of course, you actually have to pursue getting into research once you're at the UC.

That said you could also transfer to a "better" UC from a CC if your high school performance isn't as up to par, CC's have this pretty great program called TAG where you basically just need to get ~3.2-3.5 GPA and you get a "transfer admission guarantee" to one of the UC's not named UC Berkeley, UCLA, or UCSD (UCSD just ended their TAG program a year or two ago). Also, if you're a little unsure of what to major in, don't have many AP credits and/or have some remedial classes you need to take, want to take an extra year of taking different subjects before deciding on a major, don't really plan on doing research, don't care to interact/work with people high up in your chosen field, or want to save money (which may be more relevant since you're coming all the way from singapore) CC to transfer is good.

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

What kind of cutthroat high school/major did you choose if college is easier lol?

*cough*IBdiploma*cough*
But I'm quite sure it depends on what college you go to as well. I've had seniors who said college was a breeze compared to IB, but those were the ones in B/C-grade colleges. My older brother is in University College London now and he said IB was a pushover in retrospect.

-snip-

Nice. Thank you for the comprehensive reply.
I think I really do want more opportunities for research. Currently in IBDP I'm getting my hands on lots of mini-research opportunities, and surprisingly I find myself obsessed with them. Been looking up research publications by universities and industries on my own. So if I follow your advice, I think I might opt for direct admission to research Us.

The TAG system sounds great, but while I'd be perfectly happy going to UCI, I really do want to get my foot into those 3 particular UCs. Sooooo....I guess my options are pretty clear for now.

 

[doublenikesocks]

Got into cal poly pomona, uc merced, san diego state, and chico state. I haven't made a decision yet but I'm leaning towards pomona or merced. I like the pomona campus and location but uc merced offers probably a better education for less (thanks u.s. govt.) Although merced is a shithole just like the city I live in. The valley sucks.

EDIT: anyone have experience with any of these schools?

 

[Woodchuck]

Got the Regents' scholarship at UC Berkeley, so I'll probably be going there (still waiting on Harvard decisions, but after rejections from both Stanford and MIT I'm not optimistic :P).

e: also got into carnegie-mellon but money's not going to be as good

 

[vyomov]

I'm in a similar situation to Woodchuck, got into Berkeley and waiting for Princeton(but considering rejections from Stanford it's unlikely), so I might meet you there as a freshman this year :)

 

[eden]

I got to U of Mass Amherst with my reqs lol. With the top scholarship(Chancellor's) funnily enough. Rejected everywhere else tho. My stats for reference 2290 SAT, and 3.4 GPA. Anybody from here go there?

 

[faint]

I got to U of Mass Amherst with my reqs lol. With the top scholarship(Chancellor's) funnily enough. Rejected everywhere else tho. My stats for reference 2290 SAT, and 3.4 GPA. Anybody from here go there?

I visit there like once a month. Currently a junior at UMB.

 

[eden]

Ahh nb. We'll have to meet soon then :P. Well actually I'm waiting on North Western Uni still, hopefully I get in there :P. Are my stats terrible? lol. I also forgot to mention that I did Subject tests too but I kinda screwed up. Math 2 750, Physics 660 ;-;. Well if anybody has nything to advise me o, feel free to do so.

 

[P Squared]

Got the Regents' scholarship at UC Berkeley, so I'll probably be going there (still waiting on Harvard decisions, but after rejections from both Stanford and MIT I'm not optimistic :P).

ooh I'm a Regents scholar at LA and I know a bunch of Regents scholars at Cal (from high school/Conference). I'm pretty sure you guys get like 5x as much money as we do but either way, priority registration for classes is really nice

if anyone's considering UCLA feel free to ask me about it :o

 

[uragg]

cum 2 cal =] Woodchuck vyomov (esp with regents that shit is op)

 

[Ender]

I'm in a similar situation to Woodchuck, got into Berkeley and waiting for Princeton(but considering rejections from Stanford it's unlikely), so I might meet you there as a freshman this year :)

Don't give up hope just yet. I got into two top 10s after being rejected from 3 and waitlisted at 3 more. The process is very random.

 

[eden]

Aw no one quoting my post :(. Is U of Mass Amherst good? lol

 

[Blkmage0253]

Did anyone apply to Rice and get in/waitlisted? Just curious as I'm an alum :x

Decisions were released sometime this past week. I interview a couple of applicants in my area earlier this year and was surprised to find out that they didn't get in...they were way more impressive than I ever was back then. Must have been a tough year...

 

[eden]

Ahh RIP someone in my boat kekkles :P

 

[Dubby]

I'll give a breakdown of my college apps.

Accepted: Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, Chapman, Santa Clara, Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Oregon
Rejected: Texas, North Carolina, USC

Michigan is in my opinion the best school I got accepted to, especially for my major (Business Admin), but it's also the most expensive. Chances are I'll be heading to Cal Poly because it's a nice area and still a good business school. As much as I love Michigan, I think the financial burden is too much and I don't want to put myself in that kind of situation.

 

[Lamppost]

Fck Michigan go to ohio state

 

[Dubby]

Fck Michigan go to ohio state

I've been a Buckeye hater my entire life, sorry

 

[Woodchuck]

rejected from Harvard, got into Princeton. now I have to decide between that and cal...

 

[pumpkaboom]

So I've been accepted to all of the colleges that I applied to (UVA, W&M, W&L, Rollins) and now I just need to decide where to go, and that mostly comes down to money. How much should tuition affect where I decide to go? UVA and W&M are out-of-state, but I plan on obtaining residency in VA asap, so the junior and senior years at least should be in-state level tuition. W&L and Rollins are different 'cause they're private, but I might be able to talk to the financial aid offices for more help.
TLDR: UVA/W&M/W&L/Rollins, advice on choosing?

 

[danilo]

rejected from Harvard, got into Princeton. now I have to decide between that and cal...

cal

 

[Ender]

cal

Wrong answer

Edit: if you are going engineering, Berkeley. Princeton for everything else (including comp sci, though that one is probably a toss up)