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I am in Grade 12 this year, and graduating from high school soon. Well, so I am applying to college soon...yeah duh.
Well, what happens is that I have a disproportionally low SAT score, and my grades are kinda screwed because my school averages GPAs over the years for the final GPA, and in grade 7~9 I was slacking, just like anyone else.
Essentially, my SAT is only 1980, and my GPA is probably around 3.5/5, but I have 5 for all my APs (Physics B&C, Calculus AB, and Chemistry), and I was in team Singapore for IOAA and IYPT.
I am hoping to apply to UC LA , UC Berkeley or University of Chicago...do I even have a chance? Well as I am Singaporean, I am going to serve in the army for 2 years, so I have 2 years ahead. Should I try to retake my SATs? D: I am really bad with my languages.
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What majors?
UC Berkeley is pretty much impossible to get into from out of state, so that's going to be a reach for almost everyone.
UCLA and Chicago are both really good schools. Truthfully, I think your chances aren't that great. How are your ECs other than the two academic teams, and what school are you presently attending (I'm really hoping you'd say Raffles for your sake...)?
Did you/your team do well on any of the competitions?
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NUS High School. Er, one of the 2 other schools comparable to Raffles. I'm just hoping my international competition records are going to pull me up, but I have no idea.
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Yes. Retake the SATs. No matter how much people say that they're useless, people will look at your SAT score, and your score at the moment isn't particularly high.
I recommend aiming for something at the very least over 2000.
Don't count yourself of anything, College acceptance can be very arbitrary at times, and it looks like you have some decent extra curriculars.
Just write some good essays, find a way to raise that SAT score, and you should be fine for UCLA.
I don't know anyone from my school who got into UC Berkeley who didn't have a very high GPA, so I'm not sure about your prospects. Hell, I had a lot of extracurriculars, I had a GPA of 4.21, and I got rejected from Berkeley, so it's pretty tough, and I was dumb to not pay attention. At the same time, college acceptance varies from school to school, so maybe you'll have a better chance over where you are.
As for UChicago, I didn't apply, so I'm not a good barometer for that school. 
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Oh I was president for astronomy club in my school for 2 years as well, if that helps...?
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Yea, you should definitely retake your SATs if you are serious. They are idiot bars, and I don't know if 1980 passes it...
Definitely apply to other schools though... Always have a safety.
It's impossible to say what "helps". Sure, everything you do will "help", but how much it helps is largely arbitrary. College admissions make no sense.
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I think I just didn't listen to advice, and didn't revise my vocab ;_;
What other schools should I apply to? My safety is NUS (National University of Singapore) right now, as we are an affiliated high school.
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UC's will take out of state people even Berkeley, but your SAT score is way too low for those schools u mentioned
if your unweighted gpa is 3.5 it should be "good" enough, 5's on all your AP's is great but your SAT score needs to be higher
with a higher sat score I think you'll get into UCLA, maybe Berkley but I don't think you have a chance at University of Chicago (its fucking expensive anyways)
edit : all UC's these days are like 50% fobs so don't be worried about not getting accepted because ur out of state lol (don't take offense because I'm one of those UC fobs too, well kinda :D)
My grades were similar to yours, lowish sat score, alright GPA, academic decathlon, drum captain of marching band etc etc, decent AP scores and I didn't get into UCLA or CAL  , but I'm from the US.
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O.O I thought Berkeley is harder than Chicago? I must be mistaken.
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as far as I'm concerned U of C is like very very prestigious- same league as Stanford, and all those other schools
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I know on grades alone it is near impossible, but how much would awards at international competitions help?
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Awards like that are great, but make sure you really highlight those achievements through your college essay(s), I'm not sure what the IOAA or the IYPT so I can't say much about that
even with those achievements you basically need 2.2k+ on you SATs for U of C, for CAL, LA probably at least 2.1K. you're asian so you def need to get those SAT scores up - i'm not being racist here or anything... but trust me it matters that you're asian if you're applying to a UC.
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IOAA: International Olympiad of Astronomy and Astrophysics
IYPT: International Young Physicists' Tournament.
Yeah, I know it is much harder to apply from outside US. I know it is harder for Chinese students, but Singapore is a small country, so I guess it should be slightly easier than China. Oh well I guess I have to work on my SATs again D:
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United States10328 Posts
If you're an international student, US schools become exponentially harder to get into Retake the SAT, and you're gonna (most likely) need brilliant recs/essays to get in...
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All the things people say on this forum about SAT Scores are just completely wrong. People post as if 2000 is a bad score, while like 95% of schools will find that a completely acceptable score, retake them if you think you can do better, but you should be worrying about the GPA when looking at schools, not the SAT.
With your IOAA and IYPT history, and your AP exam scores, there are a lot of good schools that will pick you up.
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try try try, and never sell yourself short
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I think that colleges use the SATs and GPAs as sort of a general screening; for example, they might say "everyone under 2000 on the SAT will be rejected" at the very beginning. For this reason, I definitely believe you should retake your SAT and aim for a score that is above 2200.
Since your GPA is basically set, I'd recommend really emphasizing your competition results. Even though others may have a higher GPA than you, they might not have the same level of achievement as you. Use that to your advantage.
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On September 25 2011 21:33 isparavanje wrote:
I am hoping to apply to UC LA , UC Berkeley or University of Chicago...do I even have a chance? Well as I am Singaporean, I am going to serve in the army for 2 years, so I have 2 years ahead. Should I try to retake my SATs? D: I am really bad with my languages.
Retake your SATs, most Singaporeans going towards the US have at the very least 2100 (and you're going to be compared with them, I assume). Your math and reading should be pretty close to max, but Singaporeans usually do worse on the writing section, so don't worry as much about that (and by that I mean get it as high as possible).
Everything that isn't purely grade-related (competitions, clubs, etc) is hugely important. Throw that in.
Personally I applied to college immediately after school then went into the army, but you can easily hold off as the army (especially if you're in one of the command schools) can give you superb material for your essays. Keep that in mind - everyone applying has gone to school, you need unique experiences to put in.
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Your extracurriculars will set you apart from others, so make sure you list everything. My math/science competition results were the reason that I was accepted by the UCs, and you competed at a higher level than mine. The UCLA/Berkeley application (same one for all UCs) does not care about 9th grade results, so you lucked out there. Just make sure you retake the SATs and spent 2-3 weeks reviewing hardcore at it, and you'll have a realistic shot.
Don't apply to Chicago. That school does not care about its undergraduate population. It's a great school for grad students though, one of the best for certain humanities. How many schools are you applying to? What major are you pursuing?
PS If Singapore is treated like most Asian countries, you may need to take the TOEFL as well
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Singapore speaks English, we don't take TOFEL. I'm applying for physics.
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CA10828 Posts
hi, i used to work as a college counselor for 1 year.
you have almost no chance at uchicago. your SAT score is probbably around 200 points lower than their average and your GPA is nowhere near all As.
with UCLA/berkeley your chances are slim... but being an international student actually helps you since due to the california budget crisis, they are accepting a higher number of out-of-state/international students (aka full-pay). your SAT score is actually within the interquartile range for UCLA and slightly below it for berkeley. you definitely need to retake the SAT and get AT LEAST 2100 (although 2200 would be better) to make up for your GPA. the UCs as a whole weight GPAs more heavily than SATs, and their average unweighted GPA is around a 3.8 out of a 4.0 scale. the problem is that your GPA is pretty much set in stone by now, so even if you get all As it won't really affect it much. the best thing you can do for yourself is get a super high SAT score.
good luck.
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EPT
