The University of California - Berkeley

“Eh, it wasn't that hard to get inOct 13 2002Political Science
Eh, it wasn't that hard to get in. Most people here breezed through high school. I had a 4.1 GPA (which is the average entrance GPA here), 1470 SAT 1, 33 ACT, 780 SAT II Writing, 760 SAT II US History, 740 SAT II Math 2C. President and founder of a couple clubs, member of some other groups, yadda yadda, whatever. Getting in now will be harder though cause of the new admission process. That is, unless your parents beat you daily and you tell them so, or unless your parents were drug addicts/sellers, or you just came from Bahrain and you, your 8 siblings, and both of your parents all had to have 2 full-time jobs just to stay alive in your squalid one-bedroom apartment. Cause otherwise, if you were unfortunate enough to have a normal life as a middle class kid with parents who worked hard to give you a good life, you're screwed. New admissions guidelines say the school takes into account "difficulty of life." Basically if you had any huge hardships you'll get in, and if you had an "easy" life you better have a 4.5 and 1600. "Difficult" refers to beatings, illegal parental activities, having to work, or, for some reason, being black or hispanic. And they say affirmative action is dead. I have a friend from my school who got in here with me last year, but she got into the school of engineering, which is harder to get into than good ol' letters and sciences. Yeah she had a whopping 3.7 GPA (weighted), 1200 on the SATs, sucked on the SAT IIs (except she rocked the Spanish test), had only one extracurriclar activity (like secretary for MEChA or something), and of course her skin is brown and her last name is hispanic. That and she wrote her essay about how her father beat her. Ah, to have brown skin... I tell my brother, who's applying to schools this year, that he should say my dad deals in drugs. Hey it's true, he's a doctor. Seriously though, my dad went to school from the age of 5 to THIRTY and then went back for more schooling a few years ago. That's a whole lot of time in school. My mom went to school from the age of 5 to 22, and has gotten more schooling over the years. They worked really hard to give my brothers and I a good life, and it pisses me off that some guy who makes minimum wage and beats his daughter can send her off to the best school in the nation for free (actually she gets full tuition and stipend to spend on what she pleases as well) and my mom and dad have to settle for some second-tier school. Why? Because they're educated and have worked hard.
ACT: 33 SAT: 1470 Male

“Good gradesJul 29 2002Biology
Good grades. Decent SATs. But it seems like they let a variety of people in, which is a good thing I suppose.
SAT: 1570 Male