Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: mrkun
Originally posted by: JS80
no, it means UCs are reverse racists.
You think it's a conspiracy to get Asians to take over the world then? I've actually suspected that myself.
actually affirmative action hurts asians the most.
Yup. It takes away from Asians the most because we don't need it. It gives a lot to African Americans and the effects on Whites are negligible. Asians unfortunately get slammed with AA.
Anyways, I'm an Asian with a 4.35 in HS. I did jack worth sports except swimming in junior high through sophomore year of HS on the local CC swim team. I got a 1390 on my SAT I, which is crap, but get this. For my SAT IIs, I got 800 on writing, 780 on Chem, 800 on my IIC. SAT IIs were worth 2x the point value meaning a total of 4800 points. Forget that I didn't do well on my SAT Is cuz thats obviously not worth as much as my SAT IIs.
In terms of grades, I got As and Bs, but my Bs were mostly in classes such as English, Spanish. The only B I ever got in a science class was my first semester of freshman bio. Ever since freshman year, math has always been As across the board, and same with my programming classes. I took APs and honors left and right (6 in junior year, 4 in senior year).
Anyways, I got into Cal. I also got into privates like CMU, Cornell, U$C, etc, and other great public schools like GA Tech, Univ. Washington, fUCLA and more.
BTW, they don't admit you just because you're poor or something like that. They don't know you're poor. I never submitted a FAFSA. My parents never let me because they knew that we made plenty of money that it would be ridiculous to even submit it, and we'd rather not let them know we have oodles of cash.
I studied the admissions process at Berkeley and all UCs for a long time, and believe me... being one of the Asians whose parents sent me to every prep class there was in the world, I can guarantee my assessment of the admissions process is QUITE accurate.
The UCs don't give a flying fvck who you are. They don't give a DAMN about you and your extracurriculars. They look at your grades, SATs and they compound a point value. Each UC does it differently, but we know that SAT IIs are worth 2x their point value, meaning its a 3:1 favor in SAT II total score vs SAT I score. GPA is worth a buttload too. They read your personal statement. IF you have something halfway decent and your numbers add up, you're in. I'm pretty sure UCSD and below admitted me without too much trouble.
Now there's this "comprehensive review" thing that everyone talks about. Well, comprehensive review kicks in when you suck and you're on the borderline of being admitted or not. Ok, you might not suck, but you suck too much that they can't throw you an admissions letter without hesitation. Thus they read your crap more carefully. They read to see your personal statment and whether you really hauled @$$ in it. They also check to see your extracurriculars, etc.
I was sent to one of those $1500 college writing prep classes. I had Stanfurd english majors read my statements 20 times over. I had revisions going around everyday. I had multiple high school english teachers and counselors proofread my essays. I had peer editing going. I was sending out an email everyday to my prep class coordinators who would send me revisions back within the day... I know I had a fvcking KICK ASS personal statement. That's how I got into Cal and all those great schools despite not having the best numbers in the world.
If you want my answer about why student 1 didn't get in, it's because of the personal statement. I know too many people who had GREAT GPA, GREAT SATs, etc, and if they were off from mine, only off a little, but they obviously never spent the same time I did on my personal statement, and that's why I know many who didn't get into UCLA or Cal.
My advice is don't skip out on the essay. IT's not something you can write in a week. I started on SEPTEMBER 4th. That gave me less than 2 months to finish for the MIT EA deadline. I refined that for my UC essay and even more for my U$C and Stanfurd apps. By the time I had my private school apps in I worked on my essay for something like 3 months straight. I only took a few breaks here and there. I think I took a week off after my MIT essay, and a few days after my UC app was in.